Archive for the ‘Robert Godden’ Category

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1st annual Tea Trade gathering


2011
08.07

Posted in Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong, Assam Mangalam, Darjeeling Singell, Flugtee, Gu Zhang Mao Jian, Jackie, Nilgiri, Nilgiri Thiashola 'Carrington', Peter, Robert Godden, Snowview Darjeeling, to the leaf-side, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Although we’d met separately over the weekend, the whole gang finally got together on Sunday afternoon and we went through a nice selection of tea. There was a wonderful surprise organised by Robert, and he wrote about it over at It’s a mad, mad world…

The other not necessarily tea-related surprise was that I invited my bass player friend Jarrod, about whom I’ve written here periodically, and we started the afternoon out by playing some of my tunes and some lesser-known covers. It hadn’t been announced, and the music was well received.

Jarrod was interrogated at the beginning of the festivities about whether he even drank tea, but I quickly assured everyone that he was one of the people I’d lured partially over to the leaf-side. Many of my tea-related experiments have first been tried on Jarrod before I’ve launched them on the general public. He seems no worse for wear.

Before anyone arrived, I’d brewed the Gu Zhang Mao Jian that I wrote about in yesterday’s post, as well as some Nilgiri Thiashola ‘Carrington’. Both got nice comments, but the Nilgiri especially seemed to impress. I wrote about it in tea choices for marauding teenagers or Zombie Apocalypse, but you have to read through to near the end of the blogpost to get to the part about the Nilgiri.

In addition to the strong black and earthy green, I wanted to have a decent Darjeeling to offer people as they arrived, so I chose a first flush from the Snowview Estate. Although it’s a tea from 2010, it’s still remarkably crisp and fresh.

But because the darker tea got such a good reception, I decided to make a strong but not too malty/bitter Assam. I’d written quite a bit about Assam Mangalam, so I decided now was my change to showcase it. If you look in the comments to my blogpost Waking up in Mangalam, you can see what interesting things Jackie found out about this estate and their distinctive clonal Assam. Here’s the best part:

From Steepster:
“The Mangalam tea estate is named after Kumar Mangalam Birla, once the son of the estate’s owners and now one of its managers. The estate is owned by Jayshree Tea & Industries, a large company that incorporated in 1945. Jayshree is heralded in the Orthodox world for its special clones that produce a big golden leaf tip, which no one is able to replicate, making Jayshree Assams easily identifiable.”

I couldn’t miss an oppurtunity to serve some Flugtee, so I brewed a pot of this year’s Singell Darjeeling first flush. From my perspective, this was probably the best tea served today and it certainly got the praise it deserved. One person who nearly always drinks any black tea with milk said that this was the first tea she’d had that was just fine all on its own. That alone made my day.


As good as the tea was to be, the quality of the cake was of extreme importance. Jackie made it clear that good cake was absolutely essential. From what I could tell, she was anything but disappointed.

As people started getting ready to leave I quickly started brewing multiple infusions of my nicest high mountain Oolong from Taiwan. It’s called Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong and it really was the perfect tea to wrap up an enjoyable afternoon. Even after six infusions, the taste was vibrant and blooming. No wonder many serious teabloggers spend so much time talking about high mountain Oolongs.

The weekend has been fantastic, and I can only hope we actually do another annual gathering. Maybe Adelaide next year? Or everyone make a pilgrimage to the Chicago Tea Gardens? I’m sure we can find a place centrally located.

Here’s yours truly, Jackie, Peter, Sheila, Sabine and Xavier. We were too busy drinking tea and listening to music to take a lot of photos, but there were a few.

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Who would put milk in their Darjeeling tea?


2011
08.01

Posted in Beasts of Brewdom, Darjeeling, Devotea, Geoff Norman, Joie de tea, Lazy Literatus, Philistine, Robert Godden, tea obsessive, Tee Kampagne, Uncategorized, Verity Fisher | 4 Comments »



There was a lively discussion this morning about polluting Darjeeling tea with milk. Robert Godden (you might know him as The_Devotea over on twitter) mentioned in passing that his wife insisted on drinking her Darjeeling with milk and sugar. It’s Australia. They don’t necessarily stand on convention in the distant reaches of civilisation.

For a few brief moments we had a Beasts of Brewdom situation. Almost immediately after the offhand remark about milk and sugar in Darjeeling, there was shock and dismay coming from up in Portland, Oregon. Lazy Literatus, who’s also known by his given name Geoff Norman, could be heard spitting up his tea upon hearing how the Darjeeling was being mishandled.
Well at this point, another Australian (Verity Fisher also known as @joiedetea) quietly admitted that she’d uncharacteristically added milk to her Darjeeling that morning because she’d over-steeped her tea and the milk cut down on the bitterness. I was worried Geoff might have an aneurism at this point. She assured him that it wouldn’t happen again, but I’m not entirely sure he believed her. Only time will tell.
I have an Irish friend who’s been ordering Darjeeling in bulk for decades from the Tee Kampagne, and he’s been putting milk in his tea since he was small. Or smaller. He wouldn’t give a damn what these tea obsessives on twitter thought about how he took his tea. He doesn’t idealise this high mountain delicacy like we do. It’s simply another black tea for him. Simple.
So what about you? Are you more like Geoff, whose precarious health status seems to have recovered from the original shock, or me even? Would you sooner pour used motor oil in your Darjeeling than destroy it with moo juice?
Or are you a bit of a Philistine on the whole ‘milk in my Darjeeling‘ debate? It’s just tea, after all.

Robert Godden - Lahikmajoe Drinks Tea

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charms of The Iron Goddess (Tie Guan Yin)


2011
07.24

Posted in Austin, hot brown liqueur, Iron Goddess Oolong, Oolong, Robert Godden, teablog, teanote, The_Devotea, Tie Guan Yin, Uncategorized, Upton Tea Imports, World Cup Final, Zhi Tea | 1 Comment »

For regular readers of my teablog, I’ll have to apologise at the outset. Normally I write about anything but tea. Sure I drag tea into it, but the topics I like most are tangentially related to that hot brown liqueur. I like to write about whatever film I happen to be watching or what I might serve footballers playing in the World Cup Final based upon the quality of each individual’s play. You get the idea.

It’s a teablog, but I rarely get bogged down in actually reviewing tea. Not in the traditional sense anyway. Robert (@The_Devotea on twitter) has assured me that there’s nothing more boring than, ‘I took the tea and I submerged it in the water and then I tasted it and it tasted like ______ and then I infused it again…’ It might be informative and clearly written, but it’s not the most exciting stuff. To each his own, eh?

But sometimes I feel I should just do a traditional review of a tea. It is still a teablog after all. And of course with the introduction I’ve built up, I’m almost daring myself to make it somehow more interesting than the typical teanote. I might have set myself up with unrealistic expectations in that case.

The tea I want to talk about is Tie Guan Yin (the notorious Iron Goddess). A while back I read someone disparaging comments about how everyone knows the sultry temptress that is the Iron Goddess.

As if this tea was somehow boring due to its popularity. I gave into her seduction when I visited Zhi Tea in Austin when I wrote An oasis on the Eastside.

Alex Zorach made a valid point, in the comments of that post, when he said, ‘It seems to be the “default” named Oolong, so there have been a few cases where I tried it and it wasn’t the best quality.’ He went on to write that finding a good Tie Guan Yin is an entirely different story. I think I know just such an exception. The one I’m talking about is from Upton Tea Imports.

Now according to them, this is a 2nd Grade tea. Their description actually states:

A classic Tie-Guan-Yin, with dark-golden, rolled leaves, producing a flavorful cup with the aroma of sweet raisins complemented with robust earthy tones. The fine flavor lingers on the palate with a toasty, sweet aftertaste. (source: Upton Tea Imports).

I can definitely taste the raisins by the second or third infusion. Although the earthy tones are evident immediately, they somehow get stronger the more times I brew the same tea. In my estimation, that’s the sign of a good, sturdy Oolong.

As I’ve heard so often when people talk about it, the thing to remember when brewing decent Oolong is to use more leaves and less water than you might be accustomed to. And almost as important are the incredibly short brewing times. Really.

Roughly twenty seconds to start. After many infusions, you might increase it to thirty or forty-five. But if you’re truly using more leaves and less water, steeping this tea for a long time is only going to result in something bitter. And in my experience, Oolong isn’t supposed to be bitter.

If you haven’t before been lured in by the Iron Goddess charms, will this review convince you to try her out? No idea. I’d like to think this tea is a perfect introduction to Oolong in general. And might this specifically encourage you to try multiple steepings? That would please me more than you might know. Well, now you know. I just told you.