The Angel’s Share

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This is a borrowed concept from the world of aging spirits, but very applicable to tea. In making tea gong-fu style the Angel’s share is the tea that is consistently poured over the yixing pot. Today I was also sharing tea with someone who couldn’t be with me in the tea space, so their share was set aside each round and then released to the pot.

Today, the last episode of this season, included a beautiful, but actually unknown to me, puer cake from 2008. It is the favorite cake of my friend Anan whose sister gave it to me when she was visiting from China. This is steeped in the pixiu hongni pot and served in Japanese blue&white ware resting on seasonal tin chataku.

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The Ska Polka of Tea

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This little tuocha was brought to you by the year 1990. No brand affiliation. I can taste the dirty, green plaid and the wallet chains. Tastes like youth, but 30(!) years later. It tastes great, and even better shared. The fragrance of the cup after drinking is full of trombones and saxophones. I could have gone on recording for hours, but I shared what I could. Thanks for joining me for this one.

Steeped in the fully handmade pixiu yixing and served in blue and white Japanese cup from the 1940s.

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Dancong Peaches, No Cream

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A beautiful tea in a beautiful pot. This session was an ode to spring on many levels: An antique yixing pot that is the living incarnation of the spring of 1952; A 2019 spring dancong tea that is the embodiment of fresh fruit; A floral kutani cup; the poem 青山不老緑水長流.

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Rock on Tie Luo Han

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No, there’s no musical soundtrack today. The soundtrack is a Tie Luo Han (鉄羅漢) oolong from 2018. Tie Luo Han is one of the famous open leaf oolongs from the Wuyi tea growing region in China. See if you can hear the moment that the largish leaves are poured from the small bag into the preparation tray and then from there into the pot. The pitch of this particular hongni (red yixing) pot is very high and musical, in my opinion. Lots of great aromas and flavors, so prepare yourselves.

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225 years of tea: 22 and a half minutes.

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I’m having tea anyhow, and I want to bottle some of these moments for others. I hope you find this to be an intimate and comforting portable space.

Do you ever have tea and think, “this would go well with some chainsaw noise” or “I wish someone would call me just now…” This first episode had some hiccups, but I will endeavor to reduce these as I get acquainted with the process.

Today you can enjoy with me a 19yr old compressed brick of puer tea prepared in an 80yr old yixing zhuni artistic tea pot and served in a 37yr old kutani tea cup on a 48yo tinplate chataku saucer. (225 years, if you count me)

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