Review - Kamjove Tea Maker Revisited

This is a follow-up to this review!

Well, a couple of weeks ago I was invited by a friend to visit her at her daughter’s house in London. Naturally I was not about to go without my teas, so the Kamjove and my nice new little tea cup (which I shall review later) and a small selection of tea travelled with me. I’m fortunate to have known them for a long enough that they tolerate my little foibles.

So, how did it fare? I have to say that I was very pleased – it allowed me to keep making my nice teas while taking up very little space and making very little mess (I hope! At least, nobody complained). Having arrived mid afternoon, and leaving a little later the next day, I would say that this saw about a day’s worth of constant use – at least as much use as it would get over a day at work.

While the mechanism worked just fine – and even rinsing bits of leaves from under the filter wasn’t too hard – where it does have a problem is staining. Clear plastic parts and the filter itself are a magnet for tea stains and because you can’t disassemble it, you’ll have to look to soaking to solve that problem.

I’ve taken a rather old fashioned approach and used bicarbonate of soda. A heaped teaspoon went into the glass jug and then hot water was added though the filter until both the jug and mechanism were full – then I added another teaspoon to the filter chamber. After leaving it to fizz and soak for a few hours I came back and gave everything a good rinse and the parts a light scrub using a toothbrush (a very handy washing-up tool!).

You can see from the before and after pictures that the soak did the trick rather nicely. I doubt that the Kamjove will ever have quite the same gleam as it is did when brand new but this has done the job of making it look and feel clean and presentable again.

If the move to our new office goes ahead as planned, then the Kamjove may have to become a bit of a work horse – I drink a lot of tea – and so it shall probably require that I soak and scrub it this way every night after use. A small price to pay to enjoy my teas though.

Review - Menghai Dayi Golden Needle White Lotus Pu-Ehr Ripe 2012

Well, if I’m going to start looking at some puer teas on this blog, I should start with one that I really like – a lot.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post about the different varieties of puer and I’ll say again here that I really do like ripened puer, though I’m only really starting to explore these teas properly. This one is a solid, popular brand and one of the factories that created the ripening process in the first place – it is also one of the more costly and most subject to counterfeiting. Dragon Tea House has proven a reliable seller for me so far and so I didn’t mind spending out on a few of the big burnt biscuits from them to see what the fuss is all about. Of the two ripened puers from Dayi that I purchased, this was the most expensive at about £35 – however, it is a 357g cake which means that it is within my £10 per 100g quality price point. So it is not as costly as it might first appear and certainly a lot cheaper than some of their other teas.

Buying from Dragon Tea House does have an advantage over some other stores in that they do allow you to buy smaller quantities (either 10g, 100g, or the full 357g cake). So, if you aren’t sure that you want to spend that much in one go, either because of concern over cost or because you are unsure that you will like it, you can pick up 10g and try it out.

It is a rather handsome looking wrapper of cotton paper and on the reverse is the first of Dayi’s security seals with a hologram thread and separating segments.

Inside is an equally handsome looking cake of tea, a rich brown and sweet smelling.

And on the top side, another of Dayi’s security labels, this time embedded in the leaves.

The cake breaks apart easily, which is nice after I’ve had to tackle one or two that seem pressed to the point of fusion. The quality of the leaves is even throughout and there’s not much in the way of twigs and nothing by way of dust.

I have to say that from the first steeping I knew that I would be buying this brand again. This is a very tasty tea indeed and with the balance of flavour that I particularly enjoy in a puer – that is is a pleasant earthy base note with crisp bitter-sweet top notes. I also managed to get a lot of good tea from this.

It is easily worth the money when compared to other puers (and I’ll be posting reviews for quite a few here over the coming weeks – but I shall spread them out a little as I don’t want anyone to think that the blog has such a specific focus) and at a price I consider very reasonable for good quality. I dare say that I’ll be trying to buy another cake of this soon.

You can find this sold at Dragon Tea House

China - Silver Needle from High Teas

First off, I have to apologise for being a little behind it publishing my reviews – life has been catching up with me a little. I still hope to post around one review a week but I guess it was a little ambitious of me to think that I wouldn’t run into obstacles. This time I shall unashamedly blame my netbook and the hassle of cloning and installing a new solid state drive. It took a while but it is now zipping along nicely enough for me to be writing these reviews at work (outside of working hours), as I drink the tea, which should streamline my work-flow considerably.

So, without further ado...

There are two broad varieties of white tea: White Peony and this, my favourite of the two, Silver Needle. Naturally, preference is personal and a lot of folk prefer Peony for its fuller flavour but I have other teas to meet that need.

This example comes from High Teas, one of my favourite web based stores that keeps a good range at competitive prices. At £15.95, this is above my £10 per 100g price point for quality, so by my rules it has to earn that extra cost – I needn’t keep you in suspense about that though, I’ve purchased this many times before and can happily report that I’ll purchase many times in the future for a lot more if need be. This is tasty tea!

Aptly named, when you open the bag you find a downy pillow of long, silvery, feathery needle leaves that have a sweet and melon like aroma that is reflected in the flavour. There is a certain pleasure in pulling a small bundle of leaves away, and this is from the start, a very pretty leaf. For the aesthetes among you, making this tea is all pleasure.

As always, I do a quick wash and let the leaf ‘wake up’ as folk like to say these days, and then I brew this one rather lightly – as with so many teas, how long you brew it depends upon your own preference, so the watchword is always experiment. Brewed lightly though, it has a pale gold colour and a very delicate flavour, faintly sweet with, as mentioned, an almost melon like note to it. It is beautiful but also refreshing, lending itself to be either a keep-you-going through the day as you work tea, or a special relax and unwind at the end of the day tea.

If you are new to Chinese teas, like the idea of green tea but find it a little bitter or as one friend put it, too grassy perhaps, then a white tea like this is a good option for you to try. I cannot recommend this tea enough and High Teas have come through with a good quality example at a price that I’m happy to pay.

You can find it here.