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MEversbergll-Now you’ve got me wondering abut making kombucha with pu’er. Since there’s a tradition of making kombucha all through China, Korea, Russia-basically the Silk Road, pretty much, plus other places I can’t remember-I’m wondering if this might already have been done, both for taste & perhaps as a way of adding to the yeasts already in the “mother” & feeding it? I used to make kombucha regularly, but I eventually stopped-I don’t remember why.
:-/Leo, I think I see what you mean about consistency. It’s so good to
learn to look closely like that-at first I didn’t see anything wrong,
and I had to just let my eyes relax and gaze. Then I began to see places
where it looked like bubbles had popped, and tiny smears in other
spots. I noticed some little smears in the clay that hadn’t been
smoothed out. The pot surfaces looked too smooth and shiny, without the
subtle, fine, almost burnished-looking grain I’m used to seeing in what I
hope are real Yixing pots :-). The colors lacked tone, & some were
just ugly. Worse, a lot of the spouts looked like they were set too low
& would spill hot tea out when it wasn’t expected.I didn’t intend to, but I feel like I’ve written a report for a class assignment. How did I do?
Hamsa
Leo, I think I see what you mean about consistency. It’s so good to learn to look closely like that-at first I didn’t see anything wrong, and I had to just let my eyes relax and gaze. Then I began to see places where it looked like bubbles had popped, and tiny smears in other spots. I noticed some tiny smears where the clay hadn’t been smoothed out. I saw that the surfaces looked too smooth and shiny,without the subtle, fine, almost burnished-looking grain I’m used to seeing in what I hope are real Yixing pots :-). The colors lacked tone, & some were just ugly. Worst, a lot of the spouts looked like they were set too low & would spill hot tea out when it wasn’t expected.
I feel like I’ve written a report for a class assignment. I didn’t intend to, but how did I do?
Hamsa
I’ve wondered about yuen yeung myself. I never heard that name before now-I don’t speak Chinese, but all I could remember of the name is milk tea. Many cafes & “bubble tea” shops hereabouts make it, but I haven’t been able to imagine it tasting good to me.
~H.
Now I’m wondering how many of my small collection of Yixing teapots are really Yixing ware. I think the most expensive was only $30 or $35 and most were around $25, though in my defense I bought them between ’85 & ’95, so maybe now they’d cost a little more. I know cost isn’t what determines genuineness, but I wonder if it was even possible then to buy a genuine Yixing pot for that amount? Most of them came from small local tea &/or Asian art & craft importers who all seemed genuinely honest & ethical.
They’re all well made, as far as I can tell, though a few lids are looser than I’d like. I just wish I still had the first one I ever bought. It was a graceful sort of simplified djinn’s lamp shape w/a poem calligraphed on one side. It came w/a certificate guaranteeing it had come from Yixing. When a housepainter knocked it off its shelf & broke it 12 years later I cried. I’ve been a fervent adherent of museum putty ever since ;-).
That makes me wonder, in fact: is museum putty harmful to Yixing pots?
~Hamsa
ICE, funny you should mention HK street stalls for buying Yixing tea pots. I have a small collection of 12 medium-sized pots, bought from reliable stores & tea importers in the area (fortunately for me I happened on good sellers, since I was a trusting know-nothing when I bought the first 5 or 6, & sought out some good guidelines after that.) Anyway, 3 or 4 years ago a friend who knew I collected took a trip to Hong Kong with her husband & brought me back a little blue pot. It looked to my beginner eye sort of clumsily made, so I said, “Wow, thank you! A blue one, how perfect-I don’t have any blue ones!” She told me how the street stalls in one area they went to “were just full of them, & they were all only $2 or $3. I should have bought more!” I’ve never used it (in my defense, sort of, I never got round to checking it for usability) & actually I have to admit that until now I didn’t know I shouldn’t.
~H.
mediebee, yes, I’m very fortunate to be here. I’m actually across the bay from SF, in Richmond, a small city just north of Berkeley. MEversbergll, yes, there is a fantastic embracing of cultural & artistic diversity on both sides of the Bay. I think I know the sort of harshness you’re talking about. While I’d say there’s more of it in SF, on both sides of the Bay it becomes more prevalent as the income level rises. It tends to express itself more as a political than social/cultural intolerance.
In any case,yes, I’d encourage you to come scope out the area, especially as regards to tea :-).
~H.
Where I live (SF East Bay Area) there are bumper-stickers that say, “Friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks.” It is (so far!) a blessing that there are no Teavana stores close to my city, but when I looked at a Google map of McVana locations I felt like they were closing in. Just to see what they had, I looked at their website-their “tea blends” were most alarming to imagine! mediebee, you’re absolutely right! Much more comforting, though, is that in this area there is a strong interest in teas well worth drinking. There are a number of importers of good- to excellent-quality teas here. Some have their own shops where they’re happy to educate & answer questions, as well as prepare teas for customers to sample and enjoy. One of my favorite importers, though they don’t have a retail shop, travels to China every spring to buy rare & artisan teas from small farms & markets. This year they have 48 green teas alone. The founder’s even built his own cave for aging puers-talk about dedicated :-)!
For this among many other reasons, I’m happy to live where I live. May independent tea shops dedicated to quality continue to flourish!
~H.
