Food and Drinks

We've been using that little red thing that says 42 to keep track of the grind setting on our hand grinder - just thought I'd share since it's been super useful.

I have both and wanted to see what difference there was (if any) between them.

Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/43475/hash-brown-quiche/

Mystery Shou Puerh from White2Tea Club. Small leaves, slight fresh pile taste, it has a bit of mineral rock taste, dried mushrooms, seaweed.

tl;dr: I was raised without any caffeine; the first black coffee I tried nearly made me choke; my wife's espresso-milk drinks never strongly appealed to me; for a few years, if I walked into a coffee shop I wouldn't know what to order or what I liked; but now I adore pour-over and care deeply about making a good cup of coffee. Also, I'm a bit sensitive to caffeine.

They are freaking awesome! You can find the recipe here:

Sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich with ketchup!

#SilentSunday #teaposting @tea

After a week of sinus and respiratory yuck, I can finally smell tea again. Getting back to drinking rock tea with last year's "Cockscomb" (BaiJiGuan, "White Rooster Crest") from White2Tea. "Cockscomb" rock tea is always on the subtle side, but this is a nice one, light but detectable roast, nice body, pleasant flavor.

Pancakes top with peanut butter and syrup along with the best fluffy eggs recipe taken from this book:

The acquisition of my Classic of Chinese Tea¹ book has proved both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing in that it's taught me more about tea in a few weeks than I've learned on my own in the past five years. It's a curse in that I've learned about a lot of rare and unusual teas that are at risk of bankrupting me. Today's photo essay is a photo essay that took almost a month to assemble. After reading about a kind of tea called 六堡茶 (Liùbǎo chá or Liubao tea) that seemed utterly fascinating, being another post-fermented tea like pu'er and the Anhua Golden Flower I'd documented earlier². What made it even more interesting is that it's made in some of the poorest regions of China and thus buying it would help with their economic situation if I buy from them directly, not through middlemen. I thus spent the last half of December looking for a genuine supplier before ordering the tea on New Year's Eve. This time of year, sadly, I can only shoot pictures on weekends, not having enough daylight to do it during the week outside of working hours. Further the weather on Jan. 4th was crap, not giving me the right lighting. The morning of the 5th was also pretty lousy; sun only came out in the late afternoon (and that's not great lighting, as you'll see in the first batch). Which is a problem because I two samples in addition. So a week later, I had two good days on the weekend and was able to finally finish off the photo-essay with proper lighting! This tea is a post-fermented tea like its more famous cousin, pu'er. It has a flavour profile more like "cooked" pu'er but dramatically exceeds the complexity of aged "raw". As usual, the alt text has more information and Mastodon users will have to click through to see all of the photographs. (ALT TEXT NOT YET SUPPLIED) --- ¹ https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/781059348436235503 ² https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/765762989772155971 #茶叶 #中国名茶 #六堡茶 #Tea #ChineseTea #LiubaoTea @[email protected] @[email protected]

all plant-based too

I unwrapped a Xiaguan T8653 cake today. I am unable to determine from where I got this cake at the moment. It was likely pressed in the 2005 to 2007 range.

#teaposting #tea @tea #cha #gongfucha #puer #puerh

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23996112

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake#French-speaking_countries_and_regions

One of my favorite teas to drink when I'm under the weather is this blend of sun dried Yunnan black tea and snow chrysanthemum flowers, called "Drunk on Red". Yunnan Sourcing made this tea for a few years from around 2013 to 2018, but as far as I've seen 2018 was the last year. (They also made a plain version and a version with osmanthus flowers.)

From Pizzeria Due we enjoyed the 50/50 Chicago deep dish pizza! Great atmosphere in that little joint an that pizza was great.

Over the holidays we drove from Saskatchewan to Columbus, Ohio for a wedding. We spent Christmas in Chicago and got to enjoy wet hot Italian beef sandwiches. Wow, they were great! A big thanks to my wife who found the place, Al's #1Beef.

Had a rough, apparently non-COVID, respiratory ailment over the last week, sense of smell still off. Drinking uncomplicated black tea until it returns.

Just seen that, accurate portraying of coffee amateur ☺️

Sourdough bread, thinly sliced prime rib meat, Swiss cheese, bacon and onion aioli, topped with caramelized onions!

I saw this in a flee market and found it simultaneously horrifying and hilarious. I'm curious about how something like this might have come to be?

2024 Chenyuan Hao Bohetang 陳遠號 薄荷塘#tea #茶 #茶道 #puerhtea #shengpuerh #puerhuk @tea

So this is what I have found as a working solution

For @MathieuP a #masteadon thread!As always I will ask for your help with ALT4me and edit the posts once they are described, because I have not been able to configure my phone to add descriptions easily. @tea #teaposting

As I mentioned [yesterday](https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/780726383026738870), when I was doing another search for a bilingual edition of 茶经 (Chájīng or "The Classic of Tea") I had accidentally ordered, because I wasn't paying attention, a book that was called 中国茶经 (Zhōngguó Chájīng or "The Classic of Chinese Tea"). So what's the difference? About 1244 to 1264 years. 中国茶经 intends to be a professional reference that, like 茶经 before it, attempts to document as fully as possible all the current information about tea. It was published in 2024 (instead of ~760-780) and thus covers the millennia and change of development of the tea arts in China. So though it wasn't the book I was seeking at the time, it was the book I needed. This is a hefty, hefty tome (as one of the pictures comparing this to the original 茶经 will illustrate) and I learned more from casually browsing it over a weekend than I learned from 20 years of semi-active seeking of knowledge. Now while the information within it is golden, I do have a few critiques, the chief of which is the translation and editing. The Chinese appears good, solid Chinese text, but the translation is sometimes tortuous in grammar and inaccurate in spalling (sic—an illustration of the kinds of spelling mistake that litters the pages). Reading this is sometimes a bit of a chore, and the occasional lapse of translation from characters to just romanisation without actual translation has had me look up at the Chinese to clarify things. It's not *awful*, but it really did need a better editor (or, you know, maybe an editor at all…). Personally I think, despite the sometimes cringe-worthy editing and translation, this book belongs on the shelf of any aficionado of Chinese tea or anybody interested in a vital part of Chinese culture. Its flaws are minor compared to its joys. --- @[email protected] @[email protected] #茶 #中国茶经 #tea #TheClassicOfChineseTea #book

The last of the first dozen Tong Xin She Rock Oolong is "Yellow Goddess" (Huang Guan Yin). This rock oolong is a cross between two floral/herbal oolong varieties, the very famous "Tie Guan Yin" and the less well known "Huang Pan". As you would expect, the tea character is not far from Tie Guan Yin, but with more rock elements.

Just missing my waffles or pancakes, but this does it in a pinch. Along with hot cup of tea and I love it.

I have been looking for this for literally two decades. 茶经 (Chájīng or "The Classic of Tea", or as this translation has it, "on Tea") is something every tea aficionado who is aware of it wants a copy of. It is the oldest extant treatise on tea covering, in an amazingly small 7000 words, the history, cultivation, production, quality control, and cultural importance of the world's most popular beverage. Indeed I have two copies: a cheap paperback and a really nice bamboo scroll (which features prominently in my tea reviews). But what was always elusive was a good bilingual edition: one where I can read the English and struggle with the paired Chinese. I just never could find a "汉英" (Chinese/English) edition . Until ... well, OK, until mid-December. I found not one, but *two*. I flipped a coin and picked one and a few days later my copy of 中国茶经 arrived. The observant among you will note that this is a different name. Indeed in translation it would be "The Classic of Chinese Tea" or some such. Not "The Classic of Tea". And alarm bells failed to ring. Because it turns out that book is a very modern book (published 2024!) that acts as a sort of update and modernization of the classic work. And after the initial shock and disappointment wore off, I really do like it. I've learned about more teas from that book than I have from 20 years of living in China and sniffing things out manually. But I still wanted the classic work. So I ordered the other one. The one actually titled 茶经. And that's the subject of this photo-essay. As usual, more information in the alt text and Mastodon users will have to click through to see all five pictures. --- @[email protected] @[email protected] #茶 #茶经 #tea #TheClassicOfTea #book

I had a pound and a half of Christmas prime rib left over and throught this would be a perfect way to make use of it.

Growing up these donuts were a new year's tradition. I hadn't had them for decades, so I decided to learn how to make them. They're super easy to make and super delicious. It's a fried donut with a wonderfully crispy outer shell and a soft pillowy interior. They're traditionally topped with warm honey, cinnamon, and chopped walnut (I also toasted the walnuts).

Hypothetical—say you distractedly overbrew @tea (2 minutes instead of 5 seconds) the first steep of raw puer in a 90mL pot, would you:

According to the info on the website, all of these rock oolong teas were roasted to the same "medium/medium-light" roast. So I'm not quite sure what to attribute my perception of differing roast levels to. This Golden Peony (Jin Mu Dan) seems to be a bit darker roast. Cocoa/wood the dominant scent/flavor for me, with some incense in the perfume and aftertaste.

palm reading

I used New Year's Eve leftovers as an excuse to make houskové knedlíky (bread dumplings) from the Czech Republic. I almost felt like I was back in Prague! 🇨🇿🍖

Starting the new year by spilling a big pile of dry black tea on the kitchen table while trying to weigh it. Interesting to taste the Hong Yu Ruby 18 from Mud and Leaves with San Francisco water, after drinking it made with Phoenix, AZ, water. Definitely a clearer expression of the tea.

Happy Old Tea to those who celebrate

2023 Yellow Rose (Huang Mei Gui) rock tea from Tong Xin She Teahouse. Every year I find their Yellow Rose to be a standout tea in the yancha flight. Which is weird, because ostensibly it isn't my favorite yancha style, low oxidation, low roast. It is kind of fruity-incensey this year, very nice.

My default coffee making is to heat milk, add coffee and steep it for a couple of minutes before I sieve it and voila.

#三点几了饮茶先啦 #tea #茶 @tea @Kanpai

Fengqing Golden Needle @tea

Starting new year's week with a reliable and pleasant Sun Dried Yunnan black tea from Mud and Leaves.

So nice to have melony baozhong back in my life!

Back home after the holiday, back to my annual rock tea flight quest. "Mysterious Peony" (2023 Bei Du) from Tong Xin She Teahouse is a medium light roast and medium light oxidation tea. Along with the typical rock tea flavors, I get a touch of coconut. Tropical!

Felt inspired to dig into some older (18 years IIRC) shu.

last of this 2004 xiaguan jiaji tuo

Entire Cornish game hen on a bed of mashed potatoes with gravy drizzled on top next to garlic broiled asparagus and stuffing with mushrooms.

The cake I did for Christmas.

Ordered this from a local spot for our Christmas Eve dinner. Crabs, shrimp, crawfish, mussels, lobster, sausage, potatoes, and corn, all in a buttery garlicky spiced sauce. Happy holidays, y'all!

2024 Spring Mengding Yellow @tea

another birthday @tea indulgence – 15 min room temperature brew of gyokuro

The advantage to bringing all your tea fixings on a trip is you are never surprised by what's available in the hotel or AirBNB. The only question is one of space, tea or clarinet?

Apple, yogurt and honey...

Well this was a very different @tea to what I've been drinking recently. 2019 wild harvest Anhua heicha from #OneRiverTea

and so the shortest day came and the year died

This Taiwanese TGY has a very strong cooling mintiness

Stone Milk rock tea from Tong Xin She Teahouse is a classic and traditional take on the style. Very enjoyable.

#teaposting #tea #cha #gongfucha #puer #puerh @tea

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/775142687162698567

Orchid's Charm (Lan Yun) is another low oxidation and low roast rock tea from Tong Xin She Teahouse. Not as intense a perfume as the previous "Orchid" tea, but quite pleasant, almost a bit Dancong-eaque.

The couple in front of us has been told to come back at 7pm. But - I guess - because my wife speaks Japanese they let us in and just told us that we only have 1.5 hours at the table because it's reserved after that.

#茶颜悦色 青梅乌龙🍵#三点几了饮茶先啦 #tea @tea @Kanpai

青梅乌龙🍵#三点几了饮茶先啦 #tea @tea @Kanpai

#三点几了饮茶先啦 #tea @tea @Kanpai

Broken @tea pot spout – would you:

Fragrant Osmanthus (Dan Gui) from Tong Xin She Teahouse is pleasant scented rock oolong with a fairly light flavor. Not sure I really find it evokes osmanthus strongly, more light incense. But then, osmanthus wasn't much a part of my flavor palette growing up in the Midwestern United States.

2020 Autumn Lao Man E 老曼峨#Tea #茶 #茶道 #puerhtea #shengpuerh #china #farmerleaftea @tea

tea for a full moon