What i'm drinking now:

6 Summits Oolong, i'm going to pick up a new mac mini later today so be expecting bigger and better posts/pictures soon.

What I'm drinking now: Asbury Park Roastery was finally open! They seemed surprized to have a customer. Got some organic Pai Mu Tan a white tea which is blowing my socks off.

What i'm drinking now:

Gunpowder made with leaves from this morning. Perfect with a sprained ankle.

What i'm drinking now: Very strong Tung Ting. Just leaves and hot water left in a travel mug. It is overbrewed but still pretty good.

What i'm drinking now:Oolong getting me awake + focused in court. Is tea a drug? It does beneficially effect my mood w/ chemicals but w/no negative side effect

1st Iced Tea for the year

I made my first batch of iced tea, Seven Summits with organic strawberries. When it comes to iced tea my rule about adding stuff to tea goes out the window. This tea was pretty simple, just tea, strawberries and sugar. The Seven Summits is a Formosan Oolong from Teavana which is pretty much a middle of the road Tung Ting with a good flowery aroma. I think that a stronger Oolong wouldn't have gone well in a fruited iced tea because you would need more sugar to counter any bitter and loose the flavor of the fruit.

To make it I put 4 or so tablespoons of tea in a top hat strainer, put the strainer in a pitcher and poured the water over the tea into the pitcher. I let it brew for longer than usual (5 minutes or so) throwing the cut strawberries underneath the strainer at about the 3rd minute. I took everything out and put in 4 teaspoons of sugar. I rebrewed the tea in another pot and poured that in to top off the pitcher rather than topping it off with water. The result is concentrated by itself and meant to be drunk over ice.

What i'm drinking now: sweet green iced tea at Fins in Belmar, NJ. I never put sugar in hot green tea, but the southerner in me loves sweet iced tea.

What I'm drinking now: Good tea made under bad conditions. Dragon Well made with microwaved dasani bottled water (it's enhanced w/minerals, ie salt) @ work.

What i'm drinking now:

Tung Ting Oolong out of these amazing little White Castle mugs I got from my dad. I had no idea he had some connection to White Castle.

Metadrinking

I'm not sure how I like the Red Robe I bought the other day but It may be related to sources other than the tea itself.

I hadn't had the Red Robe before and was really looking forward to it. It smelled complex and was highly regarded by the price I paid for it, the shop I bought it from and what I had read about it. I brewed a pot of it yesterday and wasn't really impressed, it had a traditional Oolong flavor (sort of smokey, a little bitter, citrus aftertaste) but the flavor was fairly muted. On subsequent brews more flavor came out but nothing that knocked my socks off. I brewed another pot tonight with some friends and they also seemed nonplus about it. So is it me or the tea?

It could be, a) The tea isn't that great, b) This is an excellent example of Red Robe but I don't like Red Robe, or c) my expectations were too high and that was the cause of the disappointment. I tend to think that it is c) and wonder what it would have been like if I hadn't had any of the preconceptions about the tea prior to tasting it.

Regardless, I cant' be too critical of it as I've brewed two pots in as many days, have been trying to figure it out the entire time and am now blogging about it. I've been going through the same thing with music lately. For example, I heard Neutral Milk Hotel's The Aeroplane Flies High for the first time recently, was completely confused by it and was pretty sure it was terrible. The album couldn't figure out whether it was an acoustic folk album or orchestral rock and went from too lean to too saturated. Now I can't stop listening to it, but I'm still not sure if it is good.

There is something I love about art (and yes, tea is art) that makes you feel uncomfortable and confused but keeps you interested.