Stale tea

I brewed up the last of a sample of 90's Golden Pearls Dancong. A bit stale, but still tasty. I have to say, I'm not sure tea would be quite as good if I knew it would never go stale.

Hope you weren't expecting a lot of text!

Tea and Weight Loss | IT'S ALIVE, kind of

Bwahaha, I'll bet I had you going for a minute there with this title. It's actually exactly the opposite of what you are thinking.

This is mostly a "look guys, this blog really isn't dead" post, but here's a fun fact: over the past few months, despite drinking almost zero tea, I have lost 20 pounds. Now, I could use this anecdote to launch into a satire about how dumb the customers of weight-loss tea companies are, but this has already been done to death so I'll spare you.

Anyway, look guys, this blog really isn't dead. ["Comatose" works, though.] Like I said, I just haven't been drinking much tea at all, for various reasons. I'll get back into it eventually, but I don't want to stuff this blog full of boring filler reviews about teas I'm really just not that interested in (no offense to the vendors whose teas I have stockpiled) right now.

I greatly appreciate that some of you still regularly check this site for updates, and I'm sorry that this post isn't more substantial! This blog isn't gone for good though, so keep checking back every couple weeks (or whenever); you never know when this fickle mind will want to write again. :)

Classic Roast Tie Guan Yin from The Tea Gallery

Class: Oolong
Origin: Anxi, China
Year: ?
Vendor: The Tea Gallery (Product page)
Price: $9.00 (25g) / $33.00 (100g)


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This was a free sample I got with my order. I almost ordered a small amount but decided against it; apparently they can read minds (is there anything The Tea Gallery people don't do well?).

This is a very solid tea, definitely worth picking up if you like roasted teas. It is roasted just heavily enough without being harsh, at least to my palate. I brewed it pretty strongly, using all the leaf shown in the photo. I still haven't quite figured out this method, and mouthfeel tends to suffer as a result, so I can't really comment on that. It does produce lots and lots of tasty infusions, though.

The aroma is nice and toasty, with some deep rich fruitiness and a bit of cocoa. The flavor is everything you would want from a roasted Tie Guan Yin and more: deep cocoa and fruit for the bass notes (I hesitate to use the word "bass" to describe tea flavor in print, for obvious reasons) with sweet high notes. Every now and then I picked up some cinnamon (more obvious in the lid aroma), though not as strongly as in some yancha. Thumbs up!

A big thumbs up also goes to my new gaiwan from The Tea Gallery, shown above. The lid fits perfectly, the porcelain is thin without feeling fragile (the cup is slightly translucent), and there are no bumps or blemishes. I don't claim to be an expert in gaiwans, but this one really looks and feels great.