Tea Tasting

Sometimes when I am in a particularly impish mood, I quote Oscar Wilde's praise of simplicity: I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. The problem with this simple creed is that the search for the best can consume all of your time, so you have little time left to be satisfied! Thus it is with my exploration of tea.

My father always drank tea and avoided coffee. He didn't have the same pathological aversion to coffee as Oscar Progresso (not his real name), but when Dad said to his young son, "Coffee is nasty and bitter, how can folks drink that stuff?" it was obvious to the young man that coffee was indeed nasty and bitter, so he did as Dad did and drank tea. Unfortunately, the tea that Dad consummed (Lipton tea bags) was also nasty and bitter, a fact that he hid by liberally adding sugar and milk to the overbrewed and massively tannic black tea. It took me a while to realize this unpalatable fact, but eventually I did and I started searching out teas that were elegant and sublime. This search started down a blind alley where I found Bigelow teas but it evenutally led to the fine oolong and green teas of the Orient.

Oolongs I liked almost immediately, green teas took longer to appreciate, but now I have a larger tea collection than most supermarkets and could make a pretty strong showing against the tea selection at Peets. Oolongs are constantly refreshing and there seem to be an unending number of them to try. Here is the most recent....

Taiwan Ming Xiang Oolong Tea. Tea leaves are very dark green/brown and rolled tightly but irregularly with stems protruding. Dry leaves have a reticent nose smelling oh so faintly of day old grass cuttings and green twigs. First infusion made at 200 dF for 150 seconds, producing a reddish-gold-brown liquor. Nose is similar to dry tea but more pronounced. Palate shows good bright acidity and mouth-coating tannins leaving a pleasant slightly metallic finish which lingers on eventually (60 seconds +) producting a slightly sweet aftertaste. Very Good+

UPDATE: Here is an earlier post about tea in Chinatown.