I really need to express my gratitude here. I disovered your chanel a while ago and binge watched all your videos and now I´m binge watching them again :D You have opened my eyes to the world of tea! Many thanks :)
I've been doing the same thing. Don is EXTREMELY knowledgeable and describes his wares in a way that newbies can understand. I am by no means new to teas (I've been drinking Yunnan teas for about 15 years now) but everybody can continue to learn more about our drink of choice (TEA!) because there are so many beautiful choices and variations based just upon where they are grown and how they are handled after cultivation and picking.
Many moons ago, I was because of my mother a tea drinker but NOT REAL TEA (all those bagged things you find in the US grocery store shelves...you know the brands). When I found that tea was actually sold in loose form, WOW and I too started with western methods but then I found a website in Yunnan where an American living there has made his business and I was HOOKED on Gong Fu. I still use some western when it's appropriate and sometimes more convenient but I bought Don's Guru set and LOVE IT. By no means was this my first Gong Fu set but so far I like it the best. He really know how to source materials that are of high quality!
All it takes is practice and forcing yourself to go further than basic levels like 'fruity' and 'grassy' but ask yourself 'what kind of fruit? Fresh or cooked or dry? Unripe or overipe? The skin or the flesh or the juice?'. Forcing yourself to answer these questions makes things easier.
I've learned so much from this channel. I am keeping a tea journal and recording things that feel important and worth remembering. It's getting pretty full. Lol. Thank you so much for taking the time to share information with us!! 💚
I tried some of this tea while watching, and after a few weeks of mainly drinking random samples and a sub par Da Hong Pao, it was like a breath of fresh air. Absolutely delicious.
Well Don, we just got out Iron Monk in the mail today. I had watched this video before we got our order. Me and my wife(has not watched it yet) sat down at the kitchen table and put your review on. We brewed some Iron Monk gong fu and we both agree. Great tea! Just knowing you picked the best of 30 available teas of the same type for us to try, is fantastic! I have Lost Robe waiting in my pantry waiting unopened to review this tea with you. Hope to a see the video soon, may not be able to wait if it takes too long to show up. 2 happy Canadians tonight. Thanks.
Hi Don hope your having a great weekend. just watched this video whilst enjoying a gung fu session with Mei leafs beautiful Sacred owl. love this tea it's beautiful and intrigued to test the tea in this video. very exciting stuff.
I'm happy that Jamie got some, just wish I'd purchased a cake instead of a taster but maybe next year something similar will come along. Don has great connections and taste in finding these rare gems.
Sounds like a very interesting and tasty Oolong. I can't wait to taste it. In the end of this video you speak a bit about pairing it with food and I remembered that I love that video on Tea and Cheese pairing. I would love to watch more videos like that one. =)
Missed the single tea tasting kind of videos :) Pleasure to watch as always. On your new Mei Leaf website - could you try to SCOPE every tea? When shopping I was a bit sad that on some teas in descriptions you didn't had all of those information and we could get to know so much more about the tea from the videos than just when trying to purchase it in online shop. I love the idea os scoping the tea and think it would be nice to use as standard thing in tea description on the web :)
I appreciate you and your professionalism so very much! I've been watching a lot of TH-cam videos which started out great just like your videos then they took a nasty and disrespectful turn so I applaud you sir! Can wait to save up enough money to purchase from you soon :)
How long should you wait for the charcoal smell and taste to go down? I'm tasting a 2022, now in early 2023 and it is so charcoal overpowered in the smell.
I recently got this one, and I had a hilarious first steep because I accidentally oversteeped it. It didn't taste bad, in fact it held up very well, but it tasted like coffee. Not bad coffee, more like a middling artisan one with a little bit of cream in it just to mellow it out. Of course, when I brewed it properly, the chocolate and brandy-cherry came out, but the fun doesn't stop there. Some of my folks were around and asked to sip when they smelled the tea, and my grandparents (who drink coffee like water) really liked that first steep (then the ones afterwards). I've been experimenting with them for a while, and it was their favorite, to the point they asked for more. So... I might have made teaheads of people by oversteeping a fine rock oolong. Happy accidents, eh?
Hi Don, thanks for the very helpful video. Have you ever tried brewing your yancha Chaozhou-style, small pot packed close to the brim with leaves, and flash steeping? I've heard people recommend that approach for rock tea and was curious how the taste might differ from the slightly less leaf, longer steeping, larger pot approach you used here. Thanks again.
I come from Wuyi Mountain in China, which is the origin of rock tea and Oolong tea.Welcome to Wuyi Mountain to take you to climb the mountain and taste Wuyi tea.
I live in bama and i have been growing a few plants, im wanting to start a tea farm on the mountain one day but my processing needs work i named my first batch iron anus and it has that name for a reason im wanting to do a medium oxidized sun withered light compressed chocolate bar type do you or anyone have any advice
I speak minimal Mandarin but I am continuously trying to improve. I found the Pimsleur audio lessons to be a good starting point for conversational Chinese but the true learning should come from the characters.
Don, I notice that your Yixing wares are small, I drink tea by the cups (about 220 ml per cup) is that too much tea? or is the small cups just part of the ceremony?
Small cups are advantageous because they cool the tea quickly so that you can drink fresh and means that you can share your gong fu brewed tea (which is always around 200ml).
I'll let you know Don, I just added it to my order (I'm spending a bit of my "Christmas" money). Could you please offer your tea towels as an item for purchase. I know that you can get small towels just about anywhere but again, you have great attention to detail and I love mine that came with the Guru set I purchased a couple of months ago. CHEERS!
I'm wondering about the pronunciation of yancha. Are there multiple way of saying it depending on region, or is the pronunciation you used (which sounds more like YENcha to me) is the correct one? I only heard it pronounced by non-chinese speakers and they said it the way that made "yan" sound like the begging of "younger".
The Standard Mandarin pronunciation of "a" in "yan" is [ɛ] in IPA, which sounds like the "e" in the English word "bed" (see also en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Mandarin ) You can hear the pronunciation of 岩茶 yánchá here: translate.google.com/m/translate#zh-CN/en/%E5%B2%A9%E8%8C%B6 You might often hear "yan" mispronounced by beginning Mandarin learners as the pinyin vowel does not actually reflect the exact pronunciation (which the IPA does).
Hm you say that even a small temperature difference of 5 degrees Celsius causes a significant change in the flavour of the tea. Well, if that's true, this might be a problem for people living in areas of higher altitude since the boiling point of water sinks when the elevation is increased. (I live at about 600 meters above sea level, even that might affect the flavour. Imagine somebody living in a village in the mountains...)
Very true and I wonder how these teas extract at those altitudes. I know someone who said that they tried brewing tea at a crazy high altitude and it did not taste as flavourful which may explain why tibetans like super strong tea!
How the tea is processed! White tea is the least processed; it's called "white tea" because of the white hairs that are still on the bud that show that the leaves were barely processed, if not unprocessed at all. On the other hand, puehr tea is a tea that has been allowed to ferment or to age. The leaves are picked from really old big-leaf tea trees, processed like green teas, and then allowed to age and ferment over time.
Jigs Alonzo Not all PuEhr's are aged and white teas can be aged too. That's not a difference. I know that different cultivars are beeing used. I thought that Raw PuEhr is relatively unprocessed as well. If what you are saying is true then PuEhr is just green tea from a different cultivar? That must be a very different plant indeed as green and puehr are so different and green tea cannot be aged at all and will go bad after long storage.
Oh, I didn't know that not all PuEhrs are aged, that's interesting. Because what I know is that PuEhr refers to fermented tea from old tea trees in Yunnan. If I am not mistaken, Raw PuEhr involves a longer aging process compared to Ripe PuEhr. What I learned is that the processing is similar to green tea but just that they are steamed and compacted into tablets or cakes so that the compounds in the leaf then lead to fermentation. That's different from just storing green tea for a long time
Jigs Alonzo You have already helped me out a bit. I found and interesting article and this is what i found out: Raw PuEhr is made by plucking bud and 3-4 leaves and then pan frying it. The frying is different from green tea production! With green tea all of the enzymes are deactivated but with PuEhr a portion of the enzymes stay intact. The leaves are then rolled and sun dried. Green tea is made by plucking bud and 1-2 leaves and pan frying it. The frying is complete and almost all of the enzymes are deactivated resulting in the leaves not oxidizing and staying green. The Leaves are then rolled and dried with hot air several times. White tea is made by plucking either only the bud or bud and 1-2 leaves. The leaves do not undergo any heating process which means all of the enzymes stay intact. The leaves are then sun dried for some hours and then dried indoors. I am still at the beginning of my tea journey if anything i just wrote is incorrect please tell me.
Oh my, I thought i was a tea head when I bought Earl Grey Supreme or English Breakfast black teas by the pound. Some of the better quality ones at like Harney And Sons, like the Breakfast Supreme or the other way around. I just paid without really seeing it was $55 a pound. Then i start with the Oolong and Da Hong Pao, or Iron Goddess Of Mercy..and get a Gaiwan..oh my household finances were tapped almost dry for some of the real quality Da Hong Pao. I say that because i been scammed so many times. Maybe not scammed, that was too harsh. Let's say mislead, or decieved. Price gouging definitely. So finding a quality tea, at the reasonable and customary price.. it's impossible unless you find a business that has a relationship of trust. There are dealers with integrity that give you what you want at the right price. Then you try to get good Big Red Robe and find out later this taste you thought was DHP, is just a blend. Sucks cause i am trying to find a good, better place to get good tea. I've got good buys from Yunnan Sourcing, and Bana Tea Company. The fragmented leaves are heavily discounted, $20 for 100g. A steal. You don't get massive infusions, but you are at least confident its real. And its amazing.
I really need to express my gratitude here. I disovered your chanel a while ago and binge watched all your videos and now I´m binge watching them again :D
You have opened my eyes to the world of tea! Many thanks :)
I've been doing the same thing. Don is EXTREMELY knowledgeable and describes his wares in a way that newbies can understand. I am by no means new to teas (I've been drinking Yunnan teas for about 15 years now) but everybody can continue to learn more about our drink of choice (TEA!) because there are so many beautiful choices and variations based just upon where they are grown and how they are handled after cultivation and picking.
He's the reason I got into gongfu, before I was using strictly western methods of brewing.
Many moons ago, I was because of my mother a tea drinker but NOT REAL TEA (all those bagged things you find in the US grocery store shelves...you know the brands). When I found that tea was actually sold in loose form, WOW and I too started with western methods but then I found a website in Yunnan where an American living there has made his business and I was HOOKED on Gong Fu. I still use some western when it's appropriate and sometimes more convenient but I bought Don's Guru set and LOVE IT. By no means was this my first Gong Fu set but so far I like it the best. He really know how to source materials that are of high quality!
Thank you YogaCitrus, KingHazzah and Holographic Lotus. We appreciate the love and comments!
You've good sense in smell to be able to express the flavour into words.
Wish I can get to that level one day
All it takes is practice and forcing yourself to go further than basic levels like 'fruity' and 'grassy' but ask yourself 'what kind of fruit? Fresh or cooked or dry? Unripe or overipe? The skin or the flesh or the juice?'. Forcing yourself to answer these questions makes things easier.
I've learned so much from this channel. I am keeping a tea journal and recording things that feel important and worth remembering. It's getting pretty full. Lol. Thank you so much for taking the time to share information with us!! 💚
I tried some of this tea while watching, and after a few weeks of mainly drinking random samples and a sub par Da Hong Pao, it was like a breath of fresh air. Absolutely delicious.
Really love your channel! Very insightful!
I would love to see this one stocked again when you find a good one!
I have "rock oolong" repeating in my head to the tune of "Rock Lobster" just from reading the title. Lol, thanks so much. 😉
love your videos. I watch them everyday. so addictive.
Me too, I watch his videos everyday as I’m drinking teas. I’m waiting for my first shipment of Mei Leif tea to arrive any day now 💕
Well Don, we just got out Iron Monk in the mail today. I had watched this video before we got our order. Me and my wife(has not watched it yet) sat down at the kitchen table and put your review on. We brewed some Iron Monk gong fu and we both agree. Great tea! Just knowing you picked the best of 30 available teas of the same type for us to try, is fantastic!
I have Lost Robe waiting in my pantry waiting unopened to review this tea with you. Hope to a see the video soon, may not be able to wait if it takes too long to show up. 2 happy Canadians tonight.
Thanks.
Cheers Wes! Lost Robe video is up on 21st January if you can wait long enough!
Hi Don hope your having a great weekend. just watched this video whilst enjoying a gung fu session with Mei leafs beautiful Sacred owl. love this tea it's beautiful and intrigued to test the tea in this video. very exciting stuff.
Jamie you have good taste in tea! I was so glad that I ordered mine as well and enjoyed it as my first Mei Leaf tea for the New Year!
Thanks for ordering Jamie. There is no more Sacred Owl so you have a bit of rare tea there!
I'm happy that Jamie got some, just wish I'd purchased a cake instead of a taster but maybe next year something similar will come along. Don has great connections and taste in finding these rare gems.
No woody menthol 4 me no thanx!
The new camera angle is very nice for those zoom-ins for us to see the little details.
Thanks, it is an older camera and eventually we will upgrade for higher quality 2nd camera.
Absolutely love your videos, I have learned so much about tea. Thank you for doing what you do.
Thanks Amanda!
Sounds like a very interesting and tasty Oolong. I can't wait to taste it. In the end of this video you speak a bit about pairing it with food and I remembered that I love that video on Tea and Cheese pairing. I would love to watch more videos like that one. =)
More are planned Denise and we are experimenting!
My packet is scheduled to appear on MONDAY! Can't wait...yummm
I'm so glad I ordered this. Just waiting for the mailman!
Can't wait for the Da Hong Pao video !!!!!! :-))) It feels like there is a lot to be learned there.
I was going to post it yesterday but realised that 2 rock oolong videos in a row might not be what everyone wants so it will be the next one up!
Just tried this tea. It's goooooooooooood.
I absolutely loveeeeee tea
Missed the single tea tasting kind of videos :) Pleasure to watch as always. On your new Mei Leaf website - could you try to SCOPE every tea? When shopping I was a bit sad that on some teas in descriptions you didn't had all of those information and we could get to know so much more about the tea from the videos than just when trying to purchase it in online shop. I love the idea os scoping the tea and think it would be nice to use as standard thing in tea description on the web :)
Yes the Mei Leaf website will scope every single tea!
Would you recommend gong fu brewing style for Darjeeling teas?
Yes I would although this is non-traditional for that tea.
I appreciate you and your professionalism so very much! I've been watching a lot of TH-cam videos which started out great just like your videos then they took a nasty and disrespectful turn so I applaud you sir! Can wait to save up enough money to purchase from you soon :)
I don't know why, but I laughed so much at the grin (12:22) :D. Great video, as always. :)
Weird thing about recording yourself is that you get to witness expressions you had no idea you were doing!
How long should you wait for the charcoal smell and taste to go down? I'm tasting a 2022, now in early 2023 and it is so charcoal overpowered in the smell.
The best tea i ever had was black oolong tea from a tiny chinese restaurant in silverlake.
I recently got this one, and I had a hilarious first steep because I accidentally oversteeped it. It didn't taste bad, in fact it held up very well, but it tasted like coffee. Not bad coffee, more like a middling artisan one with a little bit of cream in it just to mellow it out. Of course, when I brewed it properly, the chocolate and brandy-cherry came out, but the fun doesn't stop there. Some of my folks were around and asked to sip when they smelled the tea, and my grandparents (who drink coffee like water) really liked that first steep (then the ones afterwards). I've been experimenting with them for a while, and it was their favorite, to the point they asked for more. So... I might have made teaheads of people by oversteeping a fine rock oolong. Happy accidents, eh?
Great story and tasting notes. Oversteeping and coffee drinkers is an interesting experiment actually!
Hi Don, thanks for the very helpful video. Have you ever tried brewing your yancha Chaozhou-style, small pot packed close to the brim with leaves, and flash steeping? I've heard people recommend that approach for rock tea and was curious how the taste might differ from the slightly less leaf, longer steeping, larger pot approach you used here. Thanks again.
I come from Wuyi Mountain in China, which is the origin of rock tea and Oolong tea.Welcome to Wuyi Mountain to take you to climb the mountain and taste Wuyi tea.
I live in bama and i have been growing a few plants, im wanting to start a tea farm on the mountain one day but my processing needs work i named my first batch iron anus and it has that name for a reason im wanting to do a medium oxidized sun withered light compressed chocolate bar type do you or anyone have any advice
Hi, I got a wuyi hongcha, how should I brew it? It's just a generic wuyi black tea.
Follow black small leaf on this starting guidelines: chinalifeweb.com/guides/the-tea-brewing-chart/
What is the wood structure you poor in the water and since? Thanks
Jacque Louvsser’s Four Seasons…and some Shifu Pudding…oh yeah!
just purchased some of this the other day. will be watching the video again the first time I make it! XD
Yum! Enjoy.
Thank you for the iron monk tea, it was brewed in my 100ml pi zi ni😎😎😎
off topic... Do you speak Chinese? :) Do you have any advice on how one could start to learn Chinese without taking classes?
I speak minimal Mandarin but I am continuously trying to improve. I found the Pimsleur audio lessons to be a good starting point for conversational Chinese but the true learning should come from the characters.
Don, I notice that your Yixing wares are small, I drink tea by the cups (about 220 ml per cup) is that too much tea? or is the small cups just part of the ceremony?
Small cups are advantageous because they cool the tea quickly so that you can drink fresh and means that you can share your gong fu brewed tea (which is always around 200ml).
i would say the color is of iron rust, adding to the iron monk name
Nice thank you, I like the description.
I'll let you know Don, I just added it to my order (I'm spending a bit of my "Christmas" money). Could you please offer your tea towels as an item for purchase. I know that you can get small towels just about anywhere but again, you have great attention to detail and I love mine that came with the Guru set I purchased a couple of months ago. CHEERS!
OK. Good idea and I am on it my man. Thank you so much for your orders, I have seen quite a few being prepared for you!
Yea, can't get enough of your QUALITY stuff!
I'm wondering about the pronunciation of yancha. Are there multiple way of saying it depending on region, or is the pronunciation you used (which sounds more like YENcha to me) is the correct one? I only heard it pronounced by non-chinese speakers and they said it the way that made "yan" sound like the begging of "younger".
YEN cha is the way it should be pronounced according to my experience.
The Standard Mandarin pronunciation of "a" in "yan" is [ɛ] in IPA, which sounds like the "e" in the English word "bed" (see also en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Mandarin )
You can hear the pronunciation of 岩茶 yánchá here: translate.google.com/m/translate#zh-CN/en/%E5%B2%A9%E8%8C%B6
You might often hear "yan" mispronounced by beginning Mandarin learners as the pinyin vowel does not actually reflect the exact pronunciation (which the IPA does).
Thanks!
Hm you say that even a small temperature difference of 5 degrees Celsius causes a significant change in the flavour of the tea. Well, if that's true, this might be a problem for people living in areas of higher altitude since the boiling point of water sinks when the elevation is increased. (I live at about 600 meters above sea level, even that might affect the flavour. Imagine somebody living in a village in the mountains...)
Very true and I wonder how these teas extract at those altitudes. I know someone who said that they tried brewing tea at a crazy high altitude and it did not taste as flavourful which may explain why tibetans like super strong tea!
Hi Don, could you recommend me good Tea books? Thanks
The fresh book by Tony Gebely seems pretty good from my flick through online.
Don, what's the big difference that divides white tea from raw puehr tea other than the cultivar used?
How the tea is processed! White tea is the least processed; it's called "white tea" because of the white hairs that are still on the bud that show that the leaves were barely processed, if not unprocessed at all. On the other hand, puehr tea is a tea that has been allowed to ferment or to age. The leaves are picked from really old big-leaf tea trees, processed like green teas, and then allowed to age and ferment over time.
Jigs Alonzo
Not all PuEhr's are aged and white teas can be aged too. That's not a difference. I know that different cultivars are beeing used. I thought that Raw PuEhr is relatively unprocessed as well. If what you are saying is true then PuEhr is just green tea from a different cultivar? That must be a very different plant indeed as green and puehr are so different and green tea cannot be aged at all and will go bad after long storage.
Jigs Alonzo I have to read more about this subject. I have read conflicting information up to now.
Oh, I didn't know that not all PuEhrs are aged, that's interesting. Because what I know is that PuEhr refers to fermented tea from old tea trees in Yunnan.
If I am not mistaken, Raw PuEhr involves a longer aging process compared to Ripe PuEhr. What I learned is that the processing is similar to green tea but just that they are steamed and compacted into tablets or cakes so that the compounds in the leaf then lead to fermentation. That's different from just storing green tea for a long time
Jigs Alonzo You have already helped me out a bit.
I found and interesting article and this is what i found out:
Raw PuEhr is made by plucking bud and 3-4 leaves and then pan frying it. The frying is different from green tea production! With green tea all of the enzymes are deactivated but with PuEhr a portion of the enzymes stay intact. The leaves are then rolled and sun dried.
Green tea is made by plucking bud and 1-2 leaves and pan frying it. The frying is complete and almost all of the enzymes are deactivated resulting in the leaves not oxidizing and staying green. The Leaves are then rolled and dried with hot air several times.
White tea is made by plucking either only the bud or bud and 1-2 leaves. The leaves do not undergo any heating process which means all of the enzymes stay intact. The leaves are then sun dried for some hours and then dried indoors.
I am still at the beginning of my tea journey if anything i just wrote is incorrect please tell me.
It's so hard to find good yanchas! The ones I usually find go from charcoal to dusty.
EXACTLY!
how do you drink the tea that hot without burning your tongue to the point it goes numb?
how do you drink the tea that hot and not burn your tongue and numbing it
:))
Unfortunetly u stick to conversation for quite bet way too long
Oh my, I thought i was a tea head when I bought Earl Grey Supreme or English Breakfast black teas by the pound. Some of the better quality ones at like Harney And Sons, like the Breakfast Supreme or the other way around. I just paid without really seeing it was $55 a pound.
Then i start with the Oolong and Da Hong Pao, or Iron Goddess Of Mercy..and get a Gaiwan..oh my household finances were tapped almost dry for some of the real quality Da Hong Pao.
I say that because i been scammed so many times. Maybe not scammed, that was too harsh. Let's say mislead, or decieved. Price gouging definitely. So finding a quality tea, at the reasonable and customary price.. it's impossible unless you find a business that has a relationship of trust. There are dealers with integrity that give you what you want at the right price. Then you try to get good Big Red Robe and find out later this taste you thought was DHP, is just a blend. Sucks cause i am trying to find a good, better place to get good tea.
I've got good buys from Yunnan Sourcing, and Bana Tea Company. The fragmented leaves are heavily discounted, $20 for 100g. A steal. You don't get massive infusions, but you are at least confident its real. And its amazing.