Floating Leaves Tea

Most teas undergo an acclimation period after shipping, especially long distances (like when we get new products in from farmers and roasters in Taiwan). This quick episode John and Shiuwen taste a roasted oolong that is in jet lag mode.

In this episode, Noah shares some of his own charcoal roasted oolongs with John, and they compare the raw version with the finished product.

Shiuwen tells the story of how a new tea took some getting used to, and how she approaches unknown variables in tea brewing.


We don’t have any sample available for this episode, but we hope you’ll practice these ideas when you next run into a new tea that doesn’t make sense at first brew.

This episode John brewed a pot of tea for us! This is the first in a series of John brewing, on the other side of the table.

To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can brew this tea (Dong Ding Traditional A, available on our website) and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience.

This episode is all about using smelling cups to explore more deeply into the scent. We also identify the meaning of Cha Qi, and how Cha Qi manifests in the scent.

 

To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39731915817167%5D=1&updates%5B39651322429647%5D=1

Oolong tea does not go bad, but it does go stale if stored improperly, or for a very long time.

In this episode, we taste the same Tie Guanyin oolong tea, one stored properly and one improperly. John and Shiuwen identify the staleness of tea through drinking.

 

To join the class and learn from these episodes, please place an order and leave a comment to let us know you'd like some stale tea to practice with. Otherwise, if you have a bag of tea you've left open for quite some time you can also practice these techniques and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions.

 

Oolong tea does not go bad, but it does go stale if stored improperly or for a very long time. In this episode, Shiuwen offers John a few techniques to smell from the dry leaf if a tea is stale.

 

To join the class and learn from these episodes, please place an order and leave a comment to let us know you'd like some stale tea to practice with. Otherwise, if you have a bag of tea you've left open for quite some time you can us that to practice these techniques and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions.

With higher grade teas, we are looking for more complexity in the scent. Not only how flavorful or how many notes it has, but also where the scent is felt in the body. This episode Shiuwen and John compare two oolongs to isolate the sensation of scent reaching deeper inside of the nostrils.

 

To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651321872591%5D=1&updates%5B40287149392079%5D=1

The Tea : Nantou Four Seasons, Smooth Water Baozhong

This episode Shiuwen and John explore the third main parameter of tea brewing : timing. How long does the water need to sit on the leaves? #NoFear #MakeMistakes

 

To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651320299727%5D=1

(Note : For this episode, any Taiwanese tea from our shop will get the point across.)

The Tea : Ruby 18

This episode we soak four black teas to see if they 'break' or not. A good tea will still show a sense of structure and movement, even if it's brewed to the point of unpleasantness. We are using two of our own black teas and two tea bag teas.

 

To join the class and learn from these videos, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. If you buy these two teas, leave us a message in your order notes and we'll send the teabags for free ;) Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651320201423%5D=1&updates%5B39651320299727%5D=1

 

The Teas : Ruby 18, House Black, 2x Tea Bag from Grocery Store