Tea Review: MengHai Yi Wu Zheng Shan Da Ye Cha

Chance by this good cooked tea and therefore decided to pick 2 pieces up. The golden soup of the makes looks really attractive. Yes I said golden soup. You might want to imagine to the boiling hot corn oil without the greasiness. I guessed many people would not think highly of an year old tea on top of the fact that its a cooked tea. But having tested the tea myself, it already gives me the confident it might turn out to be another Feng Qing or even better in time to come. The taste is already almost identical to Feng Qing already at this age. Therefore this gives me the confidence to bet on 2 pieces of this tea. The smoothness and easy to drink soup certainly leaves me asking for more during the testing. Hopefully in time to come, it would not disappoint me.

Tea Review: Liu Bao Cha (六宝茶 6 Treasures Tea)

As the name of the tea would suggest, it does taste a little like Ba Bao Cha ( 八宝茶 8 Treasures Tea). However, its certainly not tat sweet. A mellow and easy to drink concoction with a taste richer than Feng Qing. A good tea is hard to come by and this is the last of whats left in the shop which I frequent. I did not purchase it but however “traded” for it with some Kwang Yun Tie Bing. Review for Kwang Yun Tie Bing coming up in the next blog entry.

Coming back to Liu Bao Cha, the tea leaves are very small black leaflets. One look you can tell its an aged tea. The soup base is more of darker but clear orange color. Though I do not have any negative comments about this tea, however its does not surprises me much as well.

Tea Review: Ban Tian Yiao

I was walking around this place in Bugis when I spotted this new tea shop. I was attracted to some Zhu Ni tea pots which were on display. I enquired about them and the boss was pretty excited about the new generation of tea lovers. She therefore invited me to sit down and treated me to some of her good Ban Tian Yiao. I was more of a Pu-erh drinker and this is my first time that I tried Wu Long. Indeed it tasted different from the Pu-erh. On the first sight you will notice the dark reddish soup of the tea. The fragrance is instant but not intense. First sip already you can taste the sweetness of the tea. However this sweetness is unlike the sweetness of Pu-erh. One interestg that amaze tea lovers is inspite of the tasting sweetness in different tea, somehow there are always differences between the sweetness. Its this kind of excitement that keeps tea lovers passion of tea going on. Another observation of the taste of the tea is that the tea flow almost as a full bodied liquid. Most of them time we would only this kind of feeling in wine or aged tea. This tea certainly leaves me asking for more. However, due to the high price of this tea, I did not make any purchase to add to my collection.

Tea Review: Feng Qing Tuo Cha

I just realised I've never wrote a review about this tea before. Its one of the first tea in my collection.
What got me wanting to write about it is because of something which I tried today. It got mee feeling so high after drinking the brew. I told this to a friend and he said that its highly undesirable. So you might be asking what I had done. Well I made 2 brews on Monday and left the leaves in the teapot with some of the undrained tea. This allows the tea to grow really thick within that small quantity of water.

I added in hot water and smelt the tea. Wow.... Something different though its the same old leaves. I took the same usual big sip. Mmm Mmm Mmm !!
The taste of medicine !! If you have read my earlier posts, you should know that I'm one that likes the medicine taste. The same usual smoothness of the tea adds compliment the tea even more. Wow what can I say, its a 10yr cooked pu-erh. No wonder its hard or perhaps can't get them in stores anymore here in Singapore. Let me know if you have some to sell.

Another Classic Use of Leaves

Recently, I back into the hobby of rearing fish. I went online and did a bit of research before heading to the aquarium shop. Eventually I got myself a betta, or most Singaporeans would call it fighting fish.

I drop in some Indian Almond Leaves to the aquarium. Well some of you might be wondering why I used those leaves. If you are rearing some sort of tropical fish oe even betta, you might be keen to read on:

It was found that if one were to introduce the leaves into aquariums one could achieve similar conditions as found in the fishes natural environment. The water is of yellowish Chinese tea like color. Dried Indian almond leaf allows the fighter to relax and swim around with confidence. The leaves were found to help keep their fish healthy with strong anti-bacterial properties and promote breeding. They release organic compounds such as humic acids, flavanoids (quercetin and kamferol) and tannins (s. a. punicalin, punicalagin and tercatein) into the water to absorb harmful chemicals. Other fish known to have benefited from Indian almond leaves include baby discus, dwarf chiclids, killi fish, rasboras, catfish and black water tetras.

Indian almond leaves have been used to cure sick fish of bacterial infections and to help speed up healing of damaged fins or body injuries. It should be noted that indian almond leaves is an alternative to commercially produced medicines but it's not a "cure-all potent medicine", especially when it comes to dealing with diseases like dropsy, velvet etc. Think of it as more of a preventative medicine.

A great tip about boiling Indian almond leaves into a tea and keeping it in a concentrate form and adding as needed works great. For more information, you can refer to www.magicintheleaf.com

Effective use of Indian Almond Leaves. A lively Full Moon Betta.

Tea Review: Lao Tong Zhi + Feng Qing Tuo

I was getting real bored from the same usual taste I get from the 2 cooked tea which I had when I decided to get naughty. The idea of mixing the 2 tea strucked my mind.
Actually there are some reasoning behind me wanting to do that.
Firstly, Lao Tong Zhi cooked tea being still very young from 2005 has this rough feeling when swallowing. In hokkien we call that "siap". However, I like the medicated taste alot. On the contrary, Feng Qing Tuo being a 10 yrs tea, tasted much more mellow and smooth. Thus I was thinking what if I blend both together.

I measured almost the same quantity that I usually drink for each tea. Had the water boiled and do the usual cleaning and drinking on the 2nd brew. Now, I waited for the tea to cool to room temperature. I always feel that the taste is most intense when at room temperature. Here's the results. At first mouth, I couldn't really taste the tea. I wondered why. I took another mouth, this time round I tasted the tea but I discovered something. The tea is so smooth that it flowed down my throat. It seems as if its oil flowing through the mechanisms in the car engine. Or maybe you can compared it to the way mecury rolled down a declining surface.

Well, this is all I got to say. What works for me might not work for you.

Investment in "Beauty"

Recently I read a interesting mail and it addresses to a very obvious "phenomenon" here in Singapore. The mail is about a girl asking questions as how to get a rich guy. She claim herself to be pretty. Lets just give her the benefit of the doubt to keep the scenario rolling. Her questions were answered by an economist :

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyze your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I'm not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you're trying to do is an exchange of 'beauty' and 'money': Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there's a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason.

The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can't be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It's not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a 'trading position'. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term - same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or 'leased'. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you.