An Afternoon (Tea) at the Dove's Nest turned High

I'm sitting at a Starbucks at the moment, sipping on a honey citrus mint tea made with lemonade. The forest fires to the West have brought winds of smoke and it's been a month and half and I'm still sore. Doctor's order, drink lots of tea, yay!

I just came back from the Dove's Nest in Calgary and I am happy to say the Google reviews were not reflecting the service and quality I have seen today.

It's a family business in a nice little square between 14 Street SW and the 90th Ave SW. Not too far off the Heritage Park.

I have been there before, but that was a long time ago and I couldn't remember what my experience had been as I wasn't there alone and couldn't focus entirely on my experience of it.

So, long story short, my spouse and I agreed that we need time off for "me time", so I got this Sunday for myself, he gets tomorrow. After looking up places for Afternoon Tea menus, I found that my only option in Calgary during the summertime was the Dove's Nest, but High Tea (hey I'm not picky, most places will offer the same kind of selection for either). I look up reviews and I see mixed feelings.

Now, I've worked in customer service for YEARS. So I know that one person's interpretation and expectations of a given service can be worlds apart from someone else's - or what's reasonable. I find there is always that one entitled person who wants special treatment and might or might not even mention it to their server and just right out writes a bad review. That's not fair. So I went, hoping for the best.

After kicking my spouse free of my leg, I'm finally in the car and ready to go. Unfortunately, I know I won't make it for 3 pm, that's when they stop doing the High Tea. I thought, maybe if I mention my blog...? But I don't even need to do that.

It's a little past 3 o'clock and I ask nicely and they let me have my High Tea! I just have to mind that they close at 4pm today. Fair enough.
I'm asked if I have any dietary issues or preferences to which I say no, but spy a High Tea tray on a patron's table and tell her no chocolate cake if possible. I know it's weird, but I'm really not a fan of chocolate cakes. Too intense in flavour, I'd rather munch on a chocolate bar.

I'm offered to choose a cup from the cupboard. What a lovely idea! And such marvellous teacups! I take a pansy themed one.

Pansies are my favourite flowers. We got these, but even darker, growing in random spots in my backyard. I remember they used to only grow under the stairs of places I lived as a kid.

They're my special mysterious flowers.

I'm a little stressed (I hope I didn't stress them too) because of personal reasons but soon relax in my chair. I look at the tea menu and notice they have a Darjeeling Castleton. I'm very partial to Castleton. So I ask which flush it is. The waitress, whom I am to assume is one of the daughters of the owner, is unsure. But she is nice and patient and I offer my experience of the tasting profiles of the 1st and 2nd flush and she confirms it's definitely the 2nd one. So far so good, I order it.

Soon, a hot metal pot of tea and milk are brought,

followed by a tray of cakes, a scone with raspberry jam and whipped cream, finger sandwiches and other savoury bites.

I remind them that I did not want chocolate cake and they quickly make the switch for me. Mistakes happen and frankly, I don't blame them as I'm probably the only person in a 10 km radius who dislike chocolate cakes. But for those who do like them, it looked very chocolaty with half an inch of chocolate icing or cream. I'm told it's a brownie square.

I get an extra lemon tart instead.

The waitress asks me if I want to know what's on my tray and I tell her I do. She even wrote me a list, because there's no way I could remember all of those.

Let's start with the sandwiches...

My favourite was the Ham and cheese sandwich. I expected that strong kraft cheese but no, it was better than that. It wasn't too strong and just fit perfectly with the ham salad. The ham part was delicious and had little bits of chopped baby pickles in it. The bread was a mix of white and brown and was very fluffy, it stuck a little bit in my palate. Aside from the last bit, it was really really good.

Ham & Cheese finger sandwich

The Chicken Salad sandwich was the one that impressed me most because I really hate them. (It's the one on the bottom left in the tray) The mix of mayonnaise with chicken makes me nauseous, just the thought makes me nauseous. But not this one! First, they didn't use normal bread, but a cream puff shell instead. I tasted it and it was lightly sweet and puffy.
I think it's a great medium.
The chicken was not mashed, it had texture and celery bits and I'm not sure if it was the celery, but something in it made it taste so fresh. That's the kind of chicken salad sandwiches events should offer. Definitely not your store bought kind!

Then I attacked the Spinach & Swiss quiche (middle of the lower tray). It was still warm and it had a tasty flaky dough. The Swiss cheese was a great choice bringing out a light sharp note. The texture was consistent and for me, that's part of what makes a great quiche.

The Cucumber & Cream Cheese sandwich was not bad, but I felt something was missing (I also edited the picture of the upper part of the lower tray out by mistake because you should never edit when tired). It was creamy and there were enough cucumbers, and some spice sprinkled over the edge. I may be crazy, but I thought I read somewhere that it was a cucumber mint sandwich, so if that was dried mint, its effect was lost as the flavour cannot be released fast enough to impart its taste on the sandwich. I made a mental note and mentioned it to the waitress and lady at the front desk. I proposed fresh mint instead, thinking that it would really make this sandwich more impressive. They seemed interested in the idea, so I'm hoping to come back and see for myself if they make the change. I was offered to talk to the owner but she seemed busy organizing an event (Sounded like a wedding dinner) with customers. I think such comments are better done in private.

The Egg Salad pinwheel was also delicious (bottom right of the lower tray). In its center was a sliced pickle creating a nice dark green circle. The pinwheel was moist and creamy. And well, I'm really a fan of egg sandwiches; I've had many and some were outrageously disgusting - how can someone mess that up?? - but not this one. Truly a beautiful and delectable little pinwheel.

Then I tried the Cheese Teapot cracker. What a cute fitting design. You could tell by the look of the surface texture that this wasn't a crumbling cracker but a flaky one.

Teapot Cheese cracker on a piece of kale

I finished with the Smoked Salmon Mousse tart. It was more creamy whipped. I must prefer the creaminess to the half-air half-product whipped version of mousse. To me, texture is everything. The creaminess was a balm on the tongue and the salmon was very tasty. I've had some smoked salmon mousse in the past and they're not all equal. Often they are even in taste as in, there's a lack of edge. This is a fish. FROM THE OCEAN. This fish tasted like it should; not fishy, just tasty with the right edge of salty ocean.

Smoked Salmon Mousse tart

By then, I was getting full. That came as a surprise as I had only had a bowl of cereals an hour before (which was my breakfast, I got up late, I've been very tired and exhausted lately, plus it's my day off, I do what I want!).

While it isn't the best scone I've had (that one was at the Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, see the 2013 December  3rd entry), but still pretty damn good. I like a fluffy scone as opposed to a too tightly packed one. That scone was a lightly sweet fluff monster and came with a side of raspberry jam - a good choice - and whipped cream. I personally would have preferred Devonshire cream because the whipped cream was mostly air, definitely not enough for such a huge scone and Devonshire cream is more traditional. I think it fits better. Even the jam wasn't enough. I would double the amount or make a smaller scone.

A monster scone

The monster's innards

Whipped cream & Raspberry jam

There are only 2 items left untouched and I'm definitely packing that scone to go.

I took a bite from the Pinkie square and I'm reminded of a pecan sugar pie - albeit not as sweet but very buttery. The top is layered with pink icing. This is a thick solid square that would definitely be filling, so I put the rest aside to enjoy home.

Pinkie square

Lastly, the 2 Lemon tarts. I liked the lightness and crispiness of the cup holding what I fancy is homemade lemon custard topped with whipped cream. The texture is almost completely smooth, sweet and tart. I liked it better than the Pinkie square, but maybe my full stomach is partly to blame as the Lemon tarts were much lighter.

Finally, let's talk about the teas. Their list seemed promising with 92 teas to select from, and as much as I'd like to sample them all, I had to choose one. I'm a little traditional when it comes to tea accompanying savoury bites, so I purposely chose the Darjeeling Castleton. I was however tempted by the Keemun Panda #1. Keemun teas being jammy (currant - blackberries) and naturally sweeter.

They only had white sugar on the table, but when I asked, they brought me honey. I wished I had been told whether my tea was ready to drink when brought, but since I fathomed it hadn't been very long between my order and the teapot being on my table, I waited a few minutes and the tea was to my liking. Ideally, being able to remove the steeped leaves would ensure an even taste, as I've definitely noticed an increase in strength and astringency by the end of my affair.

Overall, I was very satisfied with my experience. It was very positive and the staff was friendly to me. I paid $34.60 for this High Tea which is not too bad. I mean, it IS Calgary where things aren't cheap to start with. And for the amount of homemade sandwiches and other savouries I got, it was a good deal.

So next time you're in Calgary, bring a friend or go alone, it's great, but bear in mind their opening hours so you're not disappointed and you have time to relax and enjoy!

Yunomi Tea Reviews Club - Roasted Tea Leaf Blend with Premium Rice

Wow, it's been a while!

We ran out of mineral filters (actually they put back the minerals in the water) for my reverse osmosis water filtering system and somehow every company around us simply stopped selling them. We finally found some after many months and will order them soon.

That's partly why I started reviewing water bottles, as I had to buy them, but they're so expensive in the long run I just couldn't cup tea on a regular basis with these.

Then, the incredible happened; for the first time in my life, I developed seasonal allergies. My doc said it's the climate changes and this year he has seen a record number of patients coming in with allergies they never had before. I will never belittle the symptoms of allergies again. It's not just the stuffy nose, it's like blocked sinuses all over your face.

Anyhow, I finally received my first sample of tea from the Yunomi Review Club and I'm pretty excited!

The steeping instructions were on the package itself, and since there were no preferences as to the type of vessel used, but knew roasted stems and rice would likely make an impression on a porous surface, I went conservative and chose a small glass teapot a friend of mine bought me last Christmas. It came with those delicious and cute flower tea balls. I'm thinking of making a review about them someday, but not any time soon (sorry!).

And so here were are,

Seikoen Tea Factory's Echigo Boucha Roasted Tea Leaf Stems Blended with Premium Rice

Click here to buy some!

As you can see, the stems are beautiful with a general uniformity, and a fair amount of grilled rice. The rice itself is a nice golden orange colour and looks like it was slowly roasted at a lower temperature for maximum flavour!

The dry leaves have a very pleasant aroma of lightly roasted rice and a nutty sweetness emanating from the stems.

The steeping method used is as follow:

5 grams of tea, 200ml of water at 90°C and 60 seconds steeping time in a glass teapot.

To make sure I had 200ml, and because my family decided to intrude my space work, I used a clean Pyrex measuring cup which I reused as a container for the liquid right after steeping. I made sure the vessels were all at a warm temperature as to not interfere with the taste.

The wet leaves almost smell like roasted pumpkin flesh. It's not strong or pungent, but pleasant. I thought it was a blend of stems at first, but the blend does contain some leaves. Stems range from light to medium brown and bright green while the leaves are broken and mostly dark green. The rice looks like nice little pale orange pupae.

The liquor has an almost peachy, amber hue and is partially cloudy. Roasted coffee beans, roasted rice and sweet wood notes emanated from the hot liquid. There's a certain smoothness detectable in this rising aroma.

1st steeping (一煎目)

Taste is reminiscent of black soybean tea (which I very much like, click here for more info), there's a light astringency that builds up but isn't very intense. There's a sort of light sourness at first that smoothens up, reminding me of Barley tea (Very nice as iced tea in the summer! Click here for more information.). There is a general feeling that this tea is very filling. The liquor is liquid as opposed to oily, and of course nutty with a nice roasted feeling. Even though it seems like it would, I found little to no bitterness to it. The liquor is smooth in the mouth leaving you a little woeful once the cup is empty.

2nd steeping (二煎目)

Taste is sweeter and cereal-like (corn), there is less astringency, and a warmness that fills you up physically and spiritually (hey, that's how I felt!), it had a pleasant roasted nuttiness to it.

I really loved that tea. easily a 4.5/5 rating from me. I love nutty teas and this was fantastic. I've had a few hits or misses genmaicha teas, this one didn't miss.

My only thumb down is that the title is misleading. It's really mostly stems, not leaves.

But if you love genmaicha, or nuttiness (like long-oxidized Oolongs), you will want to try this one out!

Miaoli 1993 - Aged Wulong

This aged Wulong from Miaoli county in Taiwan is offered by the Camellia Sinensis shop in Montreal (also online). They mention that this tea has been "blackened by multiple cooking repeated over the years". Given that this is a 1993 cru, this tea has gone through this process to a maximum of 24 years. Unfortunately, we do not know how many times this has been done. But you can sure taste it!

Here is what they have to say about the flavour profile:

"The scent of burnt wood and carob fragrances the air when rising the leaves. The liquor has a sweet flavour enhanced by notes of candied fruit and molasses. Its earthy accents are nicely complimented by a spicy finish (vanilla), volatile and persistent."

If like me you read this and wondered how something could be both volatile and persistent, I will gladly elaborate on this later, fret not!

The recommended method was of course Gong Fu Cha (since it's a Taiwanese tea). I somehow wrote in my notes Gaiwan (I later checked the website (here) to be sure), but my brain knew better because I did it with the Gong Fu Cha technique anyway. I still tried the Gaiwan way as well.
Turns out the difference between the two techniques is unremarkable.

While I'm waiting for a new mineral cartridge replacement (we thought we still had some, turns out we need to order a new batch), I've been using the ethos water bottles. I feel like such a sold out.

Here are the dry leaves. As you can see they are very dark, obviously from the "blackening".

The dry leaves were small, dark brown bordering black and medium brown, and tightly rolled.

The leaves weren't shiny, but dull due to smoking. Barely any twigs, I only saw one lone twig within 2 grams of the tea, and it could have been part of a leaf.
They gave off a sweet woodsy aroma. Maybe my portion of tea (I got 25g) was too small, maybe my nose is wrong, but I didn't really pick up any smokiness.

The wet leaves revealed that each leaf is indeed one very long one. I originally thought that I would be seeing a set of two or three, but nope, it's single ones with some having a twiggy end.

The smokiness was very easy to spot then, smelling of burnt wood. There was indeed some carob, if my memory serves me right it never really smelled like chocolate, but rather more woodsy or earthy. When I smelled it, I felt like carob was right. I also got the aroma of fresh brown bread (the type that's commercially sold), which is what I imagine malt to smell like. Very shiny leaves of dark-reddish brown.

First Steeping: 2 teaspoons (I measured 2 grams), 95°C, 100ml of water and rinsing
Method used: Gong Fu Cha

Recommended time: 15 to 25 seconds, so I took 21.

This is what the first infusion looked like. From my perspective, it was rather peach-light amber coloured.
Sweet woodsy notes with honey lebkuchen (the ones that don't overdo it with clove). If lebkuchen is a long stretch for you, I guess a honey brioche could work too.

Lastly, a comforting bread crust and toasted hazelnut aroma.

First Taste: Mild at first but mouth-filling. Warm like fresh bread, and with notes of brown sugar (which contains molasses). Mild astringency and frankly a little watery. There was a short lived woodsiness like smoked drywood (Anyone ever had a Charcoal Ali Shan?), hence the volatile part as in the Camellia Sinensis description. It ended in a spicy finish closer to a chili kick than vanilla. After a few cups of this tea, I coughed a little. I had someone else try it and they too found it a little spicy and coughed. It's not bad, but does surprise. This is where it gets persistent (chili) and just layers up cup after cup, and the asperity as well, as tannins develop over time.

Second Steeping:
Recommended time: 10 to 20 seconds, so I chose 16.

Liquor: Yellow pale ale colour (I mean the beer) with a woodsy smell.

Second Taste: Still a little watery, but smoother, more rounded and even in taste. Woodsy charcoal notes and I'd ever dare say gammy like leather with a light honey lebkuchen. And again the chili finish almost reminding me of how sharp and spicy freshly grated ginger feels like. At that point, I was arguing in my head whether it felt more like fresh ginger or chili powder.

Third Steeping:
Recommended time: 20 to 35 seconds so I took 31.

Liquor: About the same colour as the 2nd steeping but with a slightly lighter hue and a woodsy aroma.

Third Taste: Even in taste with a mild astringency. Pretty much the same notes as the 2nd steeping but milder and less spicy. Still a little watery.

My score is 3 stars our of 5.Simply because the description was so much more promising than I felt it delivered. In terms of smoked wulong, the Charcoal Ali Shan still remains my favourite. Next time I get a hold of it, I'll make a review.

Also, since I found it a little watery -- and thought maybe the dosage was wrong -- I tried doubling the amount of tea and found it yielded a more rounded cup with a little tannin and a welcoming warmth. It was also less spicy with a stronger roasted coffee taste. That one would have gotten close to a 4 star rating!

I know I'm not consistent in my review postings, but I swear days are not 24 hours but more like only 10! I get so frustrated trying to get things done and practically have to yell to everyone to leave me alone as I've been trying to do this post for a week now.

Hopefully sooner than later~ See ya!

Water testing for the love of TEA! (with Gyokuro Tamahomare)

Oh boy, that was quite the episode!

I have tested 7 water sources for you guys, one of which many of you won't be able to access: my tap water.

Nonetheless, I have tested Gyokuro Tamahomare, as promised, with all 7 water sources except one. I ran out of tea and had to make a decision. While the base statistics of my home-filtered reverse osmosis water will be included, I decided to exclude the version without added minerals in view of my decreased tea supply -- I already know it doesn't taste as good as the one with added minerals. I also found out that my home filtering system might need to be changed soon as TDS should have shown lower than 55. Last filter change gave us 34. Oh well, nothing is ever perfect.

(By the way you can purchase Gyokuro Tamahomare here!)

Here are the contenders (it's lots of data, so you may skip further down if you will):

My own Rocky View County tap water, my filtered (reverse-osmosis) tap water, the same water with added minerals (it's an attached filter that sends good minerals back into the water, a must if I don't want to spend a fortune on bottled water), the famed ethos water from Starbucks, flow water (Canadian product) which comes in a box, the mysterious Fiji water and the neurogenesis Happy water by Live Happy (also Canadian).

Back (from left to right): ethos, flow, Fiji & Happy water
Front (from left to right): Tap, filtered, filtered with added minerals water

Before I read out the stats, here's extra info that I got from the bottles and websites:

Fiji 

Source from Yaqara, Viti Levu, Fiji Islands

data:

"Earth finest water" (claim)
Typical analysis in p.p.m.:
Nitrates: 0.27

Calcium: 18

Arsenic: 0 (good, right?)

Chlorides (Cl-): 9

Sodium: 18

Lead: 0

Silica: 93

Copper: 0
Zinc: 0
pH: 7.7 (pure water is said to be at 7 pH)

Bicarbonates (HCO³): 152

Potassium: 5
Sulfates (SO4): 1

Fluoride Ions: 0.24

Dissolved mineral salts: 222

Live Happy water 

data:
Lithia water, naturally alcaline. Blend of spring water & mineral water. Said to be sourced from two ancient mountain springs (Halcyon Spring & Mount Woodside Spring, BC, Canada). They claim that the lithium is good for mood symptoms (such as depression). Whether or not lithium salts in water is properly backed with scientific research, I did not seek to verify further than a few websites saying the tests were on hold.

p.p.m. Analysis:
Potassium: 2.0
Calcium: 21.5
Magnesium: 4.3
Fluoride: 1.4

Lithium (I think they mean Lithium salts): 0.1
pH: 7.4 (closer to purer water)

Ingredients: Spring & Mineral water, ozone

flow water

Source from Mildmay, Ontario

data:
Naturally alkaline spring water, high pH.
"Natural Eletrolytes, Essential minerals." (claim)

"Our water is nurtured for thousands of years in a limestone aquifer where it naturally collects essential minerals, electrolytes and an alkaline pH." (claim)
The claim behind the higher pH is "to offset modern acidic diets and electrolytes to keep the body more hydrated"

This really was on the bottle:
Nutrition Facts per 500ml (% is Daily Value)
Calories: 0
Fat: 0g | 0%
Sodium: 4mg | 1%

Carbohydrates: 0g | 0%

Protein: 0g

Calcium: 4% (the really useful information is in percentage!)
Well, if my calculations are correct, Calcium should be 44mg ((44mg / 1100 mg) * 100 = 4, source: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/nutrients/calcium.html)

Mineral salt content: 353 mg/L

p.p.m.
Magnesium: 29

Calcium: 73 (this is where I wonder how they got their 4%... Someone correct me here!)

Potassium: 2

Sodium: 8
Nitrate as Nitrogen (No3-N): 5
Chlorides (I'm assuming it is Chlorides and not Chlorine... (Cl)): 15
Arsenic: 0
Copper: 0
Fluoride: 0.112 (I like how precise this is)
Lead: 0
Zinc: 0
Bicarbonates (HCO³): 298
Sulfates (SO4): 11.1

pH: 8.1

ethos water - Starbucks

Source from Lafayette Spring, Lafayette TWP, WI 54729, USA

And that's ALL. Seriously.
This website seems to imply that it's pure H²O (fooducate website)
Another more serious source (http://www.ewg.org/) says there is no available data online regarding the content of that water. It's like gambling, right? I just hope that if there are harmful substances in there that some authorities (FDA?) would have already warned us. So for now, I'm assuming it's just filtered tap water from the USA.

My tap water
Source from waterworks of Langdon, Rocky View County, Canada (I guess it comes from the Rocky mountains and down to us, picking up lots of minerals along the way)

I got the chart with me directly from the waterworks! I will include the Canadian drinking water guideline maximum when such a guideline is defined for certain minerals and such. If there isn't a maximum included, that's because there is no guideline for it.

Calcium: 22.4

Iron (dissolved): <0.03 (max 0.3)

Magnesium: 21.5

Manganese, dissolved:  <0.01 (max 0.05)

Potassium: 1.2

Sodium: 132 (max 200)

Bicarbonates (HCO³): 216

Bromides:  <0.01

Carbonates: 0

Chlorides: 7.9 (max 250)

Fluorides: 0.10 (max 1.5)

Nitrates as Nitrogen: <0.02 (max 10)

Nitrites as Nitrogen: <0.02 (max 1)

Nitrates + Nitrites as Nitrogen: <0.02

Sulfates (SO4): 229 (max 500)

pH: 8.05

Hardness as CACO³: 144 (but we have a water softener. I talked on the phone with someone from the waterworks and they believe that it's mainly the hardness that is going to be affected. My water softener is salt based.)

Total dissolved solids (calculated): 520 (max 500. Wait... a minute...)

Ammonia Nitrogen: <0.9

Chloramines: 0.3 (max 3)

Bromate: <0.010 (max 0.1, well, limit reached, huh?)

***Now the fun and creepy facts about our tap water (and maybe yours!). Given... they are in micrograms (µg/L). That means the amount is very tiny. (what have I done...)

Boron: 158 (max 5000)

Aluminum: 1.6 (max 100)

Chromium: 0.6 (max 50)

Copper : 15.5 (max 1000)

Zinc: 19.8 (5000)

Arsenic : 0.1 (max 10)

Selenium: 0.5 (max 10)

Silver: 0.3

Cadmium: <0.5 (max 5)

Antimony: <0.3 (max 6)

Barium: 2.8 (max 1000)

Mercury: <0.05 (max 1)

Lead: 0.4 (max 10)

Uranium: 2.4 (20)

Doesn't that make you feel comfortable drinking it and giving it to the neighbour's kids? Water filtering systems should be given to all houses for free, then we make a new research on life improvement in Canada versus the people in the USA without a filtering system and no frequent water bottle purchases. Who's with me?

Now that the extensive list of our water specimen contents is out of the way, we can concentrate on those results I got from my water testing kit. Now, take into consideration that I do not have professional equipment at home that enables me to measure as accurately as the flow water reading of Fluoride (0.112). I wish, though. I welcome any free kits! I will test any water (purchase them myself too) if I get supplied with professional water testing kits!

Side note, pure water is supposed to be at 7.0 pH.

Water Testing
Water Source	TDS p.p.m.	Brome 0 - 20	Free Chlorine (ions) 0 - 10	Alkalini-ty 0 - 240	pH between 6.2 - 8.4	Hardness 0 - 1000
Tap	479	<1 (0 or close)	<0.50 (0 or close)	240	8.4	0 (softened)
Filtered	55	<1 (0 or close)	<0.50 (0 or close)	40	~7.5	0
Filtered + minerals	70	<1 (0 or close)	<0.50 (0 or close)	~65	~7	~75
ethos	91	<1 (0 or close)	<0.50 (0 or close)	0	~6.6	~10
flow	262	<1 (0 or close)	<.50 (0 or close)	~220	~8.2	250
Fiji	135	<1 (0 or close)	<0.50 (0 or close)	~160	~8.1	100
Happy	138	<1 (0 or close)	<0.50 (0 or close)	~20	~7.7	180

After compiling data and tasting each infusion, I found that the Happy water and ethos water gave the best tea taste. This was really disappointing as they were the ones with little released info. However, I did find a link between alkalinity and tea taste. It seems that the lower the alkalinity, the better the taste. While alkaline water may be good for you to drink, it plays poorly when making tea. 

Both waters had very different hardness levels, and the pH values differed by 1.2. I wish I had more information on Potassium and Magnesium for the ethos water to compare against Happy's. Maybe Happy's added ozone did the trick?

Next is the tea tasting portion.

As mentioned, I used Gyokuro Tamahomare for the tests. If you have heard of this tea (or not) you may wonder why this specific one as it is quite expensive. I have many reasons...

This particular gyokuro is of incredible quality and fantastic in terms of taste. Prepared by the Camellia Sinensis in Montreal, I have not found its equivalent. It transports me on the salty shores of the sea where a fresh wind comes down the nearby mountain, only to melt into the rolling waves full of green seaweeds.
Being such a refine product and knowing it well enough, I figured it would do well pitted against the best and worst water sources I had to offer. And it did not disappoint.

The method used was the zhong (Gaiwan), water at 70°C, 5g and steeped for 30 seconds. The only exception is the tap water. I used about 1.7g and decreased the water amount. In terms of proportions, I believe I calculated right, but you'll see what happened to the taste...

Filtered water with minerals

Colour: 

Clear & shiny

Algae green with some yellow

Smell:

Buttery with cooked vegetables

Taste:

Smooth, oily (coats the mouth)

Almost no astringency

Buttery

Mussels

Rating: Good

ethos water

Colour: 

A little cloudy but shiny

Almost peach-like green

Smell:

Buttery
Cooked asparagus

Taste:

You get attacked by the sweetness of it!
It has more life and vivacity than any other tested teas

Even less astringency than the filtered + minerals water tea

Rounder than filtered + minerals water tea

Less mussels, more seaweed

Rating: Great

flow water

Colour: 

Very cloudy but shiny

Peach-yellow with light green

Smell:

Light buttery aroma like it has been muted a little

Sweetness (unknown)

Taste:

More watery than previous tested teas, less bodied

Buttery with sweetness

Mild astringency

Marine

Slight mineral after taste

Rating: Not so good

Fiji water

Colour: 

Clear & shiny

Peachy light green

Smell:

Buttery, with a light chocolate richness to it

Light cooked asparagus aroma

Taste:

Sweet and marine

Mild astringency

Less bodied

Flowing, less oily (as in viscosity is lower)

Light seaweed

Rating: Not so good

(Live) Happy water

Colour: 

Slightly cloudy but shiny

Light yellow-peach green

Smell:

Light buttery aroma with light chocolate richness

Had this powdery dry sencha smell

Light cooked asparagus aroma

Pineapple juice (I was shocked, but yes. Especially near the finish when my nose was a little higher in the cup.)

Taste:

Tasty (I know it's not descriptive, but I felt it was a very full-flavoured tea) and sweet

Some astringency

Not oily

Marine with light mussels

Rating: Great

Tap water

Colour: 

Strong yellow-peach with green tinge

Smell:

Chlorine

Marine

Taste:

Like a sweet sour dish on steroids

Unpleasant like being forced to ingest a cleaning agent

Metallic

Some astringency

Brown paper

Extra: Please don't make me do this again. Oh please please please!

Rating: Bad


Conclusions? Don't use tap water for your tea, that's why you don't like tea.

Filtered water with added minerals was a cheaper alternative. And unfortunately, ethos and Happy don't seem to like people knowing what's in there.

My thinking is that potassium has an effect on the taste of the tea. Maybe one day I will experiment with my own filtered (+ minerals) water with added potassium and compare. Hopefully, the local grocery store will get new water bottles to test.

Lastly, in terms of oiliness (which I enjoyed), I have 3 potential culprits. Either a lower TDS, lower Hardness or higher magnesium content is responsible. I'm betting on the last two. I personally don't think TDS offers much information that would affect the oiliness of tea. Hardness makes a lot of a sense and magnesium is simply an element I'm not familiar enough with to know. But they do sell some at the grocery store! Test test test!

It was fun and even if it was a lot of work, I did enjoy it greatly. Except the tap water tea.

NEVER. AGAIN.

Premium Yuki Hōjicha - Roasted green tea review

So I bought this Premium Yuki Hōjicha from MATSU KAZE at the Calgary's Japanese festival.

I also recently found our TDS metre (Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of a solution). Why do we have that at home and why should it matter? It probably doesn't matter to most of you. But we live near the mountains and the water is pretty hard here. So we have our own reverse osmosis filter system for drinking and boiling water. I will have none of that scaling in my kettle!

As you may or may not know, perfect (or near perfect) H²O is not the best medium for tea making. Tea needs minerals to develop in flavour during the steeping process. Not too much, but enough. For that reason, I have a mineral package which sends back some good minerals in my water at the turn of 2 switches. I seldom record how much of the particles are found in my re-mineralized drinking water. We moved recently so for a time, this little metre was lost. Before I did this tea cupping, I recorded a TDS record of 86. I guess the old filers were due as I'd normally see 34-ish. 86 is preh-tty good! I'm expecting my next experiences will be more interesting from now on. Until I need to change my mineral filter again. Next time, I want to try a gyokuro with my mineralized water vs something like Fiji bottled water.

So here's the round-up of December 2016's tea cupping (we went on surprise vacation! YAY! Shoddy internet access, more connection with me. That was nice). I included the frosty cup's liquor colour shots since it came out differently and we don't all use the same vessels. Gives you variety.

Dry leaf: Twiggy medium brown and dark camo green leaves, some lighter brown (straw) were seen on the twigs. The length of said twiggy leaves was approximately 2 to 2 ½ cm. They were dry and brittle, but they didn't seem "old" to me. I support this because of the nice nutty aroma with light but rich mocha coffee grounds notes, as well as dry wood (good ol' bark), damp soil earthiness and caramelized apple finish.

Recommended steeping method:
Amount: 3g
Water: 120-130 ml
Temperature: 90-100°C
Time: 30 seconds

1st steeping:
(Senchado)

Liquor: Had a peach/dark orange colour reminding me of ochre but peachier. Some dust was found at the bottom of my cup but the liquid looked clear, shiny and I'd even say silky. It had smooth rich mocha notes with toasted chestnuts and a sweetness reminiscent of beeswax (a little honeyed). I caught some light damp soil earthiness we had with the dry leaves and maybe a slight hint of leather.

1st Steeping - In a white cup

1st Steeping - In a frosted translucent cup

Taste: A good astringency to it that wasn't overwhelming (it was in good taste, haha), strong-bodied with toasted chestnuts coming back as flavours as well, the beeswax and the leather I thought I caught a whiff of earlier.

Wet leaves: They smelled SO STRONGLY! Gamy and leathery with raisins, wet wood (think driftwood) and damp leaves. Obviously, these are damp leaves, I'm thinking about those found on the forest floor after a light rain. Then the colours were medium to dark green to same spectrum brown. They were shiny like I think good leaves should look like when wet.

Then I did a second steeping!

I lowered the temperature to 90°C, Kept the same tea leaves as I always do for subsequent steepings, went for approximately 120 ml and another 30 seconds. Same senchado method.

The liquor had the same colour as the first steeping, but the notes of toasted chestnuts, leather and beeswax came out as stronger this time.

2nd Steeping - In a white cup

2nd Steeping - In a frosted translucent cup

The taste became slightly less astringent, the texture more mellow and rounded, structured bodied and more flowing.

I really enjoyed this second steeping.

Next time I will test the waters and see where the differences lie! I will arm myself with the TDS meter!