Ya Bao from Teaspring

This morning's Ya Bao turned out to be an unusually pleasant surprise.

I've had a good bit of pu-erh, and this was unlike any I've tried to date. In fact, it reminded me more of a really flavorful white tea.

I used 5 grams in a preheated yixing pot with boiling water for 1 minute. After several infusions I ramped it up to a minute and a half with no negative impact.

The color was light, and the taste was sweet & pleasant.

The dry leaf looked nothing like other loose tea leaves I've seen, but my phone cam took a really inadequate picture. The vendor has some pretty good pics, which may be found via the link above.

Late 80's Meng Hai 8972 Brick Uncooked (from Hou De)

According to Hou De, this is a "blend of early 80s and late 80's leaves" produced "1989~early '90s".



I preheated my trusty yixing pot and rinsed 3.6 g of brick. The rinse was as clean a rinse as I've ever seen.

I didn't pull out the clock for this session, but thumbnailed my infusion timing.

The first steep was pretty highly aromatic, with a scent that gave me a better idea of what shu-producers must be shooting for. Only this didn't have the funk and gunk I normally associate with even good shu.



The second infusion was mellower, less aromatic, and seemed very well-balanced. The third has continued this trend.

I'm sipping this tea for breakfast, and I think that may be an ideal application for it. Historically, I've found many breakfast teas to be way too aromatic and heavy, but this is closer to the sweet spot.

I have enough left for a few more sessions, fortunately, and look forward to them. I may take these to the office for good day-starters.

Living the good life....

Weekends allow you to do normally crazy things with abandon, like drinking obscene amounts of tea. Sign me up!

This morning I had a few cups of Miyabi sencha to part the haze of sleep. On a normal day, you don't necessarily need any more boost to get through the day.

So are we done? Heck no!

It's too nasty outside to go play, so it's time to get teadrunk.

Tea? How about a little yerba in the mix.... [digs around, produces re-purposed Adagio sample tin containing...] Guayaki!

The Guayaki was a hardcore deep brown, with a pleasant "Saturday morning" sort of aroma and a light smokiness it took my a while to put words to.

I liked it. Time passed.

What will pair well with chicken, veggies, and rice for lunch? How about one of these nameless tuo cha salsero sent me?



These are compressed single-serve shou puerh tea nuggets, and need to be rinsed a bit in boiling water to open them up for the actual infusion process.



After that, they're good for multiple infusions.

Time passes. So..... What else is in this box here?

Next comes Lochan Premium Assam Tips, 2nd Flush.



Wow, is this some good tea, perhaps the most enjoyable of the day thus far. (Not turning my back on Miyabi, Ed, I swear!)

There are far worse ways to spend a day after a long week's work than with tea and snacks.

But even at work, I manage to treat myself a bit.

Yesterday, for instance, I was breaking in a new gaiwan at the office, which I saw fit to record for posterity.