Review: Africa I

My first review is a bit of a favourite. African teas get a little overlooked in my opinion, even though they are a staple in most Western blends, providing them with much of their strength. For a long time, most Kenyan loose tea that found its way to us here was the product of CTC production (Crush Tear Curl) which which has a granular appearance. This was good but of late we have been seeing many more large leaf teas along with some very unexpected products such as white tea.

This is a Kenyan tea from the Kosabei estate and has become widely available. I’ve been buying it from High Teas for quite a while now, which I’ve long found to be a reliable and very competitively priced store – to be honest, if the tea I want is there, I tend not to look elsewhere as I’m fairly sure it will be the best price. There is a delivery charge but I usually spend between £30 to £40 at a time, so I don’t really feel an impact from that.

As usual for teas like this, I brew it in a little Tea-For-One teapot, using a steel ball infuser for two or three minutes.

This is a very tasty tea, with a lot of flavour, good strength (though being large leaf, not so strong as to need milk), and is full bodied - somewhere between the Assam malty and the Ceylon tippy. It doesn’t seem like a lot to say about a good tea but sometimes you just want to say: delicious! And that is what it is and one of my favourite breakfast teas, in fact, I can’t think of a better tea to start your day with.

At less that £5 for 100g at High Teas, its a great buy – and if you’re worried about postage, at the moment it is £3.45 flat rate. You will easily spend enough at this store to make that worthwhile.

In short: Highly recommended!

Book Cover Design

I’m a long way from being any kind of artist. In fact I can’t draw for toffee - at least, not without a set square and drawing board (do they still use those in schools?). Any image work I do, I do by the muddle method on a computer – ie I muddle about until I get something that works.

I have a few friends who are writers and self publishing, and while Alex makes a great job of doing his own covers, a couple of others have asked me to help out with that side of things.

The basic method of working is to start with a simple base image from stock, which is then post-worked in an excellent bit of software called Postworkshop (and I can’t recommend this one enough!). I also have Photoshop Elements 8 on my laptop, along with a selection of brushes and backgrounds that have proved very handy indeed (and that’s where I created the images for this blog).

As I’ve said, I won’t claim to be any kind of artist but I like to think that these get the job done and are largely what I have been asked for. I do like to work with a natural media effect, even when working with stock (if only because popular stock images can often become familar when used by many people). Filters (and filter software like Postworkshop) can do an excellent job of it, but I have also been known to over-paint an image in my old Painter IX or Artrage.

It does seem to me that a lot of books, strangely a lot of self published ones that are only intended for sale via the likes of Amazon, Smashwords, or Kobo, very badly fail the thumbnail test. If you are going to sell a book these days, the cover has to be enough to attract the eye as a thumbnail and the title has to be clearly visible. One went so far as to forgo both his own name and the issue title altogether, trusting the series title and images to do the job. Although there is a lot more going on in Robyn's covers, they proved easier for placing her name and title into by keeping the detail bold.

Anywho, Robyn Cain’s Goods By Hand and A Fine Balance are both available to buy now, while Footsteps Of Galatea should be out a little later this year.

I dare say that I may post more of the covers I do here and there, if only to amuse myself and keep the blog going.

As a closing aside, my friend Alex Shaw has now found a publisher - so look out for Cold Black in the coming months with a look.

A Quick Guide to the Reviews

As I’ve stated, this is a blog for people who want to drink tea and who, like most of us, live in a world of limited time, space, and budget. While I enjoy the pleasures of the aesthetic, this is tempered by a dislike of pretence and a growing awareness of orientalism.

I do use a bit of Chinese tea gear but nothing too extensive or that isn’t collectable, nor is it anything that will be difficult to use, clean, or find space for. The methods I use when making the tea for review will not be super precise but timed within reason. For the most part I use a brewing cup known as a gaiwan (which just means lidded cup) to make Chinese tea and I would urge you to consider purchasing one as they are simply a very practical way of making tea – and much easier to clean out than one of those little clay teapots!

To be clear, this is a blog without financial interests in any other business, and should anyone send me tea to review (perhaps wishful thinking on my part) I’ll accept it only on the understanding that I will give an honest review – if I don’t like it, I will say so. However, if I feel that my personal taste is playing a significant part of that, then I’ll be fair and say so.

As I live in the UK, there will be an obvious bias to shopping there, or to overseas sources that are easy for me to shop with. It is not a bias from preference, just one from practicality. I do have a limited budget and so what I buy, when, and from where will to that extent depend upon how much money I have to spare and how much need I have for more tea. As I begin this blog, I have just spent quite a large sum re-stocking and shall begin work reviewing each of these purchases as I have time. Once I’ve worked through them, I’m likely to be in a position to buy more but there may also be a little break.

If there is a weak element of this project it is my photography – I’m not good at it and don’t have a very good camera. Improving the camera would mean money that could go on something I would enjoy more, such as more tea. So for now, I shall have to make do. Perhaps my skill will improve over time but I wouldn’t bank on it.

In judging the value of any given product I really need some kind of standard against which to compare it. The standard that I use is to some extent arbitrary but it suits me and so long as you are aware of it, then you’ll understand what I mean by good value or bad in my reviews.

Prices have changed a lot over the years that I’ve been drinking lose tea but even today I feel that £10 for 100g of a really nice tea is a good price – this is what I would look to pay for a reasonably good 1^st flush Darjeeling or 2^nd Assam and while most places seem to charge more, I can get them at that. I’ll pay more for something that strikes me as particular good but my feeling is that if a tea costs more, then it needs to have some added value above say a really nice Margaret’s Hope.

Of course, a great many really good teas are a lot cheaper than this but it is the ceiling that requires something extra to go beyond.

Tea Making Equipment

I've not really ventured too much into making Japanese teas with any great degree of tradition, so I shall leave this until a later date - I'll either create a new post or edit this one.

For teas brewed using the more familiar Western method, I will be using a small ‘Tea-For-One’ teapot and cup, along with a steel ball infuser (I know, they aren’t ideal but they do fit the small pots!). These are very popular and widely available now. You should be able to find something of quality for about £20. I find them particularly handy at the office and would feel a bit lost without one.

Chinese tea is made in many different ways under many different circumstances, with fairly varied tea ware. As I’ve already suggested, while some methods may be better than others at getting the best out of leaves, there is no single right way to do it.

What concerns me in this blog is making tea in everyday circumstances where time and space are likely to be limited. In my case, this is at my desk at home and at my desk at work. I’m going to suggest a couple of arrangements – the first being my preferred one, the second being a small compromise on that.

With the exception of the flask, all of the tea ware listed can be purchased directly from China thanks to ebay stores – these really are the most cost effective source of items like these and there is some good quality available too. Furthermore, the stores I have purchased from have never stinted on packaging – it doesn’t matter how delicate your wares, they will get to you unbroken.

When reviewing tea for this blog, it will usually be made with the first arrangement...

The gongfu tray is not absolutely essential but it is very, very handy to have. These will usually be a bamboo box with a slotted lid that serves as a work surface so that spilt or discarded water falls through the slots into the box. It is common to discard the first steeping of the leaves (well, it’s really just a wash or blanching), so that alone makes this worth having but if, like me, you are a little messy, then I can’t recommend one enough. It is particularly worth while at a desk with a computer, acting as an additional safeguard against costly accidents.

The one that I use at home is about 25cm by 16cm and about 6cm deep and cost me around £20. Everything bar my flask can fit comfortably onto it, which means it pretty much defines my tea space. If you have space enough for one of these and a flask on your desk, then you’re good to go.

Chinese teas tend to be brewed in small amounts, reusing the leaves a number of times. Because of this, it is handy to have a source of hot water to hand – ideally this would be a small kettle or pot kept warm to the desired temperature. However, life is seldom ideal and so the best solution I have found is a simple Thermos Flask. I suggest that you stick to the Thermos brand as I’ve always been pleased with the quality and how long the water is kept hot, and the twist-and-pour tops are accurate and seldom dribble or drip. You can buy and 375ml flask for about £7 or a 500ml one for £10. The advantage of the 500ml is that you’ll need to make fewer trips to get more water (in principle), however, as you use water, the temperature of what remains is dropping such that you may need to get fresh hot water before the flask is used anyway.

At home I use bottled mineral water boiled in an enamelled kettle that is used for nothing else. At work however, the office has to make do with a heated urn, which is far from ideal but that’s life. If you are in the same situation, you may find that your flask suffers from a build up of lime scale. This is easy to treat: put in a cupful of cider vinegar and top up with hot water, then leave for a few hours before you rinse clean. No more scale.

I honestly find a simple brewing cup, known as a gaiwan, to be the best and most versatile thing to brew my tea in. It is quick and simple to use, and a doddle to clean. Basically it is a simple lidded cup that usually has a saucer – you just add your leaves, pour in the water, cover with the lid and allow to steep. Now you’ve a choice: you can either drink your tea directly from the cup (but remember that the leaves are continuing to steep as you do), or to pour either into a pitcher or to your cup(s).

There are very many designs available, though most keep to the tried and tested traditional shape. For your first, I would suggest a simple white porcelain and for making tea for just yourself, get a small one with a capacity between 80ml to 120ml. The smaller examples can be handled most easily – particularly if you have small hands. The gaiwan that I am using at the moment is actually a red clay with a white ceramic glaze with a 90ml capacity – I find it very comfortable to handle and it costs less than £7.

A pitcher is a handy item to have, as even a small gaiwan will make enough tea for two small cups, so you’ll either need a larger cup or one of these. I’m using a small 120ml capacity glass pitcher which has a double wall rather than a handle and it cost me about £6.

Cups are an obvious bit of kit but a little different from what you might be used to. These small bowls will hold between 20ml to perhaps 60ml at the top end. Around 30-45ml seems more normal. The ones I am using match my gaiwan and a set of four cost a little under £8.

As some teas I will be reviewing come in compacted cakes, you may need a small tea pick or tea knife. I have both but prefer the knife as a rule – about £3 should to the trick. And finally, you may also want to pick up a strainer – again, you get buy cheap ones for £3 that do the job fine.

All told, this arrangement should set you back £60 – but if buying from China, that will include the postage.

If you are little more pushed for space than this or need to be able to clear space quickly, then this might be worth a look. If you aren’t as messy as I am, then you can forego the gongfu tray, and spend your money on just the Thermos and one of these little alternatives to a gaiwan/teapot. There are a few places that sell these, sometimes as teapots, sometimes as gaiwans, and sometimes as quick gongfu makers. Whatever you call them, they are little brewing bowls that will steep enough for one small cup, while the cup sits on top and serves as a lid. I have a couple of these and have had a lot of mileage out of them until I could clear enough space on my desk for a tray and then a while longer until I decided if I could get away with expanding my tea ware without drawing too much attention to it.

The top drawback I think is that they don’t hold the heat all that well at this size, so the longer your steeping time, the colder it’s going to get, which will have an effect on your brew. My advice is that if you do buy one of these, then stick to teas that don’t require too much temperature or too long a steeping time – light greens and whites.

Prices start as little as £8, so you can be in business for as little as £16.

Everything bar the Quick Gongfu Maker was purchased from Dragon Tea House on eBay.

The Quick Gongu Maker was purchased from Royal Tea Bay, again on eBay.

What's it all about?

I am about to turn 42 and finding myself at a low point in my life I realise that I have been there for a very long time now, and in that time I’ve shut down and somewhat isolated myself – it has happened before. I need to start clawing my way back to life, seeing if I can salvage friendships, and perhaps find ways to recover some interest in a world that I just can’t seem to feel a part of anymore.

Strange then that I should find myself entering the blogosphere, a world of networked vanities, where everyone has something to say that they feel to be worth sharing with everyone else. Strange because I don’t really have anything to offer and I long surrendered my remaining ambitions in the interest of survival. It is an unambitious blog then, one without lofty aims on any level, and written for my own amusement rather than yours, whoever you are.

So, I am presenting the world with yet another blog about tea (mostly) – as if the great and vast interweb wasn’t already saturated with them. But perhaps you may find value in my perspective and approach. I’m not interested in ceremony or pretence and personally find rather too much fakery and showiness in what passes for tea culture these days. So much of it rings to me of a modern orientalism which I would prefer to distance myself from.

Take, for example, what is being called the Chinese Tea Ceremony – you’ll find it all over the internet with some elaborate displays and demonstrations on You Tube.

More than twenty years ago, when I was discovering Chinese teas, I was told how to make tea in different ways. One of these, which I now know as gongfu, is rather involved but will help you get the best out of your leaves. The heavily formalised manner and ceremonial pretence we see in this method now is, it seems to me, new; the synthesis of a practical method and romantic fabrication – the sort of thing you might expect a crafty publicist to come up with as part of a marketing strategy.

And let’s not forget the strange snobbery of ‘authenticity’. Honestly, you’d think that all China spends half its day making tea in elaborate tea sets of delicate clay tea ware. Really?

The best reason to use a gongfu tray is to save mess (and I am messy), and the best reason to use a brewing cup (a gaiwan) is that it is easy. Authenticity doesn’t enter into it. In real life, folk don’t weigh out their tea precisely before every brew, they don’t time how long each steeping is unless they have the time and inclination to do so, and they won’t have a dozen little teapots for every type of tea they might drink. If they use a gaiwan, they might well not even pour the tea into another vessel – they can drink right from the cup itself! They might even just put a few leaves into a glass, fill it with water, drink directly from that and top up the water throughout the day.

I’m not saying that full gongfu sets are never used, nor that there aren’t times when all that care and precision isn’t employed, only that China is not any different from the rest of the world in not having time for all of that all of the time and has the same need for other means to make tea – compromises to real life. Think of the full British tea service: of warming the pot, how many teaspoons of leaves, milk first or tea first, lemon or cream, and annoying little cucumber sandwiches with no crust. (Although, dammit, I like the annoying little cucumber sandwiches with no crust!) When many people in other countries think of English tea, that’s what they think of – and certainly not of the usual teabag in a mug with too much milk and sugar to be healthy.

In fact, whatever country you go to, you’ll find many, many ways of making tea. Ask five tea drinkers from the same town the right way to make tea and you will receive five different answers for your trouble. Tea drinkers are as varied and as prolific with their truths as philosophers. None of them is right, none of them is wrong. There is just preference sometimes tempered by convenience.

While this will be a personal blog, the bulk of it will consist of reviews and experiences of tea. You will notice that one of the page headings reads: Handbook – over time, as I add to the blog, so I shall build a handbook to the subject. It won’t be anything overly extensive or authoritative but it may become something useful and then I shall compile it into an ebook for free download. You will also note the heading: Card Games. I happen to enjoy a family of games played with the tarot pack (and tarot cards were created for games – not fortune telling, nor anything occult) and will gradually create a guide to my favourites here.

If this blog does indeed find a readership, then it is my hope that you find something of use and discover something of pleasure.