Smiling Fox Tea

Tea Haul from Yunnan Sourcing!

Updates.... Smiling Fox Tea is slightly delayed on two fronts. One is that I discovered that I don't have an acceptable scanner for legal documents and I'm budgeting to buy an acceptable scanner next month. The other delay is in development of tea blends. My experiments with cherry blossoms have failed and I'm on the hunt for traditional Japanese flowers to use in tea. I'm considering trying out peony or chrysanthemum. Suggestions are welcome.

I just started reading this book and while it's a little more advanced than the previous book, it's got a lovely chapter on water quality.

I need this basket to have tea picnics because I go on so many picnics (rarely).

Toast analyzed transactions on the Toast platform from April 2023, to March 2024 to determine the popularity of tea vs. coffee.

The results show a divide between the Northeast, which mostly favors coffee, and much of the South and Southwest, which prefers tea.

I finally found a tea container that meets my needs. Opaque to protect from light which degrades tea. Not plastic because no one wants tea that smells/tastes of plastic. A good seal to keep the tea as fresh as possible. Finally, it's large enough to hold up to 128oz of tea for my future business.

Pictures from Tea Sommelier A Step-By-Step Guide

So I've been using the term aroma incorrectly, I thought it was just the fancy (French) term for smell or scent, but now I know better.

In fact, I'm probably going to be playing around with smelling tea and trying out these exercises the next few days. It's always fun to learn something new.

Today's tea is the kabusecha from Shizuoka Teas. I brewed this at 140F for about 2 minutes, maybe less.

I confess I was so wrapped up in photographing and tasting the tea that I forgot to note the smell/aroma or flavor. So I did a second infusion at the same temperature, but for about a minute.

I can't say I picked up much smell, a faint trace of deep green leafiness.

The flavor was robustly leafy and fresh like baby spinach with an underlying sweetness and a very faint hint of brine.

Overall, very pleasant. I'm going to be sad when I run out of this tea, but then I'll try some other kabusecha teas and find a new favorite.

I’ve always fancied trying sakura tea, so I was thrilled to get this when I had the chance. I am slightly suspicious of the directions. The directions and the ingredient list says these are blossoms preserved in salt and plum vinegar. The label on the front says these are sweet and packed in sugar. I checked and they were packed in sugar.
The directions say to pour hot water over a single blossom per cup. I’m going to be bold and use two blossoms in my gaiwan. Then it says to pour off the “salty” water, pour fresh hot water, and add in the “salty” water to taste.
I did as instructed and the blossoms opened nicely, but there was not much flavor I tried the “salty” water and that didn't taste of anything either.
I’m going to take several blossoms and just drop them in to steep in my cup for a few minutes. Still tastes like water and nothing else. I’m not even picking up trace amounts of the sugar. Also, the new blossoms didn’t open like the first ones.
In a last-ditch effort to extract some flavor or color or anything, I reheated the water. Put fresh blossoms in the gaiwan with the leftover blossoms from previous attempts. Letting that steep for a few minutes. No joy. Still tastes like water.

Let me know if you have ideas about what I'm doing wrong.

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be attending the San Francisco International Tea Festival in November (2nd and 3rd). I'm not sure which day I'll be going, but I'll definitely be there. Unlike the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, this is very affordable. Right now there's a tentative plan to catch the ferry since the festival is in the ferry building and save on dealing with traffic and parking fees. Probably going to make a day of it and have lunch and possibly dinner in SF before heading home. Let me know if you want to meet up or tag along.

I got a bunch of tea I ordered earlier in the month and now have the enjoyable task of organizing it and planning my next few blending experiments.

I just finished reading Tea Sommelier A Step-By-Step Guide and found it very thorough. While I have no intention of becoming a sommelier, this guide was extremely helpful in explaining pretty much everything about tea. It's very approachable for the complete newbie to tea and a handy reference for most experts. Everything is broken down into one-page lessons and there's an easy table of contents if you just want to look something up quickly.

For the first time, I remembered to take pictures of my cold brew before, after, and during. This week's cold brew is Gyokuro Okabe Premium from Shizuoka Tea. To cold brew tea, you pick a tea, add water, and let sit for 8 hours to a day in the refrigerator. Cold brewing eliminates most of the bitterness and all the astringency from a tea.

An enjoyable tea on a hot day, though my roommate felt it would be better with some cucumber. It's got that almost oily mouthfeel and an abundance of sweetness. Some nice crisp cucumber slices might be a nice addition. I'll have to try that next time.

I've been eyeballing those professional tea-tasting cups on Amazon for a while, but many other things take priority. I'd love to have three or four sets so I could do better side-by-side comparisons of the ingredients for my blends.

Tea is not dehydrating. Tea has caffeine in it which does act as a diuretic (it makes you p*e more), but studies have shown that tea, drunk in moderation, is about as hydrating as plain water. As for why many people feel thirstier after drinking tea, the tannins can bind to the proteins in your saliva causing it to thicken and reduce saliva production. You haven't dehydrated, you’re just not producing as much saliva.

I've come to realize there are numerous vanilla beans out there. Ugandan, Madagascar, Hawaiian, Mexican, etc.

Does anyone have experience with one or more varieties of vanilla beans?

Earl Grey ingredients; I'm trying out resting the tea with dried bergamot p*els in a sealed container. I may add chopped bergamot p*els to the final mix. I'm unsure at this point.

Yellow tea is a rare type of tea with a subtle, delicate flavor profile. Its unique processing method, which eliminates the grassy taste of green tea, results in a sweeter, milder taste with a distinctly yellow hue. Harvested in April, it has a slightly sweet, nutty flavor and a liquor color resembling champagne. While often overshadowed by other tea categories, yellow tea is highly prized for its exclusivity and exquisite craftsmanship.

I am very disappointed with myself this morning. I completely forgot that I cannot use my Teabloom pot to brew Japanese teas. The filter got all gunked up and after 15 seconds wouldn't even drain with my sticking a spoon in to stir things up. It completely messed u my brewing time and the tea came out very bitter and astringent. Such a waste.

My apologies for the prolonged absence, a combination of family affairs and personal issues have been taking up my time and energy. You may have noticed some changes to my profile, this is because I am in the process of starting a business, Smiling Fox Tea. It is my hope that by 2025, the business will be up and running. In the meantime, I plan to slowly get back into posting on a regular basis.

Sorry for the long absence, life got more than a little crazy. I'm changing the name of my business and trying to come up with a good business motto or tagline sort of thing. Here's some ideas: Let me know what you think!

Sip Serenity: Boutique Teas for Life's Refined Moments

Elevate Your Pause: Boutique Teas for the Connoisseur's Delight

Steep Your Senses: Boutique Teas for the Discerning Palate

Brew Bliss: Boutique Teas for Every Occasion, Elevated

Savor the Sublime: Boutique Teas for the Refined Rituals of Life

Infuse Indulgence: Boutique Teas for the Luxury of Leisure

Steep Sophistication: Boutique Teas for the Cultured Connoisseur

Sip the Sublime: Boutique Teas for Life's Extraordinary Moments

Elevate Your Experience: Boutique Teas for the Refined Aficionado

Embrace Elegance: Boutique Teas for the Discerning Taste Buds

A lot of these sound a little snobby, but I am aiming to sell really high end teas to some very fancy establishments and my motto or whatever should probably reflect that.