Floating Leaves Tea New Tea Bar

This is the big project that I have recently been working on. It all started with wanting to combine my different working spaces into one (I was serving tea from a tea table and had a separate counter to pack tea/cash register/paper work). From that, the idea for a tea bar was born.

Three days ago, some friends came and helped to pack up the things in the tea shop and to prepare the space for installing the tea bar. Two days ago, the tea bar was installed and we spent the rest of the day moving the furniture (and boxes) out of the way and trying to figure out the best arrangement for everything.

Yesterday, I spent the whole day unpacking things and trying to locate the things I need the most for running the business. We also put all of the tea and teaware back on the shelves.

Today, I spent half of the day sorting out things (I also had to give my brain a break). In the afternoon, we finally cleared out enough space around the tea bar so that we could enjoy a delicious pot of Tieguanyin!

There is still more work to do to make the shop look organize, but I am already super excited with the new look and change! I am hoping to accommodate more people for tea classes, and to offer a more organized, open space for customers to come in and browse.

We will be having a celebration party soon. Stay tuned!

Oolong Refresh/Roast Part I

This past week, I did two really fun tea refresh/roast classes. Here are some results:

During the first class, we worked on a Buddha's Hand Oolong I received in Spring 2012. The bag of tea was rolled up, but it had not vacuum sealed after I opened it last year. The tea was a bit stale and it lost some of its strength. I initially thought to turn it into a medium roasted tea, but didn't like the results from my experimentation. The "Buddha's Hand" fruit taste disappeared quite a lot through the roasting. I roasted a second batch and intended to preserve the Buddha's Hand tea flavor. I touched this tea up in my mini tea roaster for just about an hour: 40C for 30 minutes and then 50C for 30 minutes. The touched up tea is noticeably more fruity and has more tea body, too!

Next, we tasted a DaWuYeh Phoenix Oolong. The original tea tasted fine, but I wanted it to have a deeper body. I touched this Phoenix Oolong up in the mini tea roaster for more than an hour: 40C for one hour and 50C for another 20 minutes. The tea tasted deeper, with a longer lasting aftertaste, too.

Then I used a candle and a Yixing tea pot to do spot roasting. I wanted to show the participants that they can easily use a small tea light to roast some tea at home. To make this method easier, you can use a butter warmer stand and set the tea pot on top so that you don't need to hold the pot the whole time. Some butter warmer stands are taller than others and will cause the tea pot to heat up a lot, so from time to time, lift the tea pot from the stand and set it aside for a bit. This method only takes around 15 to 20 minutes and the results are pretty clear. You will have a nicely roasted Oolong to drink for sure!

In my next post, I will share experiences and insight from our second roasting class. If you ever try any of this at home, please share your results with me!

Comparing Menghai Factory Puer #7542

In our previous tea club meeting, we tasted seven 7542 puer cakes. As usual, we had a great time drinking tea together. Here are some tasting notes:

We started with a 2011 #7542 puer cake. Overall, the tea is a good daily drinker. The tea broth has a medium amount of body.

Then we proceeded to brew two 2008 cakes side by side. One of the 2008 cakes is from a drier environment. Both teas still taste green and young. At this stage, we prefer the cake from the drier storage, because the tea has more aftertaste. Between 2011 to 2008, we noticed the liquid of the 20098 teas are a bit thicker.

We finalized our tasting with 4 different years of 7542: a 2003, 1997, 1991, and a 1988. The 1991 cake has clearly been in wet storage. Both of the 1991 and 1988 tea broths have changed into that beautiful, dark amber color, and have a much richer mouthfeel, too. Amazingly, we all like the wet storage cake the best. The bad "wet storage" taste is not in the broth at all and it turned out to be the richest and roundest tea among these 4 teas.

Our impression of the 7542 cake recipe is that it's a good tea to have on a daily basis. If one stores the cake long enough, it will turn into a nice warm, sweet, and thick cup of tea.

*photos provided by Jason Gift.

Water Temperature For Oolong

I am often asked about the temperature of the water I use for my teas. My answer is pretty much always "boiling." I want to clarify that the teas I drink the most are Taiwanese Oolong and Puer. This post will mainly be about Taiwanese Oolong.

When I am in Taiwan, I watch and ask tea farmers and tea people what temperature they use for their Oolong teas. So far, no matter where I am in Taiwan, I always see them use boiling water for tea. I also notice that they don't boil their water for every infusion. I have asked them why, and they have said that after one boils up the same pot of hot water for the third time, the water is considered "dead." So here is generally what I see in Taiwan:  farmers and tea people boil their water for the first infusion, and then by the 3rd or 4th infusion, they will boil the same pot of water again, for the 2nd time.

I thought it would be fun to experiment with water temperature. I had two tea friends over to taste teas with me. We brewed our Baozhong Competition Style with 190 degree, 200 degree and boiling water. We all prefer the Baozhong brewed with boiling water. It had more bouquet, body, and aftertaste. We noticed the Baozhong brewed with the lower temperatures had more sweetness.

Then we proceeded to brew the Dong Ding Select at different water temperatures. Again, we all liked the Dong Ding infused with boiling water the most.

Try it out at home and figure out what you like the most!

*Photos provided by Douglas King.

Floating Leaves Tea - New Business Hours

Many of you have watched my son growing up in the tea shop. He goes to Kindergarten this year! Floating Leaves Tea will have a new business hours to match up his schedule.

New Business Hours:

Tuesday to Saturday: 11am to 6pm
Closed on Sunday and Monday


Thank you for understanding. See you all soon for a cup of tea!