Monday, April 2, 2012

Tea Basic: Cupping (3/30/2012)

Pomona City College's Tea Leave and Friends came over to do the Tea Basic: Cupping on 3/30 evening. Thuy, Maira, Lauren and Sarah, four seniors of their tea club plus Karen and Ben, a very cozy tea event on a Friday evening. We have four teas for cupping: Two Green tea PiLoChun and Dragon Well, one Oolong tea Oriental Beauty and one Black tea Mao-Fung.
Share with you the following slideshow of our fun study on tea. There are two rounds - first run we cupped with traditional cupping sets - measure 3 g of tea and steep with rolling boil water for 5 minutes. Second run we use Harmony Teapots to experiment, 3 grams of tea with 250 ml of water to steep. We use rolling boiled water for the black tea,. 190 for Oriental Beauty, and 175 for the Dragon Well., and 165 for PiLoChun... Together, we all watched carefully... while the leaves unfurl and settle, we simply remove the drainers to rest them on the coasters. They were suggested to do their cupping logs...with each tea's aroma, flavor and finish, plus examine the color of tea liquor and wet leaves... Each time, doing this with new tea friends...refresh up my own experience and actually...something new to be added...

1 comment:

Savor. Devour. said...

First and foremost, many thanks to Thomas for having it. It was really eye-opening - especially the spitting tomb. I was pleasantly surprised by the differences I detected in smell of the wet leaves and tea broth at different temperatures. I'm glad to have learned the standard method of comparing different teas. The whole event helped me get a better grasp of describing my senses, which I'm sure will allow me to enjoy tea even more.