All I Can Smell is Asparagus

I'm ramping up my tea appreciation a little bit. I just purchased this amazing book, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea, by Michael Harney. You know that saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear"? Yeah! This is my new go-to guide!

This book goes beyond the usual, and it teaches you how to be more of a connoisseur by describing how a master brews and tastes all the myriad types of teas out there.

I have yet to get myself a kettle thermometer, and a gaiwan (small lidded ceramic cup ideal for smelling the drained leaves), and I also need to dust off my water filter. But I'm certainly paying more attention to my brewing rituals and trying to assess what I smell and taste.

It's not easy. After all, I've never had exceptionally refined tastes - I've eaten way too much junk food in my life, and I believe that it has clogged my taste buds (not to mention my arteries, but I won't cry about that just right now; I've got too many teas to taste). I also suffer from environmental allergies, which sometimes inhibits my smelling capacities. Two strikes against me. However, keep calm and carry on!

A nice thing about Michael Harney's Tea Guide is that he makes you feel very at ease about tea tasting. He suggests that you drink what makes you happy, what puts a smile on your face. And, he repeats that there are never any wrong answers when it comes to impressions and taste: "From ten tea tasters will come eleven opinions." So he doesn't make you feel inadequate in the least.

I will be following the guidance of this...guide. And hopefully I will become more able to distinguish a great oolong from an inferior one. My blog will probably never include such descriptions as, "It contained delicate high notes of Tasmanian boronia, with a lingering aftertaste of vanilla orchid". But at least I won't have to say that I liked a tea "just because", nor will I need to reveal which tea goes best with a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. So thank you, Michael Harney!

Chai Update: I tried brewing yesterday with Rishi Tea's Ancient Emerald Lily (which is awesome on its own - it reminds me of a Darjeeling, actually). It was actually the second brewing for this set of leaves, so the tea taste was quite mild compared to the masala, but it was delicious. I even gave some to my daughter Sophie, who drank it all up once it cooled down.

Oolong can you wait?

Well, I got a response from my tea gurus...and the response was something to the effect of "We cannot comment on this tea because we do not sell it. Ask the people who sold it to you."

I appreciate that my gurus took the time to respond, and I also appreciate that there are so many types of tea that one can't possibly know all the answers. I guess I had just hoped that there might be a suggestion of where I could research it, besides the one who sold it to me. It left a little taste in my mouth that was slightly astringent, and not the nice Darjeeling-type of astringent. I am demoting my gurus to just good authors! I'm sure they won't mind.

So, my research continues...fortunately I do have a "bite" from another tea blogger, who appears very knowledgeable and willing to help. And of course, I'll be talking to one of the tea vendors who sold me the mysterious Oolong.

You see, the problem is with the "milk" part of the Oolong. Apparently China does not have its own milk industry, and therefore a question is whether the milk flavour is real or artificial. And does this matter? It could matter. So, as I've said before, stay tuned! We'll see what I turn up.

On another note, my daily masala chai experiments are becoming quite fun and enlightening. Today I tried simmering my spices for 30 minutes before adding the tea. I love the way this concoction makes the house smell. I'd almost do it just for the scent alone. I also added the golden brown sugar sooner so that it would become a little syrupy before adding the tea. It would have worked very well, however I ended up steeping the tea a little too long for my taste, and unfortunately the tea grains (this is an assam that is grainy - more on that another time) were small enough to pass through my strainer, and so it was difficult to eliminate the grit factor...not a quality I wish for my cup of chai. Lesson learned.

Soon I am going to learn how to make some special cookies that are supposed to be dunked in chai. Perhaps I can sell them when I become a chai wallah. A chai and cookie wallah. And if I can't become a chai wallah, at least I can dress up as one for Hallowe'en.