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Leo, I read somewhere that “sino” would have originated from “Sinai” (from Mount Sinai)!
I guess ethimology can be very tricky, sometimes there are words that look or sound the same, but, for example, one has greek origin and the other is latin, and the meaning turns out to be very different! (like “sinus” meaning some cavity in body tissue…)Regarding culture… I find these differences very amusing. There’s so much to learn and perceive.I like to find the root of things, but in many cases, they turn out to be much more intertwined roots then what our thoughts could conceive.In other cases, the limits caused by isolation of groups, produce a lot of rich cultural diversity and complexity.Anyway..This is quite a fascinating topic!Designing of tea ware is such a beautiful art!A strange tea, or a strange tea taster! hahah
actually I described only one of the infusions, which I considered the best/ most balancedIt was 3g/250ml/90 grades C/6minutesIf I do5g/250ml/90gradesC/6 minutesit tastes bitter and unpleasantIf I do5g/250ml/90gradesC/3 minutesit is not bitter, but the taste in the palate is poor, compared to the first experience describedI’m a bit intrigued about this tea.Short story: it was the only loose leaf white tea I could find. It was probably sitting in the shelf of the store for a long time, because in the can, there’s a label saying that the due date is april/2012.I don’t know about this… about how tea ages… If bai mu dan can be ‘matured’, will it spoil someday, or in some circunstance?Looking at the leaves and comparing it to pictures in the internet, I thought this was a very bad bai mu dan, because it looked dark and the leaves were very fragmented.But then I found out about matured Bai mu dan in teaguardian.. and it looks like it may be so.It comes in a can which shows a ‘sunflower’, looks like a ‘logo’. i don’t know if this is industrialized tea, or if the company only takes over the exportation process.The smell in the can is fabulous, kind of nutty-sweet. The smell in the can is much stronger than in the tea after infusion, but i kind of feel this nutty-sweet in the palate and it is very pleasing. I’m not sure if I’m using good references for the experience, I’m just trying to describe it the best i can.Today I received some samples of another bai mu dan, no labels, this company imports the tea and sells it under the shop’s name.Lookes kind of fresh, altough very fragmented, even more than my old bai mu dan.I tried3g/250ml/90gradesC/6minutesIt turned out bitter, no pleasing smells, no good feeling in the palate, i couldn’t drink itThen I tried5g/250ml/80gradesC/3minutesStill tasting bitter, although less than the previous infusion, the feeling in the palate is very poor compared to my old bai mu dan.It smells/tastes kind of grassy and flowery. I find this a little disturbing, nauseating, a little bit like lilies (try to picture a green lily, if possible), to be more precise, it reminds me a lot of Brugmansia suaveolens perfume (a toxic plant which provided me a bad experience in the past)I’m kind of disappointed with this tea. I’m glad i only ordered a little bit to taste it.I suspect it may be some kind of “green white peony”, unless this kind of tea is much more expensive than regular bai mu dan (i think it is unlikely that someone would sell a more expensive product for the price of a cheaper one, but not impossible)Here is the picture of the tea, provided by the online storeAnd here is the picture of what they sent meI know that in the production of photos there are variations in color balancing..but anyway, the actual produt looks much greener then what they show in the website. Even my own picture won’t show it very well, this tea looks very green all over.I don’t know what to do with this tea. I’ll try some more variations in brewing, to see if i can get a better cup.Any thoughts on this? 😕It seems to be a relation between design and material, as porcelain would favour more detailed design (therefore sinuosity included) than ceramics, which would provide simpler forms
I know.. my statements are very generalizing, and as such, don’t deal with the irregularities of real life.
I’m just trying to get some approach of what is typical of a culture.Someone could say, as well, that “brazilian people don’t use gaiwans”, and probably could even say “brazilian people don’t even know what a gaiwan is”. I’m brazilian, and I just don’t use a gaiwan because I couldn’t get one (yet). But generally speaking, these statements are true.Culture is a tremendous force in people’s habits, which doesn’t mean everybody will behave the same. People in the north of Brazil will hardly have a meal withouth cassava flour, that doesn’t mean that all people from the north eat cassava flour and neither that if I eat it, I was born in the north. Ask someone in the south of Brazil, what is tea (chá) is, and he/she will probably answer that it is “the infusion made from Ilex paraguariensis leaves”.Well, I hope there’s no misunderstanding here. I know that stereotypes can be quite offensive.I’ve been thinking that maybe these design variations have something to do with exportation, since ‘straight borders’ and ‘parallel lines’ would be less inclined to break in transportation.
But I suspect this may not be the whole story.Japanese don’t use such thing as a gaiwan, do they? I think I would have found some in these stores, if they did use.What I’ve seen is some sort of regular mug, with a ceramic strainer plus a ceramic lid, which I consider to deviate from the idea of the gaiwan, in which the lid is also a ‘strainer’.I don’t mean to be labeling anyone, please tell me if it sounds like so.By the way, english tea ware seems to be influenced by these forms which I identify as ‘chinese’, which reinforces my thesis on the ‘sinuous’ forms.Interestingly enough, the latin root of the word seems to be related, although I’m not an expert in etimology (“sino” – latin for chinese, “sino”, in portuguese means ‘bell’, and ‘sinuous’, full of curves, is related to ‘bell’).But maybe this is just a big coincidence!Thanks, Leo! I’m really excited about this new experiences, it’s just like discovering a whole new world!
Suppose you have some oolong that would yield many infusions.. what do you do with the leaves, if you can’t have all the infusions at that moment? Will you keep them in the teapot until later? I saw some commentary on this, somewhere in this forum, but it was not very specific.How can I avoid spoiling the tea, if I want to drink a little now and some more later?How long can I keep the leaves?I’ve read statements like “it’s better to infuse and keep the liquid on the refrigerator than storing the leaves”.. but it doesn’t sound like a good idea.By the way… gaiwans are such a simple + smart design! I’m very surprised they are not available, and I couldn’t find anything similar (the regular mug spills a lot of tea when I try to transfer it to another cup). I’ll have to do an investigation on possible substitutes for tea wares… There are some ceramic milk jugs that look like a chahai, I think they’d be helpfulo_o
I never thought tea bags could be so nasty! And if this is so about tea bags of good quality tea.. I don’t even want to think about the cheaper ones.Tea bags never again.
