Thursday, April 30, 2015

Tasting: Wymm Tea Mangnuo 'Cane Tea' Sheng


Lovely packaging that even the tea friends are drawn to

I recently received a beautiful package in the mail from Wymm Tea. The aesthetics grabbed my attention, and I was delighted when I saw the samples inside. The company focuses on bringing their passion for puerh to the tea consumer. From their website:
Pu-erh to us is a family tradition and a way of life that we would like to share with tea enthusiasts and tea connoisseurs around the world. 
The website is helpful, especially for those unfamiliar with puerh. They have handy brewing videos to help puerh newbies, and forgetful people like myself.

Mangnuo 'cane tea' sheng

The samples are all carefully wrapped and well labelled. I decided to try  the Mangnuo 'cane tea' sheng first.

I rinsed the leaves twice, giving the little tea friends a luxurious bath. The first round of tasting was sweet with notes of floral orchid, honey and toasted milk bread. It was also buttery, and grassy. There was a touch of astringency and a leathery note that I associate with many puerhs. I thought the tea's name was given due to the honey sweetness of the brew, but it actually references the shape of the tea tree branches.


A second tasting round hit me with a honey scent, and a super buttery texture. It was more green-tea like in flavor, and super floral. A third steep was a more bitter (I may have steeped a few seconds too many) but still very buttery, similar to a custard flavor. The floral element remained, as did the little bit of leather.

I like how this tea was evolving with each steep. This is a tea you can keep brewing all day long with good results. I enjoyed this tea very much, and I look forward to trying the other samples.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Interview: Glen Bowers of Crimson Lotus Tea




Crimson Lotus tea is a Seattle based company created by husband and wife team Glen Bowers and Lamu Dawa. They specialize in puerh tea and Chinese teaware. They are bringing their passion for puerh to the consumer.
Puerh was like nothing else for me. Drinking it that first time I had a deep emotional connection to it. A few months later I found that coffee held no power over me anymore. I was quickly falling for puerh tea. I half joked with my then wife Lamu that we should start a company to introduce puerh tea to people like me. People who have been looking for puerh their entire life and have no idea it exists. I told her we could go to China each Spring and visit her family in Yunnan and source tea to bring back. She was very enthusiastic about the idea.
 They recently returned from a long trip to China, and I enjoyed following their journey on instagram and learning about the teas and teaware they sourced. Learn more about their tea journey after the jump...

Friday, April 24, 2015

Tea Event: Taste unique blends from De Pelikaan

Photo courtesy of Kikkerland
De Pelikaan is an almost 200 year old Dutch company that sells a wide selection of teas. Until now the teas were not available in the US, but NYC-based design store Kikkerland will now be selling a selection of De Pelikaan teas. If you live in the NYC area and are curious to try this beloved brand of teas from the Netherlands, be sure to mark Thursday May 7th on your calendar! The West Village Kikkerland store will carry 11 different teas from De Pelikaan, and I'm happy to share that I will be helping to brew and serve up samples of a few selected teas at the shop from 4-8pm.

Kikkerland's founder Jan Van Der Lande grew up drinking De Pelikaan teas with his grandmother. His experience reminds me of my precious memories of having endless cups of tea with my grandparents. Unique blends in the selection range from a bold, smoky 'Winery' blend, to a more nuanced 'Himalayan' blend. There are a few scented blends, as well as pure teas such as Gyokuro and China Panyong. They also carry Rooibos for those that prefer a tisane. If you are able to stop by, you can sample a few different teas. I love the bright red canisters that have kept the same logo since the 1920s. Jan told us that the text on the tin reads
“Het geheim van een opgewekt humeur” or in English, “The secret to happiness,”
Can you make it to the event? I'd love to see you there! If you are unable to make it or don't live in the NYC area, Kikkerland will soon sell all of the teas on their website.

Tea Tasting at Kikkerland:  Thursday, May 7th 4-6pm. 493 6th Ave, NY, NY.

Friday, April 10, 2015

The Little Tea Critic Tastes Happy Earth Teas



The Littlest Tea Critic and I had a special opportunity while visiting family up in Rochester, NY. Enter an industrial building, walk up some stairs and you'll find long hallways with artists' studio doors. Walk through the labyrinth to the end, where you'll find a place that looks mysterious and magical.


Enter inside to find beautiful flower arrangements, works of art, and Happy Earth Tea. Your host Niraj serves up samples of tea with a bright smile.


Look around and you'll see beautiful objects. All handmade right in the studio by Cody Kroll. He uses Eastern pottery traditions and Buddhist philosophies in his art.


The chawan were so tempting, if I had more time to examine them I probably would have taken a few home with me. The colors and textures he creates have energy and emotion. The designs are extremely functional.


Niraj brewed a Gu Mu Lan purple puerh bud tea with us. The dry leaves were floral and surprising. We shared a few steeps of this tea that tasted of alfalfa fields and hay bales. Each steep revealed new characteristics of flavor.


The Littlest Tea Critic liked this tea, but I think she enjoyed serving it even more. She felt special as she was allowed to pour out the tea into our cups. I love that she savored each slurp, and asked for more. She was so interested in the teas that she asked to taste another she thought smelled delicious- the Jasmine pearls. Niraj brewed a little bit up for her, and I watched her taste and smile.


Writing about tea has brought many positive adventures to my life, but my most favorite is meeting new people. All of the tea folk I've met are amazing people, and Niraj is no exception. Thank you so much for sharing your tea with us on a snowy upstate NY Sunday afternoon! The Littlest Tea Critic is still talking about the time we had together.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Interview: Martin Connelly of Little Red Cup Tea Co.

Photo Courtesy of Little Red Cup Tea Co. (Martin is in the middle)

This week's interview is with Martin Connelly of Little Red Cup Tea Co. Little Red Cup offers simple, 'every-day drinking' teas, inspired by the large amount of time Martin spent living in China. He is passionate about tea, and how it evokes history and meaning in each cup.
Part of what we're trying to do is to use tea to communicate a little bit about Chinese Culture -- something beyond the IP infringement, pollution, and political stories that you tend to get in the day-to-day news. It's not that those stories aren't true or important, but I think they create this view of China as a totally alien place.... So if we can use tea to talk about life in China, I think that challenges the image of the country as this big scary monolithic Orient. And if we're going to do that, it makes a lot of sense to import and sell the tea that people actually drink in China.  
Learn more about the company, their sustainable practices, and Martin's earliest tea memory after the jump....