Matcha Ikuyo-no-mukashi, 40 g

This morning the weather was rather unsteady: great light, deep shade, sun, clouds, heavy raindrops, great light again and so on, endlessly. I guess that's why I felt like offering myself a matcha. I set everything nearby the windows so I could fully enjoy those variations. I bought some flowers, lighted a small candle and took my time searching for the right balance amongst elements, colours, textures. I also looked for nice angles of view and did a couple of photographs, which is a marvelous way of rediscovering things we appreciate. 

For instance, my creamy chawan always makes me think about smoothness and simplicity and dunes: warmth and sea are never too far away. I just love it!  As for the whisk, I realized how close it can be to a flower...

I know that some people prepare matcha using hot water at 80° C. I must say I find it very odd. Firstly, because matcha is a shade tea as gyokuro which requires warm water rather then hot. Secondly, because you are supposed to prepare it and drink it right away which means that either you will drink it very hot or you will have to wait it to cool down. In both cases, it seems to me that you miss quite a few nice subtleties of it. An inferior quality or an average matcha that do not have much to offer might require such a high temperature, but not a superior quality matcha.

So, as usual, I prepared matcha with filtered water at 50° C. The matcha I have is not supreme quality, but it is quite beyond average. I made a very light usucha : one good chashaku mesure for something like 10 cl. I used a small stainless sieve to transfer that amount of tea to the chawan. Then with a circular movement I slowly poured water along the chawan rather then directly on matcha. I whisked it and after a couple of wide quick Z's I had a nice froth.

This was indeed a very light usucha. I normally put two generous scoops to prepare usucha, so today I did taste something different. This one had a nice creamy texture and a slight powder milk note. I tasted a hint of bitterness at a certain point. It was OK, but a bit more thicker, matcha Ikuyo-no-mukashi offers more than that.

Kuwapani Makalu KP1 "clonal" SFTGFOP1, Nepal

Here is a fine black tea from Nepal that I enjoy very much. It is a first flush 2009, made of long voluminous tealeafs: first leaf and bud mainly.

I prepared it in an porcelain teapot, infusing approximately 8 g of tea in 40 cl of filtered water at 80° C and infusing tealeafs twice at 4 minutes. I didn't want to constraint the leafs during the infusion so I just filtered them when pouring tea, making sure I had emptied the teapot completely before tasting.

I appreciate this Kuwapani for its fullness, its smooth flowing texture, and its well balanced profile. Some of its notes are extremely long in mouth (golden grape, caramelized sugar). Here is the range of notes I recognized.

Dryed leafs: especially nougatine and caramelized sugar, more slightly waxed wood and sandalwood.

Infused leafs: especially caramelized sugar, more slightly wood.

First infusion: especially fresh flowers (freesia, peony), then caramelized sugar and golden grape, and slightly sandalwood.

Second infusion: especially wood and caramelized sugar, slightly floral (freesia) and sandalwood, a final note more planty very slightly bitter (leaf).

First infusion was light golden while the second one was a bit deeper.

I did the second infusion 10 or 15 minutes after the first one.

As always, those 80 cl of Kuwapani made me feel very good: both dynamic and relaxed... sweet paradox.

Teadrops Prelude

Hi everyone!

I have been learning so much by reading tea blogs that I felt I needed to give you all a little something back. So here is my blog. Be very welcome!

 

I really discovered tea quite recently, a bit more than a year ago, and it has been a great experience. I started with japanese green teas, which I enjoy very much, then I learned more about red teas (from Darjeeling, Assam, Sri Lanka, Yunnan and Quimen), I discovered white teas, as well as Oolong and Pu Erh.

 

At the moment, I am exploring Oolong and Pu Erh, and I am learning as much as I can about Gong Fu Cha. Stephane from Tea Masters kindly advise me what teapots to choose among his selection. So I would be happy to share my views on GFC tasting with you as soon as I have my two teapots.

 

For the time being, let me share with you the pleasure I get from a couple of teadrops... well, OK, from a little more than that. As my tea tasting moments are often connected to Music and Poetry, I will mention here and there some of my favorite pieces and poems.