Roku Gin - Sencha And Gyokuro Tea Botanicals

This is an adult post.

This Roku Gin is a Japanese Gin from Suntory. I was intrigued by this bottle as I read, from the label, that this gin had included the following botanicals - Sakura flower, Sakura leaf, Yuzu peel, Sencha tea (green tea), Gyokuro tea (refined green tea) and Sanshō pepper. Further traditional botanicals were also added which include eight traditional botanicals ; juniper berries, coriander, angelica seed and root, cinnamon, cardamom, bitter orange and lemon peel.

Tea in gin?  Interesting.

I bought this bottle at the airport duty free and decided to try this 'tea'.

I drank it neat (I recommend adding a cube of ice) and at another time, followed the Suntory Roku website recommendation, of adding a few slices of ginger, ice and tonic into a tall glass.   I admit gin is not on my drinking list, but this Roku made me relook at gin again. The aroma is fresh, floral, citrusy and sweetish ( I thought there was eucalyptus).  43% APV.    A refreshing drink...a little intoxicating though.  Yes, this is a tea blog....there is a little tea in the drink.  Counted. 

But I digress.  I will be on a business trip next week (20-25 May) and I will not be able to mail out any tea during this period.  Apologies in advance.  

To all mothers....Happy Mother's Day 

The Book Of Matcha

This book is a fun book to read.

"The Book of Matcha" is written by Louise Cheadle and Nick Kliby. Published in 2016 by Sterling Epicure.  This is a tea book that delves into the world of matcha, from history production, health benefits and the recipes included in the book would make you reach out for your matcha and give the tea a new twist.  

This book is easy and fun to read and the illustrations and pictures are lavishly included to make reading the book a breeze.

The authors categorise Japanese green teas into 6 classes; matcha, sencha, genmaicha, kukicha, hojicha and gyokuro.  The last, gyokuro is considered by the authors as one of the most expensive green teas as follows:

"Gyokuro Tamahomare (its full name) is one of Japan's most precious teas revered for its purity and richness of taste.  Mainly grown around Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, gyokuro males up less than one percent of Japan's tea production.  Produced from just one harvest a year in late May or early June, twenty days before the tea leaves are plucked the tea bushes are covered with a netting. Covering the bushes in this way increases their production of chlorophyll (the pigment that makes the leaves bright-green) and amino acids.  As with matcha, the leaves are rich in L-theanine, which gives the tea a lovely sweetness.  Gyokuro is also known as 'jade dew' and is one of the most expensive green teas."

The matcha lemonade  recipe was one of my favourites.  Half teaspoon of matcha, syrup, lemon juice, club soda and ice with a garnish of mint leaves are all thats needed to make this drink.  

Yes, to make matcha ice-cream, you will need lots of matcha, 1-2 spoons full.  This would suggest using a lower grade as high end matcha would be too expensive.  

The authors misspelled Singapore as 'Sinagpore'.  Nevertheless, it is a good read.  

A Closer Look At Tea Infusers

Tea Infusers are tea ware that help you brew tea leaves in a container, which acts something as a teabag.  Tea infusers will contain your loose tea leaves and prevents  bits of tea leaves (most of it anyway) from mixing into the teapot or kettle.  

In most cases, it makes easier cleaning of the teapot when you are trying to remove and a dispose the tea leaves after a tea session.  The big teapot at pix 4 gave me a hard time when I try to remove the tea leaves when I am washing up.  I would normally fill the pot with some water and turn it upside down to wash the leaves out.....which may be take an additional rinse or two most of the time.  

Should you get a tea infuser?  No....its not necessary.  But if your teapot comes with one as in pix 1 and 2, then it might be a fun experiment to try brewing your tea with the infuser.  

But for the bigger tea pot in pix 4, I would now brew my tea in a smaller teapot and pour all 10-12 infusions into the bigger teapot.  

The stainless steel tea infuser in pix 3, is about the size of a baseball.  This can be opened by unscrewing the infuser and placing your tea leaves inside.  This infuser comes with a chain and you can use it like a giant tea bag and jiggle it in a teapot of hot water.  

There are now many fanciful infusers available for you to use.  I have seen the Star Wars Deathstar model and even a Jaws shark infuser.  These are eye catching and may even be a collectible hobby for the tea enthusiast.  

2005 Taetea Dayi Raw Pu erh Tuo

Taetea or Dayi tea is a popular tea among the Chinese tea drinking community.  Many tea drinkers will easily rattle out Dayi's famous and popular tea like 7542, 7572 and even list the many special Dayi editions like the recent Colourful peacock.

Dayi produces tuo shaped pu erh tea too.  They are not as popular as the Xiaguan tuos but older Dayi tuos are now hard to find as most of these are in the hands of collectors. Newer tuos and even some Dayi teas post-2013 had a change in the processing of tea.  My Dayi collector friends in Malaysia and China call this new process as 'dark horse technology' and had stopped collecting these tea except for special Dayi editions.  I shall devote a blog entry on this issue.

Pix shows a 2005 Dayi 100g too.  It is no surprise that the tea is composed of pu erh tea leaves harvested from the Menghai region as the factory is located in Menghai.  I enjoy tea from the Menghai region for its signature floral bitter sweet taste and the fragrant sweet aftertaste.  This tea did not disappoint.  Strong bitter herbal taste with a sweaty chi after downing a few infusions.  Impressive  - the 'kick' as good as banzhang in my opinion.  

This tea is hard to find. Will keep my eyes open when I go shopping for tea when I am overseas next month.    

Tea Strainers

I am sure you have seen tea strainers in action during a Chinese tea brewing session. You may be using one yourself when you brew your tea at home.

When you are a teashop sampling tea, almost of these tea sessions will employ the use of a tea strainer.  The tea is your teacup would be free of mini bits of tea leaves and you can examine and sample the tea 'in more detail'.

Most teashops would use a simple strainer as the one in the 1st pix.  It is simple to use.  The tea is poured through the strainer into a cha he (server) before the tea is poured out into the tea cups.  

There are now more fanciful strainers.  The 2nd pix show a bamboo strainer while the 3rd pix is simply a dried leaf.  That leaf, I was told, is called a pu ti leaf.  From Taiwan.  You simply pour tea over the leaf into your tea server.  The leaf stays 'strong' - it does not wobble or spill over when tea is poured through it.  A marvellous conversation piece to have in a tea session.  

Silver Kettle

No, I did not buy a silver kettle.  I was at a tea drinking session at a tea buddy's house last month and a silver kettle was used in our tea session.  This was my 2nd experience drinking /brewing tea using a silver kettle and I would like to share my thoughts on such kettles with my readers.  

Silver kettles are very expensive.   I remembered seeing a similar Japanese made (about the same size as pix) with a price tag of a few thousand dollars.  Silver kettles are very pretty.  The 'bling bling' shine did made me stare at the kettle a few times during the tea drinking session.  

Boiling water in a silver kettle makes the water softer.  Some tea friends call it sweeter.  Personally, I find that this is good for newer tea like pu erh.  The astringency and 'roughness' of a new raw pu erh tea is much reduced making the tea easier and pleasant to drink.  However, when the kettle is used on older tea,  the flavours of the tea, in my opinion, seem subdued.  I had also tried drinking older tea from a silver cup and also experience this 'subdued' taste in the tea.  

When I used an iron Japanese tetsubin for my tea brewing sessions,  there wasn't  a drastic change in the taste of the tea when compared to using a silver kettle.  I personally think that clay and iron kettles are better in this instance.  This is my own opinion.

Buying a silver kettle is an expensive proposition.  I recommend you try out a few teas with one, if possible, before you decide on a purchase.  

Fukien Teashop Tie Kuan Yin - Thailand Blend

This Tie Kuan Yin is produced by Fukien Teashop in Hong Kong primarily for their Thailand customers.

This oolong is very high roasted and this tea is specially hand wrapped in small packets. Each packet contains 1 liang of tea. This is an old Chinese weight measurement where 1 liang is approx 37.5g of tea.

I was told that Thai businessmen had been patronising Fukien tea shop since the 70s when Hong Kong was the place to purchase Chinese goods and commodities. Oversea Chinese businessmen from South East Asia would go to Hong Kong and purchase Chinese goods and foodstuffs and had it shipped back to their countries. The elder Mr Yeo of Fujian Teashop told me that the Thai businessmen liked a particular version of the shop's oolong and would regularly purchase this tea whenever they are in Hong Kong. Mr Yeo realised that this tea was a favourite of the Thai community that the 2nd and 3rd generations of these businessmen would continue buying the tea to this day. Though the demand of this tea is not big, Fujian teashop continues to pack and sell this tea.

This oolong is high roasted and very aromatic. There is a dried floral component in the aftertaste and a caramel sweet finish in the tea.

This tea is nice.  A little history in every cup.