Poll #2: How Many Brewing Vessels?

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the first poll on MySI! This gave me a lot of insight to several things...

First, it let me know more about my readers. Thanks to all who took the time to comment on the poll post. I did not get an answer directly to my "Do you like polls?" questions, but the number of votes and comments alone let me know that people are okay with sharing their opinions. Again, thank you! I loved reading all of your responses and finding out more about fellow tea-lovers.

Second, I think I may have been a little preemptive about the "weekly" portion of the polls. I thought I wanted a weekly feature on this blog, even though it all works in theory, it would just not work for this particular blog. However, I am glad that I tested it out and saw it for myself. The reason I don't think it would work is because I try to post thorough articles less frequently rather than small, asinine posts frequently. Because of that, I am afraid that this blog would house more surveys than informative articles. Thus, I am removing the "weekly" part of the poll and doing it more at random.

Third, all of the comments to the first poll came from the Tea Trade mirrored blog. I both like and dislike that at the same time. I like that because that means Tea Trade is a good source to link blogs with other tea-peeps, but I don't like that because that means more people are going to the crappy-looking mirrored blog than my original blog... the one I have worked so hard to create. This leaves me with issues to ponder...

Anyways, the tallied results of last week's poll was that a good 50% of the voters said that either a handle or no handle was fine because it was more about the design of the tea cup. Very interesting.

On to the second poll question! There is no set time limit to answer this question... it is just whenever I decide to put up a new question.

How many brewing vessels (teapots, gaiwans, yixing, kyusuu, etc.) do you currently have?

I have a total of 20 brewing vessels. Three matcha bowls, four ceramic gaiwans, one glass gaiwan, one cast iron teapot, two ceramic teapots, two glass teapots, two yixing, four kyusuu, and one gourd. Wow, I didn't realize I had so many. As for one ultimate favorite brewing vessel, I am not sure I can pick. However, I have favorites in each category. For example, my red cast iron teapot and glass gaiwan are two vessels that I reach for more than most.

So, how many do you have? What are some of your favorites? Why?

White August's Camellia Sin (My Happy Place) Review

Type: Herbal
Origin: Not Stated
Price: Free sample (regular price – 16.95 for 50g)
Vendor: White August Tea Company
Brewing Method: Per Instructed - 1 teaspoon of leaves, 1 cup of filtered water, heated to 206°F, steeped for 5-7 minutes
Overall Score: 3.2 out of 5

Based on the description of the tea on the package and on White August's website, this herbal tisane is a blend of chamomile and bananas... at least that is the only ingredients that they mention. However, looking at the dry leaf blend there appears to be more to this tisane than just chamomile and bananas.

The dry blend smells sweet and fruity - kind of a mix of apple and banana aromas. I can find the chamomile flowers and banana pieces, but as for the other stuff... hmm... maybe some lemon grass and rooibos? The chamomile definitely gives the floral aroma, but there is a hint of spice somewhere in there.

The aroma of the steeped tisane is very apple-like. It reminds me of hot apple pie between the sweet fruitiness and the background spice aroma. The liquor is a deep orange color.





The tisane is really hot! I got excited and didn't let it cool enough before I took a sip. Let's try this again. The tisane tastes just like it smells... there is a sweet apple flavor but the banana is hard to find. It tastes very similar to apple cider. It has the flavor profile of rooibos, woody and fruity, so I believe my suspicion of the little red flecks in the dry blend being rooibos is correct. I can see this being a dessert tisane as it is super sweet and the flavor is straight to the point.

Just like with the previous reviews of White August’s teas, I would really appreciate more information. What little is given is nowhere near enough for me. It would at least be nice to know all of the ingredients that are in this herbal blend.

Your Opinion on Polls | Weekly Poll #1: Handles?

I have wanted to have a weekly feature on my blog for quite some time, but couldn’t put my finger on exactly what I wanted to do… until now.

Every Sunday night I will post a new poll that will be located at the top of the right hand column of my blog (See it?). I will also make a blog post giving a back story as to why I chose the question while talking about the results of last week’s poll, as well.

All of this sounds great in theory, but it is not going to work unless you are willing to give your opinion. Are you? I personally like answering polls that interest me. However, I am not sure what everyone else thinks about them. Do you like polls? Do you think they are fun and interesting or does that depend on the question and/or source? Would you like to see that kind of interaction on this blog?

What I have in mind so far is that the polls will be mostly related to tea, but I may go off on a tangent and get a little random. Why not? I am also going to try to stay away from questions like “What kind of tea do you like? Green, White… blah blah blah” and “If you were stuck on an island and could only have one type of tea what would it be? Green, White… blarg blarg blarg” because it seems like tea companies have beaten those poll questions mercilessly into the ground via social media.

Now for the first poll question…

Which do you prefer: tea cups with handles or tea cups without handles?

I personally don’t care if the cup has a handle or not. I pick the tea cup that fancies me at the time. I think if I had to choose between the two I would pick a cup without handles just because I think holding a cup by its handle is uncomfortable. Plus, I get to feel the warmth of the freshly made tea when I wrap my fingers around the cup.

My two favorite cups are in each category. The cup I bought from the World Market a long time ago has a small asymmetrical handle near the rim. I usually stick my index finger through the handle while wrapping the rest of my fingers around the cup. Although, when the tea is really hot, the handle comes in, well, handy. The other favorite of mine is a cup my boyfriend bought me several Christmases ago. It does not sport a handle, but it is the perfect size for when I make tea with a gaiwan.

Tell me what you think! After submitting your answer, you can leave a comment on the poll feature itself or on this blog post.

The poll closes Sunday, July 31st, at 7pm EST.

Intact and Complete

Most of the moving and settling in the new place is done. Moving is always a lot of work, but I found this particular experience to be a lot of fun amongst the blood (damn cardboard cuts!), sweat (90 degrees outside!), and tears (so happy!).

Another note that I am happy to report is that there was no broken teaware during the packing, transporting, and unpacking – thank you news paper and bubble wrap! I put the boxes of teaware in my car instead of the moving truck because I was so worried about my precious pieces.

Anyways, my office/tea room is now set up and complete so the blog posts can resume. Lately, I have been so busy with the new place to be on the computer that some people think I have fallen off the face of the online world. Well… I am back, and yes, I have missed you, too.

Charleston Tea Plantation

On Sunday, May 15th I had the opportunity to visit the only tea plantation in the continental US which is located on Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina near Charleston. This was also the day in which the Charleston Tea Plantation was hosting their 5th annual First Flush Festival.

The gates opened at 11am but we got there around 10:30am to get a good place in line which would insure a good seating spot. Armed with tickets in one hand, a blanket in the other, and my camera bag on my back I waited eagerly for the third party company who was hired to set up and handle parking and tickets to start checking in people.

Finally the time came to hand over my printed tickets to the young guy with the scanner. As he took my tickets I heard him utter “I hope this works” under his breath as he scanned the page. He let out a small sigh when the scanner beeped reassuringly in his hand. We were then ushered over to get paper bracelets so we could come and go as we pleased.

I wasn’t sure what to expect after this because my first complaint about this whole ordeal was that the Charleston Tea Plantation fails to say anything about the First Flush Festival other than when and where it is happening and how to get tickets. That frustrated me because it was only from one single picture of the last year’s event that I knew to bring a blanket (or chair) to sit on. I also had no idea if there was going to be any food or drinks sold at the festival other than them briefly mentioning free tea. It just really bothered me that this is only the 5th annual festival and it seemed like they expected you to know what to expect. It wouldn’t be that hard to give a description about their plans for this event on their website.











Anyways, as we walked away from the check-in booth we saw another ID verification booth off to the side of the path. I was confused about this at first until I realized they were checking ID’s for those over the age of 21 so they could strap a blue Budweiser bracelet around the wrists of beer drinkers. Fine, I thought. This IS a festival, have a beer stand along with the BBQ stand and the taco stand. That’s fine. It’s going to be all about the tea anyways… or so I thought.

I was wrong. The fact that this festival was held on a tea plantation was really the only thing “tea” about this. There were three beer vendors. Three! These were accompanied by only one tea stand which was the place to get free sweetened or unsweetened black iced tea. Further more, I saw a couple of comments on the Charleston Tea Plantation’s Facebook page that said they would like to see more beer vendors at next year’s festival. What? That is like saying, “I want to see more strawberry vendors at the blueberry festival.” It is called the First Flush Festival… it is supposed to be celebrating the first harvest of the year. If you want to drink beer, then go to a damn brewery.

So, we find a place to sit; a nice, cool, shady place amongst a few trees. Before too many people arrived I decide to walk around and take some pictures of the tea and the land. We end up making our way into the store and getting asked to join the factory tour that was about to start. I will have to say this was the best part of the whole visit. Through windows we saw the withering bed, oxidation bed, and sorting area. The aroma alone coming from the factory was worth it. This tour only took about 15 minutes then we exited through the store.

We headed back to our blanket to listen to bands that played on two stages – they switched every 30-45 minutes or so. One five dollar taco and two free cups of tea later, I was bored. The bands were okay… too soft for my kind of music and the plantation was getting crowded by the second. We ended up packing up and leaving around 4:00pm (the festival didn’t end until 8pm) and there wasn’t a bare spot on the lawn; we had to step over people as we were leaving. What’s more, there was still a line of people coming in… and three lines 20 people deep for the beer vendors.

Is the Charleston Tea Plantation worth seeing for a tea aficionado? Yes. Is it worth seeing during the First Flush Festival for a tea aficionado? No. They used the plantation tour bus to haul people from their cars to the check-in booth and, as a result, they were not giving field tours with it. I wasn’t too disappointed not to take a field tour because I’m sure they would just talk about tea information I already knew. Plus, they allowed people to walk anywhere on the plantation while at the festival anyways.

There were way too many people there. The atmosphere of the festival had nothing to do with tea; in fact I think they ruined what little it did have. Three beer vendors? I mean, come on! They could have done so much better. Instead of huge cups of one type of iced tea, why not slightly smaller cups of different types or flavors of tea? Not only would this help sales of the dry leaf stuff they sell in the store, but it would at least make the festival more about tea. For $25 a ticket (and that was the early ticket price) I was disappointed in the festivities… but at least I got a t-shirt.



Just so you know the Charleston Tea Plantation is NOT the only tea plantation in the whole United States… only the continental US. There is the Mauna Kea Tea Plantation on Hilo, Hawaii (the big island).

Making tea with a Keurig

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend invested in a Keurig (the Special Edition Brewing System) for a couple of good reasons. One, his love for coffee eclipses his love for tea and two, he noticed that the long term cost of buying a Keurig would be less than stopping at local coffee shops for the same quality beverage.

He has made several cups of coffee with it using the K-cups and so far he loves it. I am not much of a coffee drinker, but I tried a few different blends and I will say that this shiny little toy isn’t half bad.

Here is where I become skeptical: the Keurig also brews tea. I have watched it make a delicious cup of coffee in under a minute (minus the 3-4 minutes it takes the water to heat up). For coffee, that is pretty cool. However, for tea, there are strict times and temperatures to follow. Tea involves more of a patient steeping process… slightly different than that of coffee.

So, I pulled out the manual (the shopping guide that comes with the brewer is actually thicker than the user manual) and read what it had to say about tea… which isn’t much. The water temperature can be set between 187°F and 192°F in 5° increments. I want to point out that those temperatures aren’t low enough for green tea (should be around 160°F to 180°F) and aren’t high enough for black tea (should be around 195°F to 212°F)… at least for the ideal conditions anyway. However, that is the perfect range for oolongs.

The sample K-cup pack that comes with the brewer has a Celestial Seasonings English Breakfast black tea K-cup. I have been dying to try it out, but I wanted to wait until I had time to sit down and write up this review so I could note my initial thoughts and reactions.

Let’s do this!

So far I am impressed. It took less than a minute and I am holding a cup of black tea that looks and smells just like tea that has been steeped for five minutes. After eagerly taking a sip, I find the flavor severely lacking. I keep sipping, hoping to find something, anything, but all I really get is astringency. It’s flat, very flat. No body, no complexity, no life to this tea. I am sad.

Now I am not sure what to think. I am not very familiar with the Celestial Seasonings brand so I am not sure if the tea is to blame or the machine.

I went back to the machine and plucked the used black tea K-cup from the apparatuses. I ripped back the foil to confirm my suspicions… CTC grade tea leaves – what you would find in a tea bag. What was I expecting? Whole leaf goodness? No, of course not, but at least now I know that it is more plausible to blame the tea than the Keurig.

I am sure this grade of tea is what you will find in all of the tea K-cups because of the fast brewing time. Smaller leaves give you a quicker, but flavorless brew. This proves that you can’t cut corners when it comes to making good tea. The only automatic machine that I know of that makes a great cup of tea is the Breville One Touch Tea Maker.

I guess for now, when it comes to making tea, I will stick with my teapots, kyusus, and gaiwans (oh my!). That is, until I try out the “My K-Cup” accessory.

To be continued…

Image reference links: Keurig, K-cups

Reflecting with Gongfu Cha

The past six months of my life have been one hell of a ride for my normally quaint and boring life.

I bought a brand new car, the boyfriend and I both landed steadier and better paying jobs, we both survived the holidays along with one of the worst flues we have had in a while, and I have been preparing for a vacation and a move this summer. That may not sound like a lot, but after feeling like my life has been in limbo for the past four years (being either unemployed or under employed while still in college) these are major changes taking place.



It is nice that everything is finally changing for the better, but it seems like it is happening all at once. Thus, I am taking some time to slow down and reflect on everything that has happened with a Gongfu Cha session.

Filling and starting the kettle.

I can’t even remember how long it has been since I have spent some quality time with my one and only yixing pot. He is now sitting on my tea table along with my two favorite tasting cups which are accompanied by my pitcher (or fairness cup) and strainer.

The water is ready… just under a boil.

I poured the hot water in the empty yixing pot, replaced the lid, swirled it around and dumped it into the pitcher. I then poured the water from the pitcher to the cups, and then dumped the cups. After pre-heating the tea ware, I filled the yixing pot about 1/3 full of leaves; the tea of choice being the deliciously awesome Bai Lin Gongfu from Canton Tea Company. I rinsed the leaves by pouring hot water into the yixing pot, waiting a few seconds, then pouring the water out. I gave the leaves fresh hot water, let them steep for about 40 seconds, poured this brew into the pitcher, and then into the cups.

Smelling and tasting the sweet, caramel scent and flavor that is Bai Lin made me wonder why I waited so long to sit down for a gongfu cha session. Has my life really been THAT busy?

Let’s see…

I HAD to get a new car. It didn’t really have to get a brand new one, but for me it was the better route to take. This purchase gave me a car payment that I didn’t have with my old car, but it was either that or pay more than what my old car was worth to fix it. I am really not sad to see my old car go because I love my new little wintergreen Chevy Aveo5.

Pouring hot water on the leaves and steeping a second time for 40 seconds.

My boyfriend obtained a well-paying job… which changed everything for us. I can still remember the day he told me he got the job… I felt like we had just won the lottery. A couple of months later I received a better position with slightly better pay which helped us even more. We aren’t millionaires by any means, but at least we are no longer starving and struggling college grads. These opportunities are bitter sweet, though. Neither of our current jobs have anything to do with our college degrees or our long term career goals, but at least it is a start. I finally don’t feel guilty and ashamed for the next three days after impulse-buying a candy bar.

Definitely less astringency and more caramel flavor in the second steep.

I remember 2011 did not start out that great. Both the boyfriend and I had seriously bad flues with fevers, coughing, sneezing, and terrible body aches. On New Years Eve we were in bed by 11pm, incapable of staying up and joining in the festivities. However, starting out the new year like that means it can only get better – and it has!



Heating water for the third steep.

I am currently planning a vacation to Charleston, SC to visit the only tea plantation in the United States. This is something I have wanted to see, but never thought I would be capable of doing it this year. It is exciting, but it is a lot of work planning the week long visit.

The major thing on my mind is the move. After four years of dating, the boyfriend and I finally get to move in together this summer. It has taken us this long because we wanted to secure good, reliable incomes before taking this huge step. This move means that I will be on the road less and have my tea stuff with me more… which also means… you guessed it… more blog posts! I have lived in the same house since I was two years old, so I find each step of the moving process fun and fascinating.

The third steep still has a lot of body to it. Not watery at all.

I think the tea could go on, but I am done. My thirst is quenched and I am out of things to write about. Charles Dickens was right… tea does clear “my muddle of a head.”