What's in a name -- Act-II

Luciano Pavarotti, has passed on.
This anecdote comes to mind.
Willie Nelson, American country singer .. at the height of his popularity.
Pavarotti, was fast becoming a “popular” celebrity (outside opera)
Pavarotti, the: Hollywood Oscars’ “Music Award” presenter.
In heavly accented English .. he announced "The winner is:
Willie Wilson." with a straight face .. seems not everyone had heard of Mr. Nelson.

What's in a name

Every day I struggle with Chinese pronunciation, admitted, I'm off to a bad start as a native born Scot (strong Ayrshire brogue) who has trouble with "English" (or so they tell me).

Last week I was a little embarrassed when trying to translate my friends name, or at least his family name:
楊 Yang --Mandarin Pinyin: yang2 (Tree: willow, poplar, aspen)

揚 Yang -- Mandarin Pinyin: yang2 (to: scatter, spread, praise)
Take a close look at the Chinese characters .. not a lot of room for mistakes, especially when it was hand written. Naturally I got it wrong .. fortunately another friend corrected me.

Phonetically “Yang” can also be “Lamb” 羊羔 yánggāo
Just an example of the daily pitfalls .. I probably still got something wrong in my explanation.

Tea Shop in Singapore La ..

This just in from our man in Singapore: tea shop located in a major Mall.Service was very bad, as there was no one to serve you tea or trying to find out what you need.

The tea pots were from China and were SGD 350 per set.
Pu Er offered were the inexpensive ones ( SGD25 to SGD30 ) uncooked ones that is only 3 years old. Cooked ones are likewise non matured ones.

Very little to offer and do not know how they will survive.
Perhaps early next year when I visit it will not be there anymore.
By the way..The mall name is:“ Vivo City “ it is next to a Chinese restaurant called “Tian Siaw Er”

A bit of Fun .. Tea in the News(paper)

From The London Times
April 22, 2006
Cabinet chips in for a tea set
The Queen’s 80th birthday present from Tony Blair’s Cabinet was a china tea set made by Spode pottery in Staffordshire, and believed to cost about £1,000.
The 25 Cabinet members are thought to have chipped in a minimum of about £30 each for the set in the Stafford Flowers design — described as “one of the great Spode patterns” with 22-carat gilding. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It was indicated by Buckingham Palace that this was something she wanted and she would value.” Spode said: “The Queen has already got quite a lot from our Stafford Flowers range. The order is for some items she has not already got.”

From The London Times
September 27, 2000
Mowlam on the day I made tea for Clinton
By Melissa Kite
MO MOWLAM treated delegates to a plain-spoken view of the world yesterday.
Addressing a fringe meeting, the former Northern Ireland Secretary said it had been part of the peace process to treat terrorists as human beings. Whether you are republican or loyalist, she said, “you shit, you breathe, you are human — apart from your ideology and belief which causes you to kill people”.
The Cabinet Office Minister, who is leaving the Commons at the next election, said that it was an important part of negotiations to treat everybody as normal and find things in common.
Asked about the report in a biography that during the Northern Ireland talks she had told President Clinton she was just the tea lady, Dr Mowlam said: “I used to do weird things — I would wander around with chips and getting Chinese takeaways; making tea for Clinton was to take the piss out of him.” It had been claimed that she felt sidelined by Tony Blair.
Dr Mowlam said again that her decision to retire was one she had made alone, but admitted it was the hardest she had made.

From The London Times
January 9, 2007
Tea Bagged
Britain's favourite brew is a life-saver, milk or no milk
At last! An end to that age-old quandary: milk first or tea first? The answer could not be simpler: no milk at all! That is the conclusion of German research published in European Heart Journal. It suggests that adding milk to black tea (does anyone but a fool add milk to green tea?) blocks the beverage’s famed cardiovascular benefits by eroding the healthy effects of the flavonoids in tea. .....
But should these new findings dishearten the nearly 80 per cent of Britons who among them drink 165 million cups of tea each day?
Should they stain the reputation of an infusion that Sir Edmund Hillary hailed for providing constant “cheer and vigour” during his ascent of Everest?
Anyone who measures the value of tea primarily as a vehicle for delivering flavonoids and antioxidants is like the cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Samuel Johnson would pour tea down his throat by the bucketful, praising its ability to “amuse the idle, and relax the studious”.
Gladstone was such a devotee that he would fill his hot water bottle with tea to sip in bed at night. In his essay, A Nice Cup of Tea, George Orwell purred about how tea made you feel “wiser, braver and more optimistic”.
The first response to any crisis, whether in Downing Street or The Royle Family, is to put the kettle on. Tony Blair is never without a mug (or indeed one full of tea) when striving to appear a man of the people before a TV camera. ....

Book(s) on Yi Xing Teapots

Just got asked:
silverneedles tea review said...
have you found any detailed books on yixings in English?
Short answer: No .. but still hopeful.
Page One book store, in Taipei 101 has a good selection of tea books with a fair selection in English. I was just there on Aug 13th. but no Yi Xing in English.
Just had a thought .. I'll check out Page One in Kowloon, forgot to look when I was there last week... my bad! Also, my Taiwanese friend, Shawn, is in town.. I'll "press gang" him into helping look ...

Many thx for the question .. you jump started a dormant set of "Gray Cells"

just for Ref:
Back in May, I picked up a great book on Yi Xing (in Chinese) at Shenzhen airport bookstore.
details in this post.
http://chawu.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-on-yixing-tea-pots.html
I've since tried to get a second copy, just to have .. but no luck.

Pinyin and English Misspelling.

Observations prompted by an effort (not by me) to compile a dictionary / translation of; “Chinese Tea Terms”
As China progresses, “English” language printing is omnipresent.
Not only on Tea packaging. (鐵觀音 Tie guan yin) I often see variations for this tea; Ti Guan Yin, Ti Kuan Yin,  Tie Guan Yin & Tieh Kwan Yin.  Couple examples from this afternoon:……  
Tikuanyin ..

Tiekuanyin..

These two examples came from the same retail shop, the carrier bag and tea caddy were printed by same company .. Separate out the fact at Taiwan has a different Pinyin spelling. (closer to English phonetics)
Separate out the misspelled and nonsensical English translations. We see the much publicized efforts to “improve” public signage in Beijing for the upcoming Olympics.
Focus on Chinese Pinyin.
With proliferation, the error rate and misspelling of Pinyin only adds confusion. Small errors greatly magnify the misunderstanding and mispronunciation for non Chinese speakers.
I get a sense that a deep rooted issue/problem is emerging. English as a language is being taught, but I see little evidence that Pinyin is being taught or assimilated by “Joe public” in China. My non scientific data gathering suggests that individuals with some understanding of English are setting up opportunistic businesses, providing services to those that want to augment; packaging / menus etc. to attract / make it easier to sell to foreigners.
Not that English is easy, my (to, too, two) cents.

China its all about the numbers

Da Lang Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.
Chang Ping Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.
Chang Ping and Da Lang are only two of the towns I frequent. By any measure calling them a town is a drastic understatement. Both are growing at a prodigious rate, invalidating any census demographics published.
So what does it all mean Basil?
More Tea Shops .. for the life of me I fail to comprehend the number of tea shops .. 2nd. only to mobile phone stores .. if you don’t count ladies clothing stores …
Typical construction here for retail is mix of retail and living space. Four / Five story building. With ground / 2nd floor as retail with family living space above.
A new expansion development is in process, approx 200 meter frontage, with no less than four (4) new tea shops. This is an area that houses; local factory workers, retail clerks and small family businesses. No draw on business men or resident foreigners. (except me)
My friend, Yong Le, whose family own 40 tea shops in Guangdong province, estimates there are about 200 such shops in Da Lang. Some close quickly, but there is a steady increase in those that make it. One weekend I set out to visit as many shops as possible. I had to stop after 27, these all within a 20/25 min walking radius.
I tried a similar venture in Chang Ping. On my 20min drive from hotel to factory I counted 17 shops. On a 20min walk from the hotel, Matt and I counted 11 more shops. I only had the fortitude to visit nine.
In the month of Aug., two more shops opened, next to each other, in a small street, where vendors mostly sell fruit, along with hawker food stalls.. Oh, and a newly opened Sauna, might be looking for impulse buys from the Sauna patrons.

One highly visible trend, Pu-erh is the predominate tea for sale. Three years ago it was Green / Oolongs with a smattering of Pu-erh. One wholesaler in Shenzhen is now at about 97% Pu-erh. Vs at my estimate, of two years ago it was 50-50.

Taste Bud Overload (Up-Date 9/4 with tasting notes)

These past few days have been a tea tasting cornucopia.
Details of the various Pu-erh teas, are in some inaccessible memory file, 12 in total at 3 shops, all with one thing in common .. none worth purchasing, that is until lucky number 13.
Today, with Shawn and Paulo, we visited my friend Mr. Yang Yong Le:
楊 (Yang- poplar tree -family name) 永 (Yong – Forever) 樂 (Le – happy/cheerful)
at the: Jin Yuan Chun Ming Cha shop in Da Lang town. (Golden Head Water Spring Tea.)
The plan; taste and record comments on 3 Shengpu samples for a Tea Tasting, set up by Half-Dipper and Dragon Tea House. (findings/results included at end of post)Yong Le and Shawn ....
We inspect and evaluate all three samples, dry leaves first.First infusion, first sample (the RED)

The Blue and Green samples wait in line:Despite cell phone picture .. not much colourWet leaves look good, fair size, good composition.
All three have been infused until exhausted.
That done we moved on to Tikuanyin (one of the many pinyin variants) 鐵觀音 Tie guan yin. When buying Oolongs, only buy by taste. These teas are bought for consumption, sooner the better. The variations, season to season, year to year, are such that you must taste, reputation, even “high grade leaves" are no guarantee of “good taste” That said I picked the stores #2 ranked tea (my #1 by taste) and had 500gms packaged into small individual serving sized bags.

Then it was back to Pu-erh.
We sampled a young Shenpu, age wise on a par with the 3 Dragon House teas, but much smoother with a deeper texture and taste.
Then a 5 year old CNNP, this was purchased from a Private collector and the storage condition were first rate. If any one can locate more of this .. contact me or Yong Le at +86 13794971833 .. reward offered.
This was lucky sample #13 . I purchased one cake to try .. if it still works after a couple of weeks .. I know where there a few more just like it.
Reward offered, only if tea is genuine...
Can you spot the wrapper printing/post printing difference?
Speaking of: 鐵觀音 Tie guan yin
Xie Xie ni (thank you) Da Xia.Early this month I visited: Shan Yuan Cha Ye ... Mountain Original Tea Leaf, tea shop in Wuxi.
My friend Da Xia’s dad had just returned with a very high quality Tieguanyin that he personally hand roasted at their Fujian tea plantation.
Again you must taste, before you buy. That day we sampled 4 different teas. I bought 4kg and made presentation packages for friends that I was on my way to meet. I also got a bunch of sample packets.
Back to the hand roasted I mentioned earlier … I just brewed what is simply the BEST TGY I have tasted. .. Not a one timer .. on 3 separate days this tea has come up Aces …. Time to call Da Xia, secure more of this batch, with some luck we can capture the “recipe” and replicate. It will be fun to see if the taste can be replicated with next seasons crop.

Tea Samples: Red, Green, Blue
Sunday, 9/2, myself and a couple of friends set out to review the Dragon tea House samples.
The three samples were dispatched into 3 matching trays for dry leaf inspection.
Red: overall most promising of the 3, pleasing mix of colours. Generally good size leaf. No foreign matter in the mix.
Blue: Compression appeared to be the densest of the 3. Colour is dull. A few stems/twigs in the mix along with a hair sample. (stuff happens) Leaf size is small with loose chop. No redeeming characteristics.
Green: About same colour as Blue but with cleaner tones. Leafs were a miss mach with a high twig count. Strangely I am most interesting to see how it will taste.

We set up for serial infusions, using three matching Gaiwan’s. Allowing the wet leaves to be viewed and compared, in situ so to speak.
Sample Red.
One infusion to clean .. 6 infusions .. 7th infusion exhausted the leaves
Soup; strong yellow/green, but, dull & lifeless colour.
Initial aroma was a citrus that gave way to a sour “cabbage” smell, unpleasant.
Taste: slightly bitter, too young to provide any meaningful indicators. An almost immediate drying of the mouth, with no taste on the tongue.
Wet Leaves: good size and composition well formed, nice green luster, no negative indicators.
Sample Blue.
One infusion to clean .. 5 infusions .. 6th infusion close to exhausting the leaves
Soup colour; slightly less saturated than RED, but showing signs of life.
No distinguishing aroma(s) had to work to pull anything worthy of note.
Taste: smooth and even. too young to provide any meaningful indicators.
Wet Leaves: mixed bag, no distinguishing leaf type. Nice overall colour, with a few dark/brown in the mix.
Sample Green.
One infusion to clean .. 7 infusions .. infusions 8 and 9 failed to yield a drinkable brew.
Soup colour; good, considering young age, with a pleasant translucence.
Pleasing initial aroma, but not lasting.
Taste: again young, but there was a distinctive earthy taste coming through. Strongest of the three, pleasant tongue taste, slight sweetness, with hint of liquorish.
Wet Leaves: some well formed full sized leaves, mostly partial/cut leaves.

Monday, 9/3, with enough tea to support a 2nd round of testing. I set up and ran the gambit of testing … solo in my hotel .. not as much fun as with friends, not to mention the restriction of hardware. All of what we discovered on Sunday, held up on round two.
My ranking:
#1Green, #2 Red, #3 Blue, this to buy for longer term storage.
Dry Leaf grading, #1Red, #2 Green, #3 Blue
Taste: #1 Green, #2 Red, #3 Blue
Wet leaf, #1 Red, #2 Green #3 Blue

As to matching samples with factory of origin .. I lack the comparative data to make a deductive assessment, so a SWAG: RED is Menghai, Blue-Mengyang, Green-Mengku

Robbie and Triton Trumpet

Robbie diving in Hawaii ...

Fabulous under-water footage of a Triton trumpet feeding on a; Crown of Thorns.

Mollusk, Charonia Tritonis: (outer shell)

Starfish, Crown of Thorns: Acanthaster planci
Lunch time in the Pacific ...

Matt: tea source, correct country .. wrong coast

Our family friend Matt, recently returned home to Brisbane, after 4+ years in Japan and China.
So Matt, here is a potential source for tea and tea stuff in Australia.
Located in: Perth-Northbridge. (thinking about it, Dongguan might be closer )
Dragon Tea House
http://www.dragonteahouse.com/
Address:
3/369 William Street, Perth, WA 6003
(next to the William shopping centre)

Tel: 618 - 9228 3305
Mob: 61- 405 591 778
Fax: 618 - 9228 3306
Email: info@dragonteahouse.com

Also a nice review in the; cafe-grendel blog.
http://cafe-grendel.blogspot.com/2007/07/dragon-tea-house.html
Great review makes you want to visit the tea house.

Tea Samples arrive

Great timing, three tea samples arrive to day from: Dragon Tea House. http://stores.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea-House My friend Shawn arrives Sunday.. after lunch .. we'll head over to a local favorite tea house, in near by Da Lang .. (across from: 兩岸, Liang an/C straits Cafe) and see what we can do with the three samples ... thinking about it .. my hotel is kind of crazy on Sunday lunch time .. so probably have lunch in Liang an.

Where to buy ?

Beijing 2008 Olympics Commemorative Cake, 2000 grams.
Last February they had a display of these packages at the:
Taiwan Tea Museum in Ping Lin. (only place I've seen them)
About 30/40 min drive from Taipei city. Can't recall the cost.
Hope this information is useful.

Beijing 2008 Stuff

I try to avoid Olympic collecting, but in February I picked up some commemorative Pu-erh.
Now its drink coasters from Garden Café, don’t let Sherry know.
Athletics, Cycling and Shooting: ..

Side trip to Shenzhen, BaoAn district

Can't believe I almost forgot about last Saturday. Dave, Paulo and I met with: Long Time No See friend, Li Shuling (Jane Li) .. Almost 1 1/2 years since we last worked together now she is getting married in November.
After lunch with Jane, we met up with Niden and it was off to taste some tea at:
Riyuxuan Cha Wen Hua Chuan Bo Co. Ltd.
We sampled about 5/6 Pu-erh teas .. unfortunately, none were good enough to buy. Even tried to cook/brew one tea to pull more flavour out .. didn't work. We made arrangements to return next week .. bring samples of what we like and lets see if they have a match.

Fabulous table: one of 5 set-ups on ground floor of this shop .. mostly wholesale customers. No shortage of pots .. Paolo looks excited :)
Also a new shipment of tables are due in this weekend .. from factory in Fujian !!!!

Long Feng 龍鳳 Dragon and Phoenix

Andrew and Heather, heading out:....Robin enjoys some flower tea in the back yard ....

Sunday in Hong Kong

Between torrential rain storms, I managed to nip into Hong Kong on Sunday. Tucked away in a non tourist part of town there are few tea shops.. wholesalers and retail shops .. some unfortunately closed on Sunday, some only open in afternoon.

This small shop carried a number of Taiwanese tea wares and the obligatory high priced Pu-erh.
As much as I like Hong Kong, when it comes to BUYING tea give me Dongguan every time. The people in HK are great, but you get a lot of tall tails and I just don't feel comfortable buying there.

Great place to eat .. in Kowloon's Harbour City shopping center, 3rd. floor: Rice Paper. (near Page One bookstore) Vietnamese inspired food .. excellent, food was fresh and well prepared.

Sean

Hi Eve here are a couple of Pics for you: Sean made it home .. also managed a haircut and sporting a Watch Cap knitted by Heather.

Tea-house killers launch appeals

This headline caught my attention .. page 3 of South China Morning Post
story by: Fox Yi Hu Aug 22, 2007
NOT a story about tea .. only the location of a crime ..
Five men convicted of an execution-style killing at the Luk Yu Tea House in Central are expected to face court again early next year after they appealed to a higher mainland court.
The hitman, Yang Wen, is seeking to have his death sentence overturned, although he had pleaded guilty and asked the court for the penalty last year.

Former Hong Kong actor Yeung Ka-on, who was jailed for life by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court last month, has lodged an appeal against his conviction to the Guangdong Higher People's Court.
Also appealing either their sentences or convictions are Hong Kong triad boss Lau Yat-yin, former Macau casino manager Tse Bing and former PLA soldier Zhang Zhixin.
Judges from the Guangdong Higher People's Court will go to Shenzhen to hear the appeals as transferring the felons to Guangzhou would be risky and costly, according to sources.
Hong Kong businessman Harry Lam Hon-lit, 54, was shot at point-blank range as he was taking breakfast in the tea house in Stanley Street on November 30, 2002.
A bloodstained jacket and a handgun found in Sheung Wan that day eventually led police to the culprits in a three-year investigation.
Yeung, popular among those who grew up in the golden era of Hong Kong television in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was found to be the mastermind.
The court found that Yeung instructed Lau to plan the killing. Lau offered to pay Tse HK$2 million for the job, although Tse ended up collecting only HK$1.1 million in Macau.
Tse then hired Zhang and Yang, both Hunan natives, for HK$400,000 and arranged for them to come to Hong Kong, the court found. Yang was paid HK$160,000 for executing the plan.
Both Lau and Tse were jailed for life, while Zhang was given 13 years' imprisonment for planning the murder with Yang.
All journalists were barred from the murder trial in Shenzhen last month.
Wu Weiwu, 31, also a Hunan native, received a jail term of three years for arranging a hideout for Zhang and Yang, but was released last month after having already spent that time in custody.
Lam was a director of Digger Holdings and an investor in the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen.

More from Eric Blair .. aka Geroge Orwell ..

Down and Out in Paris and London: First published:January 9, 1933
excerpt: (yes its about tea)
.... The prayers lasted half an hour, and then, after a handshake at the door, we made off.

‘Well,’ said somebody as soon as we were out of hearing, ‘the trouble’s over. I thought them—prayers was never goin’ to end.’
‘You ‘ad your bun,’ said another; ‘you got to pay for it.’
‘Pray for it, you mean. Ah, you don’t get much for nothing.

They can’t even give you a twopenny cup of tea without you go down on you—knees for it.’There were murmurs of agreement.

Evidently the tramps were not grateful for their tea. And yet it was excellent tea, as different from coffee-shop tea as good Bordeaux is from the muck called colonial claret, and we were all glad of it.

I am sure too that it was given in a good spirit, without any intention of humiliating us; so in fairness we ought to have been grateful—still, we were not .....

My own copy is a moderately priced edition from Penguin Books .. a great read, I'm comforted in that we share the experiences through the protection of a turned page ....

Family - and travel plans

What's what with old what's his name ....???

Sean, is home from collage and making plans to visit Yellowstone Nat. Park. (road trip)

Robin (wife) and Heather, are back from Hawaii, and beaching it in So. Cal.
Robin, (friend) just completed his transition to US citizenship.
Matt, is settling back into the Aussie life style in Brisbane.
I've extend my trip, and plan to return on Sep. 12th.
Dave's wife and son came up from Singapore and joined him for a couple of weeks.Saturday, Dave, Paulo and I will have dinner with Jane Li .. almost two years since we last met. Sunday it's into Hong Kong for the day..