Chinese tea week

To make up for not posting for a few weeks I have been really good this past week and dedicated 29/04/13 - 05/05/13 to Chinese tea.

I went even further than just dedicating this week to Chinese tea and decided to dedicate each day to a different variety.

Monday: Black Tea - Because Mondays are hard I chose nice high in caffeine black tea. I started my day with a bit of a cheat as I had a Breakfast Blend but I'm sure it contained some kind of Chinese tea. In the afternoon I drank copious amounts of Keemun because Keemun Black tea is by far my favourite Black Chinese tea. Did you know that in China they sometimes call black tea "red tea"...just a little tea fact for you there :)

Tuesday: Puerh Tea - I had the day off work so I thought that Puerh tea would be a good one for today as in my opinion it is the most time consuming Chinese teas to brew. I chose a 2006 Puerh teacake that I hadn't had of yet so it took a little bit of time to cut the cake before brewing. It's a great experience though - I like working for my tea! With about 3-4g from a good aged Puerh teacake you can rebrew about 8 or 9 times and that is what I did - Puerh all day long! It was great.

Wednesday: Green: I was back to work so I packed a few samples of green tea to take with me - these included a Long Jing Grade 3, a Lu An Gua Pian and then to end the day in work I drank some of my favourite Chinese Jasmine Dragon pearls.

Thursday: Oolong: I didn't drink tea at work which was a shocker so when I got home I got out my Gaiwan and brewed some beautiful cups of Tie Guan Yin.

Fridays: White - Seeing as it was friday I treated myself to Silver Needle white tea from a cute tearoom round the corner from work. When brewed correctly this tea is divine!

Saturday: Yellow - Not a huge fan of Yellow teas so I struggled this Saturday but I got through it by making sure I only drank high quality leaves.

Sunday: Aged Oolong - Sunday is a day of rest and to me it is quite a grand day and so I paired it with a grand Da Hong Pao. One of my all time favourite Chinese teas.


I have to say it was a good week. I like recording what teas I am drinking - I guess this week was a little different as the teas didn't always reflect my mood as I was choosing from the specific varieties for each day.

Have you done this before? I would love to  hear your experiences of keeping a tea diary!

Peace Out,

Gary the Tea Freak
xx