A whole new experience for me today with Path of Cha’s Sakura Wakoucha black tea

 Koucha is the Japanese word used for Japanese black tea. Like hong cha, koucha translates as red tea, referred to as black tea in the West. Wakoucha is specifically black tea produced in Japan, "Wa" referring to Japan in this context. The properties of Japanese black tea are akin to hong cha. Still, the unique Japanese cultivars create this tea's distinctive, mild character and softer taste.

Our Award-winning Organic Sakura Wakoucha is grown in Yame, Fukuoka prefecture. There is but a small number of farms producing limited amounts of koucha throughout Japan. In fact, most tea grown in Japan is green tea, with most black teas imported from abroad. And wakoucha, being a local tea, is enjoyed almost exclusively by Japanese tea enthusiasts.

The taste of Japanese black tea is spectacular. Taking a sip of our Sakura Wakoucha, you will submerge in a juicy sweetness, void of astringency. A lingering, slightly floral taste will remain on the palate. Notes of succulent cherries and honey will follow, subsiding in a superb, long-lasting finish. The color of the liquor is a comforting apricot-orange hue. Our Japanese Sakura Black Tea makes a perfect afternoon drink and pairs well with desserts.

Wakoucha is a fully oxidized tea. The leaves undergo a long process of withering (up to 20 hours). The next step is rolling, where the leaves are pressed in a circular motion. It helps release the inner moisture and further oxidize the leaves. The leaves are then put into large sieves and shaken up and down to avoid entanglement during the filtering stage. Repeated kneading comes next, which further breaks the cell walls, followed by another oxidation for 2-3 hours. After that, farmers dry the leaves with hot air in the drying phase and add handpicked cherry tree leaves. The result is a delicate, honey-flowery tea with fruity notes and higher sweetness that overflows in the mouth and leaves a lasting impression for hours ahead.

Produced by tea farmer Harashima-san, this tea won the prestigious Nihoncha Award in 2017.

Get some, you deserve this! www.pathofcha.com

A wonderful light winter oolong from Mountain Tea.

 Dong Pian is a unique harvested after the winter regular harvest season. Normally during the coldest time the tea bushes are dormant. So Dong Pian is not produced every year. Only on some occasions the weather gets warmer for a few days and the young leaves grow before dormancy, then we have luck to harvest this bonus tea. Due to growth in the cold weather, this tea tastes mellow, sweet with aroma and extremely fragrant. The taste of gardenias clings to the upper palate and dazzles the senses.

Steeping Instructions:

Prepare 4 grams of tea leaf (slightly less than a teaspoon) per 100ml of water(about half a cup).

For the first two steeps, 92°c water for no longer than 60 seconds will provide plenty of flavor.  From the third steep onward it is fine to add up to thirty additional seconds per steep.  This should provide between four and six re-steeps depending on the quality of the tea.  For larger vessels (teapots of over 500ml) re-steep potential is usually lower.

A Californian Ginseng Oolong grown in Wisconsin!

 

My blood sugar is already better! The health benefits of Ginseng have made it prized in the East and the West.  In China, Ginseng was historically said to sharpen the senses, cure illnesses, and even prolong life.  While not quite as fanciful, modern medicine has shown that ginseng does contain several unique types of anti-oxidants and other compounds known as ginsenosides.  Clinical trials have also shown that American ginseng in particular can help in controlling blood-sugar levels in patients with type-II diabetes.  It is no wonder that ginseng has a long-running record as the most popular herbal health supplement in the United States.

Asian ginseng tends to overpower the taste of the tea, but American ginseng is both milder and sweeter.  We’ve found that our more floral teas pair very well with just the right amount of ginseng.  As the steep time increases the flavor of ginseng becomes more pronounced, so a bit of experimentation is necessary for each individual brewer’s tastes.  Our own sweet spot uses 3 grams of tea with 100ml, steeped at 90c for 50 to 60 seconds.  After the third brew 20 seconds can safely be added to the steep time.  The liquor is very sweet and savory, with a hint of nuttiness in the aftertaste.  The floral flavors of gardenias concentrate on the tip of the tongue and linger.

Bana Tea has an aged Da Hong Pao that is so mouth watering! Get it while you can!

I have never had such a rich and juicy Big Red Robe in all my life!

From the Bana site we read:

Type: Wuyi Rock Oolong - Da Hong Pao - premium grade
Production area: Wuyi Mountain, Fujian Province

Grown in the Wuyi National Scenic Area, this tea is an Authentic Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Rock Oolong. This amazingly flavorful tea possesses all the flavors and characteristics of an authentic Wuyi Oolong. It is thick, aromatic, toasty, and viscous. During processing, some of the leaves were crushed. The tea master sorted out the crushed leaves and pressed them into a 150g chocolate bar-like block that can be broken into 18 pieces. For a fraction of the price of the whole leaf, you can enjoy a cup of aged authentic Wuyi Rock Oolong.

In addition to the great price, this tea is very convenient to make. Simply break off a piece, place it in a cup, pour hot water, and enjoy. No measuring of tea leaves is required and no more messy tea leaves scattered on the kitchen counter. It is a great tea for busy people on the go.

A brand new experience for BuddhaMum with added info by West China Tea out of Austin!

 ...don't really know what this is or why I bought it but I was stoned when I bought it and it comes from Austin so those are two signs that I made good decisions. It reminds me both of the cicada corpses to come this summer and of pistachios. I wonder what it'll taste like!

And here is information from the merchants website westchinatea.com

"Raw Ya Bao (野生芽苞, Yě Shēng Yá Bāo, "Wild Bud") is the new growth of a species of plant that the farmers in Yunnan refer to as yě shēng chá 野生茶 ("wild tea"). These trees are distributed randomly throughout the forest, and were not planted by anybody, nor are they cultivated by anybody. At first glance, these trees are similar in appearance to gǔ shù 古樹 ("ancient tree") Pu'er tea trees, however the latter are often found planted in rows in old arbors. Unlike the domesticated Pu'er plant, the Yá Bāo plants send off their new growth in the middle of Winter, as opposed to Spring. The differences don't end there: whereas the buds of domesticated Pu'er plants will regenerate several days after being plucked throughout the growing season and will develop into one or two leaves upon reaching maturity, Yá Bāo only come out once per year and do not regrow after being plucked until the following year. When they mature, each bud develops into four or five leaves, which are often red, purple, or even white when they are young, turning green as they grow. Because each Yá Bāo is destined to become multiple leaves, their appearance is distinct from the slender single buds we associate with the domesticated tea plant. Instead, they appear as a sheaf of buds nested within each other, similar to bamboo shoots or hops. The fact that these wild trees grow far apart from each other, as opposed to in patches, and often in remote or inaccessible places, combined with the low annual yield of each tree, has prevented Yá Bāo from being commercially viable, despite being prized by tea farmers and locals. These plants have recently been identified by science as a completely distinct species, Camelia crassicolumna, which may be a contributor to the gene pool of the modern domestic tea plant. Recent studies (Liu et. al., 2009) have found that crassicolumna contains neither caffeine nor theophylline, the stimulant xanthines found in tea. It is considered, however, to be tea by tea farmers. Raw Yá Bāo is simply sun-dried, and yields an almost clear liquor, with a sweet, heady fragrance; a mild flavor; and surprisingly deep, lingering mouthfeel. In spite of its light color, this is a very long-lasting tea, and can be steeped 15-20 times. The Qi is euphoric and cloud-like."

 

And I can confirm the euphoric Qi!