Azusa Tea Club's first MeetUp (1/22/2011) - A Taste of Taiwan Oolongs

Josephine and Karen, my team players are really helpful for the first MeetUp of Azusa Tea Club!
Dianna Harbin, our fellow tea enthusiast who leads me into this new wonderland, has come all the way from Santa Barbara to give her support...(*Thank you so much, Dianna.) I hope soon we can also extend our helping hands to other friends who will start their new tea MeetUp groups.)

Our topic for this one: A Taste of Taiwan Oolongs
We have 11 friends joined us for this topic. The six teas we prepared for the cupping are:
Wenshan Pouchong 60436, Spring 2010
Alishan Oolong 74438A, Autumn 2010
Oriental Beauty 20439, Summer 2010
Classic Tung Ting 80451, Autumn 2010
Baked Pouchong 70439, Baked in Winter 2009
Roasted Oolong 70438A, Roasted in Summer 2008

All participants got to work on the professional cupping session, step by step...with the Cupping Log I had prepared. (*We might be so used to this practice...but it is fun for tea lovers to learn and work through the whole process... ) After cupping, we had Josephine to demo how she will serve Oriental Beauty with her Traveling tea set... We moved from the cupping counter to another table for the Tasting session. With no timer, no scale...simply based on her own experience and with the hints she got from her earlier cupping on that particular tea ... We are not surprise what our friends comment about the difference... Cupping is the science, for us to find out all the characters in tea's quality. To make a good cup of tea to treat ourselves or to serve our family or friends...it is an art. Based on the information we got from the Cupping, we then can try to harmonize the right amount of leaf, with the right temperature of heated water plus the time for leaf to be infused on the tea ware you selected to prepare... maybe served with snacks or foods which are pairing well with that particular tea.

This is a great group we have for our Azusa Tea Club. We enjoyed a wonderful Saturday afternoon together. Hoping more tea topics with more tea lovers can meet up soon. At this moment, we have scheduled our next MeetUp on the topic of "USDA Certified Organic Teas Around the World !" on 2/12/2011. We have invited our good friend Devan Shah to co-host with Josephine for this one. It will be a great chance for everyone to find yourself some nice Organic teas.