jd's Journal: Tea

I have now passed the total of 30 different black teas. Not fruit, not spice, not herbal, not even green, white or red tea. Just black teas. No, blends like PG Tips and Yorkshire Gold don't count either.

Why so many? Aside from being my current monomania, it's because I'm fascinated by how different they are.

I couldn't tell you the chemistry that makes that difference, nor could I tell you what difference it makes in terms of the various compounds affecting alertness or sedation. (It contains both), in terms of health benefits or even in the simplest term of how water is retained in the body.

But I'm determined to find out at least some of this. It'll have to be on my own, as essentially no research is being done on the subject, and I've no idea of what that'll require beyond a very good gas spectrometer (I'm going to have to count molecules, not atoms).

But I think it would be fun to find out, and definitely worth doing as long as I can figure out how to (a) control the parameters, and (b) afford said piece of gear.

Oolongcha and Orange Pekoe

[shanen]

You didn't name any names, but I'll say that my current favorite is Oolongcha, but only cold. I used to like Orange Pekoe, especially iced, but don't see it much around here. Earl Grey is famous, but I've never particularly cared for it. Can't remember trying it cold. Basically neutral towards the Earl hot? Various other teas I mostly tend to dislike.

Re:

[jd]

Here's a list of a few of them. Anything labelled OP (such as TGFOP) is an Orange Pekoe tea.

Assam TGFOP
Light Roast Wild Tree Purple Varietal Black Tea of Dehong
High Mountain "Tu Cha" Black Tea fromWu Yi Mountains
Traditional Smoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong * Lapsang Souchong Black Tea
Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong of Wu Yi Fujian Black Tea
Da Zhang Mountain Wild Arbor Black Tea of Jiangxi
Keemun (ZK11D)
Hao Ya ’A’
Hubei Province Keemun Ji Hong
Kambaa BP1
Kamimosi GFBOP
Kenyan Black
Nandi Royal OP (TK22D)
Kenya TGFOP
O

Re:

[shanen]

Reminds me of the massive drinks bar in a restaurant where I used to eat breakfast some years back... Big section of teas.

Are you shurap?

[Z00L00K]

Are you shurap [youtube.com]?

Earl Grey?

[smittyoneeach]

We drink that around the house.

Re: Earl Grey?

[jd]

I am ok with Earl Grey, bit annoyed to find it had nothing to do with the actual Earl Grey. I omitted most of the blends (Yorkshire Gold gets a free shout-out here!) because the list starts to go from obscenely nuts to OMG!! Pink Ponies!!! level of silliness.

Blends are cool, I drink enough of them. Given my rapid increase in experience with the different teas from different sources, I might have a crack at creating my own.

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

They say that Douglas Adams' answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything is this [amazon.com].