I love that the teas from +Global Tea Hut often seem very seasonally appropriate. In with spring comes a Yunnan green tea called Temple Mist. When I receive my shipments from them, bowl brewing is usually the go to for my first session. The leaves of this tea were wiry and curly, typical of a Mao Feng leaf style. As they unfurled, the leaves were large and quite beautiful to look at. I tend to be a bit heavy handed with my leaf to water ration but that didn’t negatively affect the taste. The taste was vegetal and sweet with just a hint of astringency. It stood up to several bowl refills which makes me inclined to give this a try again in a gaiwan.
The gift in April’s envelope appealed to my inner chocoholic. It was a small bit of Gaba Baba, a chocolate bar made with gaba tea, kava, blue lotus and tumeric. I wasn’t really able to pick out the individual ingredients but it was certainly very tasty. The magazine always makes for good reading. I particularly enjoyed the articles about Wu De’s trip to the home of Dragonwell and experiences on his recent tour. There was an article called Circle Towards the Center that I found very intriguing. It encouraged us to be conscious of the directions that pour tea using each of our hands. While I’ve never noticed a taste or texture difference, circling towards the heart has always felt more natural for me. I definitely think I’ll doing some experiments with this soon.
