Ice-brewed Sencha

I've half-way typed up so many posts for here but the heat just puts me in this state of 'don't wanna' and leaves so many things unfinished. So, a post about something cool.

All those flavored iced teas and tisanes are well and good, but for a hot day nothing beats ice-brewed sencha, imo. It's cold, it's sweet, and it's just caffeinated enough to give you a little perk up. No contest.

The only downfall, as with all iced-things, seems to be time. For the best results, use a medium to high quality sencha with nothing but ice(meaning you have to wait for however long it takes the ice to melt). Yet, given my heat-induced state of 'don't wanna' as in 'don't wanna wait that long', I tend to go halfway on the ice.

That is, about 9 grams(you can use less, around 5, if going with just ice) in a 9oz. kyusu. Filled half the pot with ice cubes, then poured cold water to fill the rest, and sat down with a sketchbook and tried to

ignore the slow melt of the ice.

In all, using today's batch for reference, it took about half an hour per steep(two good ones and one 'eh' one), and a brief bout of rain, but came out magical* in taste. Heavily concentrated and without even a trace of bitterness, ice/cold-brewed sencha tends to be very sweet and very refreshing.

That said, I'm sure using my new icy-looking hagi certainly didn't hurt.

*Translation: grassy, sweet in a pleasant non-sugary way, and delivering of a bit of a heady feeling

Maiko's Shincha Kinari

Another day of work done, I came home and settled in for the first of the shincha and, as a bonus, my first time brewing with my new lil' kyusu.

As planned, I've started with Maiko's Kinari. Pushing aside all prior reviews I'd read of past years of it, I went with about 2 grams(hard to measure for that size) of it in the itty bitty 2 oz. pot and water at 150° F.

For the first time, I went by the book. First steep at 60 seconds, left the lid off to watch the leaves, the small size of the pot definitely made it easy to see them as they awoke.

The pour was quick and efficient, coming out a pale yellowish green with a nice vegetal scent to both it and the leaves in the pot(not as pleasant and strong as the dry leaf smell, though still very nice and spring-like).

As for the taste? Delicious. Lots of umami, a touch of astringency that was dispersed in later brews by sweetness, and a generally grassy tone. I can't say I could really compare it to anything though I'm not sure how much of that is my own inexperience or its uniqueness.

That said, I feel overall it to be a good shincha and asamushi and definitely one I'm likely to try and snag some more of before its gone.

As for the pot? It's cute. I bought it to bring into my work for mini-break time sessions and, hopefully, handling any upcoming sencha OTTIs. After a thought, I might order another to do dueling brew sessions with, though for now the one is good for me.

Of Zebra Sencha and Pittsburgh tea

For roughly a week at the very tail end of December, I visited some family in Pennsylvania. While I brought tea with me, I was eager to see what Pittsburgh had to offer.

In all I visited four shops and walked away with 6 oz. of tea.

The first two shops I visited were on a whim, we were in the area, though proved disappointing. The first, who's name escapes me, I figured would be a bust, clearly very much a coffee shop.

The second, Prestogeorge Coffee & Tea, had a large selection though taking in that the place still smelled strongly of coffee(which could possibly be absorbed by the tea) and the tea was all stored in very large glass jars(large = air and glass = light, two things you don't want to overly expose the leaf to), I decided to pass.

The latter two shops were purposely driven to, even if still an 'in the area' way as my little sister was getting her first tattoo done down the street.

First up was Te' Cafe. Mixed feelings, the staff was friendly, the tea seemed stored well, and they had a small selection of teaware but it just wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak. I imagine that someone who grinds their own coffee/largely brews at home/would have felt at home in those first two shops might feel the same way walking into a Starbucks as I did at Te' Cafe.

Despite this, I bought 2 oz. of their gyokuro and a 'pot' of their dong ding to go(they serve hot tea by the pot, a pot being roughly the amount of a large coffee complete with disposable cup). I probably would have skipped the latter, but my aunt who was with me is a coupon junkie and had one for 'buy one, get one' on a pot of tea from there so she got a flavored type(peach?) and I got the dong ding.

For a tea junkie, I'd say skip the pot and stick to their loose leaf. The gyokuro was pretty good. I'm no expert, but it was very green and fabulous. The dong ding? They brewed it exactly the same as the type they were serving my aunt and it tasted as much(re: really oversteeped). I mean, I can't really complain about a free cup of tea, but I couldn't see myself buying it.

Gyokuro secured and cup o' dong ding in hand, I then headed to the final shop of my trip, Margaret's Fine Imports. This was a tea shop caught between all manner of brew. There were many English-style pots, but I spied a yixing as well. Tea canisters, strainers, cups in all shapes and sizes, not a single gaiwan though plenty of selection nonetheless.

As for the tea? Unfortunately stored in jars that customers are free to open and sniff, if you manage to find something, you might want to ask to have your tea taken from the bags behind the jar instead of the jar. Unlike Te' Cafe, more information on the teas is provided. After a moment of looking things over, I settled on some Guangzhou Milk Oolong(careful with this, chances are very slim that it's been made with milk, China not being known for its dairy industry, milk is expensive there, though fake milk oolong does stand a higher chance of some manner of tampering) and the Zebra Sencha.

Both picks based on curiosity. While I'd read up on it, I had yet to try milk oolong, and something from Guangzhou made it all the more sweet. For the sencha, I'd heard of Japanese-style teas being grow/processed out of Africa, but had yet to give it a shot. In the end, the milk oolong was alright, likely wouldn't buy again, but the Zebra Sencha was a bit of a surprise. Light, roasted, has this hint of grassiness to it that makes for a decent cup when reaching for something cheap. I'd recommend it at least once.

So, there we go. Four shops, 6 oz. and a pot to-go.

Anyone know any other places for my next trip?

Tendon(てんどん)

Today felt like a good day for tendon. A really easy dish to make, albeit a bit time consuming.

Take one cup ice cold water(and one egg's worth of your replacement of choice, if desired) and mix it with one cup flour, rice or unbleached all purpose, until it's got a good batter consistency to it.

Place it in the fridge, it's important to keep it cold unless you want oily tempura, then pour about one or two inches worth of oil into a wok or pot and set to medium heat.

While the oil warms up, chop whatever veggies you want, I went with carrots, daikon, onions, baby bok choy, snow peas, and mushrooms(no need to chop the last two unless too big!).

Once the oil's gotten hot enough that if you drop a tiny bit of batter in it sinks a little then rises to the top, cover your veggies in the batter one at a time and fry them in the oil. The small pot I used today worked fine for three veggies at a time, though use your best judgement on how many fry well for you without being overwhelming.

Veggies take awhile to fully cook, though the end result is worth it. Once done, scoop some rice into a bowl, top with the tempura, sprinkle a little tempura or soy sauce on top then dig in!

For the tea with this meal, I went simple and used the sencha tea bag that came with Den's Tea's $3 Sampler(a great deal for newbies to Japanese tea and for those just new to Den's Tea). Not bad for bagged and overall a splendid meal.

Ochazuke(お茶漬け)

I've gotten over my sickness for the most part, yet that only means it's time to get back to work and catch up with the world from the downtime. Not much, but enough to make me busy.

In that regard, I decided on something quick and rather homey for a late dinner and stomache still not entirely sure it's ready for something more. That is, I decided it was a good time for some ochazuke and, why not?, tea.

Shoveling some rice into one of those square bowels you'll have to get used to seeing, I tossed in some scallions,

tofu, yasai fumi furikake(veggie rice seasoning), enoki mushrooms, nori, garlic, and a mixture of a few spices I'm fond of.

From there I brewed up some of Maeda-en's genmaicha, poured it on in, and stirred it all up in that adult and mature way I liked to eat. That is, as messy as possible.

Just the tiniest bit of Korean, or any type you like, soy sauce and it's perfection. Hot, tasty, and the just thing to settle my stomache while getting in a filling meal.

What is more or less tea/rice soup aside, what about the cup? For the moment, I'm going back to a tea I first tasted via TeaChat's OTTI #7: Asamushi Sencha. That is, Den's Tea's Shin-ryoku.

At the time I rated it third of the five asamushi sencha we were given to play with, below two offerings from Maiko though still really enjoyable.

It's got this nice grassy quality to it and once you hit the third steep or so it becomes, in my experience, quite fabulously sweet. If you're into asamushi sencha and want something from a US-based dealer, I'd recommend it.

For the kyusu? A freebie from Den's Tea. First time I used it with their Fuka Maroni and it got really stopped up making the pour a bit of a pain and lead my mind to pulling a 'well, no wonder it was a 'free gift' deal'. Though this time around it seems to be working perfectly fine and makes a might lovely cup of the Shin-ryoku.

Still gotta wonder what happened that first time. I blame the fuka.

Second post = tea time

Also, some tea.

This is just some sencha I get from my local store. The label reads: Tokujyo Sencha Gold.

It's the only tea I drink without much information attached though acts as a solid everyday sencha for me, often taken with me to drink at work though sometimes enjoyed at home.

The tea table, a common feature, is from Puerhshop.com. In the right corner is one of Den's Tea's Kokoro kyusu, I was pleasantly surprised by how blue it is. The two chilling around the center there are Shi and Cha, my teapet, from Chinese Tea Culture. Add in a bit of a fake plant, I have a small collection from work that I use to add a little extra to my settings, and a cup bought from a ceramics student at Radford University and it's a pleasant afternoon tea.