2008 Hai Lang Hao "Jing Mai" Brick 250g

Just a quickie as I'm home early from work sick and really should be resting. I received a brick of this as a gift from Bryan at Teajournaling and instantly fell in love with it. First impressions were how sweet the dry leaf smelled. Full of delicious aroma, oily in my hands; everything you never expect from such a young brick. It was thick, soupy, delicious leafy sweet goodness. Nice big full leaves scream out careful hand-processing.



The first night I drank this, I deviated a bit from my normal infusion times. Normally I flash rinse, 15s, 12s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 1:00, 1:15, 1:30, etc...this time, I started short....7s, 12s, 15s, 30s. I rode 30 seconds for another five or six infusions and then went up to 45 seconds. Before, I knew it, it was 3:02am and I was still wide awake. This is a tea that has no idea when to quit and for less than $10 a brick, could easily be a daily drinker. Normally if I drink that late at night, I'll leave some water in the gaiwan and drink the overnight brew first thing in the morning as an eye opener. Never bitter, even then.


That buttery yellow soup you're looking at is after the 15th infusion. Beautiful liquor, beautiful tea. Hands down Hai Lang knows how to make a good tea. Pick some of this up.

Mug Pu-erh

I guess I'll start with a little about myself. I'm a lover of teas; mostly green and white. I'm a father. I play Go whenever time permits. I'm a very laid back individual, and I've recently fallen in love with Pu-erh. This is my place to learn and grow with something that is such a simple pleasure and hopefully make a few friends in the process.

I'll start by saying that at the moment, I know very little about the world of Pu-erh. I know it mostly comes from the Yunnan province in China, and that there are raw/shu and ripe/shang pu-erh cakes, or bings. I know that a bunch of bings wrapped up in a bamboo case are called a tong. Tongs usually consist of 7-10 bings. I'm stretching here, because I really don't know much yet. But here's what I do know.

Making tea of any kind, especially pu-erh is a very relaxing process and I'll without a doubt be doing it for years to come. That said, I need a place to keep track of my thoughts. A place to put everything down and share it with the rest of the world. That is my goal.

Generally I've enjoyed all of my teas in vintage coffeemugs. Big stocky mugs with a single handle that welcome you to walk about while you're sipping. That's how I drink it for now. I'm on the fence about ordering and authentic tea set. I like the coffee mugs, but despise the flavour of coffee. Go figure.