Wooo!!! The long awaited Minecraft console update is out! I saw it as soon as I woke up and have been busily playing ever since. I am in a happy place, building with the new blocks and playing the the Guardians (I made them an aquarium.) A lot of my builds are getting spruced up with new blocks, especially the various Ocean monument blocks because they are blue. Perfect timing, since I feel like I am coming down with a cold, so now I have an excuse to take it easy for the next couple days.
Today’s tea comes from Sichuan by way of MeiMei Fine Teas. Organic Sichuan Zao Bai Jian Premium Green Tea. Usually this tea is processed as a black/red tea, at least everything I read about this tea lists Zao Bai Jian as Imperial Black, but with all teas, you can process the leaves in a myriad of ways, so why not process it as a green, and they are pretty leaves at that, curly little leaves with a silvery shimmer to them. The aroma is crisp and green, notes of gentle chestnuts and almonds along side sweet peas, artichoke, greenbeans, and a touch of celery. It smells quite rich and the vegetal notes are accented nicely by the nutty ones.
In the gaiwan after steeping, the leaves are so vibrantly green, the aroma of the wet leaves is a bit brothy with notes of vegetable broth. sauteed bok choy and asparagus, sesame seeds and water chestnuts. It is rather savory and reminds me of food. The liquid, however, is gentle sweet like roasted chestnuts and sesames with a touch of water chestnut’s crispness, and a blend of asparagus and broccoli.
First steeping is very smooth and green, like an explosion of green in my mouth! Notes of veggie broth and sauteed bok choy with a hint of sweet peas. This gentle sweetness moves into chestnut and water chestnut, with a finish of sugar cane. It is mellow and sweet at the finish which is a fun contrast with the savory vegetal start.
On to the second steep! The aroma is very green and fresh, notes of sweet peas, celery, bean sprouts, and bok choy, it is a bit broth like again, but more like crisp veggies overall. The taste starts out veggie heavy again, notes of cooked bok choy, mustard greens, bean sprouts, and asparagus eventually fade to sweet peas and water chestnuts, and again a finish of sugar cane. The sweet at the finish is rather refreshing.I did not take too detailed notes as of steep three, mostly because it was mostly like steep two but less, no real change except diminished. I will say this for this particular tea, it was immensely refreshing. It is not the most memorable or nuanced tea I have had, and certainly not the best I have had from MeiMei Fine Teas, though it is tasty so it has my slurp of approval.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/12/meimei-fine-teas-organic-sichuan-zao.html
