teakkurim

  23 tevet 5782 as MarshalN says, changing your water is the cheapest way to improve your tea. i have been avoiding trying to compare water for a few reasons. the first is that i am scared to admit to myself that it makes a big difference. i don’t want water to have such a big impact because IF spring water is tons better, that means there is yet another hurdle to having better tea. my mission for myself, and this blog, is to enjoy tea at a reasonable price and to be accessible to a westerner who doesn’t want to drop a lot of dough on leaves or accoutrements. yes one could easily buy spring water from the gas station but buying bottled water makes me furious (because its wasteful and all the horrible practices of companies who are taking drinking water from poor people so they do not have access to clean water). and if one doesn’t want to buy spring water, where else can you easily get it? how many people live near a natural spring?! ummmm… i do… you do?! then why aren’...

  3 kislev 5782 its finally happening. i am writing a post about weed and tea. it’s been a long time coming. ive wanted to write this so long ago but i thought i should have some more ‘respectable’ content on this blog first. it’s the same idea as when you don’t show your true self until the 3rd date date but that is not my style. either you like me now or you don’t. this is what youre gonna get so get used to it. let's get that out of the way quick. there is a lot to talk about regarding this topic and this will probably be the first of multiple posts. the first thing i want to start off with hearkens back to my previous posts . tea is a plant. it has a lot of noticeable affects on our bodies including immediate ones and ones we don’t see right off the bat (ie: naturally occurring vitamins and minerals etc. those phytochemicals affect our blood sugar or glucose levels or other scientific things i don’t understand and produce different reactions or sensations in our bodies). th...

28 cheshvan 5782 i am happy to say i still have plenty to write about for this blog. this includes a backlog of posts ive written that i keep saved on a word document on my laptop. i don’t live with wifi (by choice. yeah… im one of those). after i write something i have to be motivated and in the mood to use my internet time to post it to this blog. in addition to the languishing collection of posts adrift in the word document is a collection of tea notes that i write on scraps of paper and in a composition notebook that i keep next to me as i drink. and yes, i keep the notes in a journal so i can keep my tea time free of screens. its like my blog is caught up in some dysfunctional and inefficient bureaucracy of tea publishing. first, notebook, then word document, then send it to the presses once wifi is within reach and the article has been proof read enough, more or less, and then ‘click.’ still to come in the future is me talking about me beginning my journey into searching for th...

sivan 4 5781   it has been unreasonably gorgeous this past week. sunshine, temperatures in the 70s, and flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere. when it gets like this i get invigorated by the sun. i wake up with energy and with that energy comes lots of anxiety. this is when i start chugging the downer herbal teas (mixes of chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, etc etc). i already feel naturally animated and i don’t crave caffeine let alone want it to fuel any anxious energy. all this to say that i have barely been drinking tea these days. when i do, i am casually brewing some loose leaves in a cup and i am not sitting down for a gong fu session of puer.    this is the time of the year where i try to spend as much time outside as possible. i have less desire to drink tea and when i do, i am looking for something that is not super stimulating, and doesnt require lots of precision.   i have dipped back into trying young unaged puer to see how i like it. since i don’t need a l...

15 iyar 5781   is it even worth it? spending all this time and all this money on drinking tea. not just the cost of drinking through loads of tea to find what i like, but then dropping dough on good tea which can be quite expensive. is it worth all the stress and hunting and agonizing? is it worth the time and money put into the space and special conditions required to store puer. i need a container, and a hygrometer, and some boveda packs and i need to check on the tea like it’s a finicky house plant. and and and…   i am seriously asking. this is not rhetorical. does the amount of enjoyment i get out of drinking puer outweigh all the stress? why cant i be happy with drinking some pretty good affordable tea and smoking good weed? no need for $200 cakes with great qi. top shelf weed has great bang for your buck where i live compared to top shelf tea. bam, here’s some qi for you.   i am writing these all as questions because these are things i am still asking myself. i am s...

9 iyar 5781   to clarify. this is about 2 pricey teas, which doesn’t necessarily mean it is fancy or even above average. this is my first time drinking an expensive puer. im trying not too let any expectations affect this. i only bought a sample, so if it’s just good and not great, im not gonna feel bad about spending the money.   it is from YS who i don’t tend to buy from, but i wanted some decent shou quick so i ordered from their US warehouse and threw on a couple samples.  '   fancy sample number 1: 2003 changtai brown label jingu wild material. this cake costs $300, whoah. so how does it taste? this is definitely a good quality tea but is it $300 good? dry clean storage. a little cooling on roof of mouth. taste lingers a lil bit. have to do short steeps or it can be bitter. brews for 12+ rounds. it is smooth, but not thick or luxurious. lots of stimulating energy and a lil expansive which is nice. i prefer teas that are more calming. so yes, it is a good tea bu...

1 iyar 5781 it is rosh chodesh iyar (the first of the month of iyar). iyar is known for being a month of healing because of the proliferation of herbs that are coming up during this time. the famous sage reb nachman said 'iyar' is an aconym for a phrase form the torah talking about the healing powers present in the world (not trynna get preachy). in honor of iyar, i want to make this post about healing. i try to think of tea as medicine in my life. i try to think of weed in the same way as well as other plants and herbs. yes, tea is a drug, but there is a fine line between drug and medicine (my non-professional opinion is that the difference lies in dosage but that is still a pretty lame definition).    this is something that is especially true during the winter months. i get depressed in the winter. it is the lack of sunlight, the cold, and the more time spent indoors. on a very basic level, my energy goes way down in the winter and it is harder to motivate myself to even do ...

7 adar 5781   after posting all these pictures of snow, i thought i’d share something a bit warmer. here is me pouring tea in my friend’s back yard back from the end of summer in 2020. look how pretty my face is! it’s an aged white tea and it was really nice.      here’s to more sunny tea sharing with friends :)   xoxo, atzei besamim

1 adar 5781   im gonna be doing a few posts today because i am snowed in and might as well. one of the reasons i moved out to the PNW was to get away from the snow and cold, but here it is. i cant go anywhere and it's too cold for me to romp around much. but it does look very pretty especially on the property im on so i will be drinking lots of tea, eating soup/stew and reading a lot. on to the teas. after drinking my puerhshop samples, i am starting to learn how much difference storage makes. these teas were all dry stored and then dry- er  stored in the US in the PS warehouse (kept at room temp but at 45% RH). all 7 of PS teas i drank had a mineral/clay-like aftertaste that came out around steep 4 and held on til the end. i am guessing had to do with the storage. each vendor imparts their own particular storage taste, just like each house has its own unique odor…   i also learned about how my body feels about teas that are only slightly aged. a ...

24 tevet 5781 i don’t care about reviews that wax poetic about the detailed flavors or aromas of teas. i don’t want a play by play description of each infusion and how they compare. is this because i am too impatient? probably. is this because of my disgruntled relationship with the internet and information overload? also probably. i have too many books i need to read and i greatly prefer those than reading off of a screen and scrolling through blog posts (it makes my head hurt). i used to read a lot of food blogs and got very sick of the tired out tropes and back flips people would do to find new ways of describing the same thing. don’t worry, ill get there too and you can roll your eyes at my over use of the phrases ‘faint forest floor aroma’ or ‘reminiscent of the pungent bouquet found in a furry costume rental.’ what i want to write in these pieces is my experience with different teas. i want to share the stories behind them, how i found them, where i got it, what i learned from it...

  21 tevet 5781 after the previous samples ( 1 & 2 ) i tried from, Puerh Shop i was getting pessimistic about the teas and also about my own knowledge of how to distinguish between a tea’s quality and my quality as a tea drinker. thankfully, i liked this sample more.   it is not super flavorful, but has more discernable flavors. there is that familiar puer ‘leathery’ taste, a pleasant smokiness, some mushroom flavor, and some nice earthiness. it also has a little more thickness and coating of the mouth, not much, but more than the previous 7542’s. the listing says it is from the Bulang region so i will have to see if other Bulang cakes share some of these same flavors (ie: earthy and smoky).   the PS website says it was aged in Kunming for 10 years and im guessing this was natural/dry storage. the broth is darker than the 1998 7542 which makes me more confident that the 1998 might not be from 1998 (or it has just been kept in very dry conditions). the pictures don’t ...