Hou De Tea Blog

For lovers/collectors of fine celadon ware or teaware, we will soon introduce a selection of works from Taiwan’s famous celadon artist, Mr. Xu De-Jia.

Irene had the opportunity to visit Mr. Xu’s studio in YingGe, Taiwan this summer. Xu has made a reputation for his works of celadon (chin tzi) and celadon-white (chin bai tzi). Born in 1959, Mr. Xu started his artist career by initially focused on the design of teaware. But he was so drawn by the elegance and simplicity of Chinese traditional celadon ware of Song dynasty, he spent lots of time and effort to research the skills and firing of them.

By 1999, his works had won awards from Taiwan and Japan. And soon his celadon ware were collected by ceramic museums of YingGe, Tawian, and acquired a solid reputation among collectors in Asia.

We are very glad to be able to introduce his works to our dear customers. So please check back soon!

Guang

It’s almost magical that a teashop can survive for 4 years (almost!) without ever giving official brewing guide on any of the tea offering! We of coz has made brewing suggestions through emails with customers, but an “official” one hasn’t appeared on Hou De.

If we want to give it, we want to give the brewing suggestion in as much detail as we can. Yesterday the 2008 Spring Li-Shan “Da Yu Ling” oolong and an awarded Shan-Li-Shi oolong arrived together. I am going to use the opportunity of tasting the 08 Da Yu Ling to also show our brewing suggestion for Taiwan’s high-mountain oolongs.

The dry leaves: The first step to a proper brewing experience is to understand the dry leaves as much as you can. Is it hand-harvested or machine-harvested? Is it roasted? What’s the roast degree? Is it aged? How old? Is it oxidized? What degree? How dry are the leaves? How tight are the leaf pellets, etc.

These are the information you should be provided when making purchases. At least in Hou De we do. You can generally tell by looking at the dry leaves to see if they are hand-harvested or machine-harvested. Sometimes “competition” oolongs may look like machine-harvested because of the additional de-steming step by hands.

Hand-harvested oolongs usually tend to have their aroma and taste “waky up” slower than machines-harvested ones, because of the more complete leaf system and tighter structure. The later is usually a result of a more “juicy” leaves that bind together better. So when you face a hand-harvested oolong, especially high quality ones like Li-Shan, A-Li-Shan or Shan-Lin-Shi oolongs, be ready to have a less aromatic first brewing or increase the first steeping by 5 to 10 seconds. Machine-harvested oolongs are more straightforward, but have less brewing durability than hand-harvested ones.

If the oolong is roasted, oxidized or aged, it may need a longer steeping time, and better with a higher water temperature throughout the brewings. The more roasted degree / older / more oxidized, the longer the first steeping and water temperature should be.

Also, check the dryness of the leaf pellets. Hold one pellet between fingers and crush it. A properly dried and fresh high-mountain oolong leaves should be crushed easily. If not, either the drying step during processing was not done properly, or the leaves have absorbed moisture due to storage. In this case, we will need to refreshen the leaves by a roaster/mini dryer, or contact your vendor.

Amount of leaves/Steeping time: For the pellet-shaped Taiwan oolongs, putting in 1/4 of the total depth of your teapot is generally a good start. For more “gong-fu” purists, 1/3 usually works.

Water temperature for high-mountain oolongs, I usually use ~205 deg F (slightly less than boiling). First-steeping is 30 seconds, the 2nd , 3rd and the 4th steepings are all 20 seconds. After that, increase 10 seconds to every following steeping.

If you put in 1/3 of leaves, first-steeping is 25 second, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th steepings are all 15 seconds. After that, increase 10 seconds to every following steeping.

A colder water temperature should match with a slightly longer steeping time, and vice versa.

If you are not familiar with such tiny-teapot and quick-steeping way, I strongly encourage you to try it. Instead of getting one big mug of tea, you unveil the complexity and quality of the precious oolong, layer after layer, in each individual steeping. It’s exciting to see how the aroma and taste profile change from one cup to another, and to test how many steepings this oolong can last!

Air-tight lid by water-seal: Because of the quick-steeping nature, a small-sized (100~200cc) teapot becomes very convenient. One tip to achieve a better aroma is to create an air-tight condition around the rim of lid/top opening by water-seal. You can do this by slightly overflow the water when pouring. When you close the lid, the water seals the rim and makes sure the aroma stay inside the pot.

If you are like Mr. Lin Kean Siew who likes to use a bigger teapot (> 300cc), you can create the water seal by pouring hot water over the teapot after you close the lid. A key to use a larger teapot is to pre-warm the body by rinsing with hot water before putting in dry leaves.

End of brewing: At the end of brewing, you will see the tea leaves expand to fully occupy the content of the teapot. It’s common for a good quality High-Mountain oolong to give you more than 8 wonderful steepings, and maybe 10 or more. You can play with the unfurled leaves: putting them in you hand, and using your fingers to feel the softness, thickness and flexibility of the leaves. Look carefully to confirm the information you initially had: harvesting method, roasting / oxidation degree, freshness / age, etc. You will be able to fine tune your brewing parameters next time you enjoy the same oolong.

Especially if you use an yixing teapot, you should clean the teapot inside out thoroughly by rinsing with hot water and leave it on a shelf to dry naturally. Some people suggest not to clean the yixing teapot so as to get faster seasoning effect. I don’t like the idea. I prefer a clean, albeit a bit slower, and lasting seasoning effect.

Lastly, I want to emphasize that this suggestion is just a starting point to begin your adventure. You may find a 195deg F water with a slightly longer steeping time works better, or you may find plus/minus 5 seconds steeping from this suggestion produce better cups. You need to try and adventure yourself.

Please let us know if this format of brewing suggestion is effective. Any idea as what to change/how to improve. I will post brewing suggestion for other types of teas like Wuyi, dancong and pu-erhs shortly.

Guang

I know it seems like a distant memory to us … but the Pasadena Puerh Party of June/2007 was truly a milestone event and those of you who participated this event, you were making history!

The report of this event had been covered in the No. 23 issue of the Puerh Teapot Magazine (Chinese), published on Nov/2007. I asked Mr. Liang to provide us the full content of this article, and he kindly agreed. Here it is:

Page 176
Page 177
Page 178
Page 179
Page 180
Page 181
Page 183

Or, you can download the whole artile in PDF from here.

** Page 182 is missing. Will ask for it and post shortly.

The English article will appear in No. 5 issue of the Art of Tea magazine, which is printed in Taiwan this week.

I feel touched to see those pictures, the wonderful sunny weather, the delightful atmosphere, and the people who shared the cups together!

Guang

ps. A reader kindly warned us that a massive illicit content was attached toward the end of this entry. No idea how did it happen. I had removed the content. Please keep us informed if you still see any illicit content on our website or blog. Thanks.

Just got back from the WTE 2008 in Las Vegas late last night. While my body certainly appreciates the relaxation and regular meals (will explain later) after being at home, my heart is still trembling with all the excitements and people’s interactions during the show.

Wushing Publishing co. had their Malaysian branch manager Mr. Ho join me to handle the show together. Because I had a speech on Pu-erh on the first day morning 9:45am, he went alone to set up the booth himself. I have been exchanging Skype messages with him for a while. It was great to finally see him face to face and work together!

The number of attendees for the Pu-erh speech totally surpassed my expectation. I was guessing maybe 30 or 40 people max. According to their staff, we had way more than 100 people! The speech seemed to progress well. I tried to manage the whole talk within 1-hour time frame, but in the end I just hit the 1-hour mark right on time and no room left for Q&A. I was wondering, eagerly, how do people think about my speech. And how surprising so many people were interested in this topic.

The exhibition started at 11:30AM. Very soon we had more and more people walking through each aisle. I started to have people who just attended the speech visit the booth and told me their impression. I was totally encouraged by the positive feedbacks, while one lady did complain that I spoke a bit too fast and several people they said they could not follow the content.

I think the problem was: I did covered the Cooked vs. Uncooked and some basic parts, but I did not dive too much into the details like the difference in processing. For people totally new to this tea, they might get confused here, and while I proceeded to the four distinctive era (pre-50s, 50/60s, 70/80s and after 90s), I guess they were totally lost. It’s a choice as how to balance the whole “pu-erh” topic in one hour. I did not want my speech to be really introductory. But, hey, that’s the reason why you should have a book like First Step to Chinese Pu-erh and the Art of Tea Magazine

Two people came to our booth and said “Ah, the magazine is still alive! I heard you were replaced by an online magazine”… Errr, no idea where did that rumor come from. The #4 issue was delayed terribly, indeed, but as for now we are already working on #6.

It’s exciting to see the WTE getting more and more international each year. I see several merchants from Africa, a good number of S. Korean and Japanese vendors, a whole section of Taiwanese vendors, and a pavilion of vendors from China.

More creativity and advancement were found in the design and packaging instead of the genuine quality of teas. But there were several new things that caught my eyes: one company made sparkling jasmine tea with fabulous packagings (Golden Star Tea); an African producer started exploring the making of cooked pu-erhs (Satemwa). I met the Director, Alexander, and we exchanged our samples of cooked pu-erh. He is a great and open-minded guy. He explained to me in details their processing steps down to time and temperature. I look forward to tasting and reviewing his sample in the coming days.

I asked Mr. Ho his opinion about the quality and scale of this tea show. I was very surprised to hear that he thinks this show is better and more professional than shows in China and Malaysia! How could it be? He said he is really impressed with the genuine passion of tea from the people’s interactions in the show, and the quality of people overall. While you certainly have those mega Tea shows there, with free entry and millions of people on the floor, people’s interaction are more or less super pushy sales, cut-throat negotiations, and “mine are the best, all others are crap, and why don’t you buy several tongs instead of one cake?” kind of messages. There are people who collect all free paper material and sale to junk yard, and even people who grab all free samples and sale elsewhere.

I met a couple who also attended my speech in the first day afternoon. They gave me really positive feedback and bought one of everything on our table. The next day morning, the man came to our booth again, unloaded his black backpack, and several healthy avacados and tangelos (first time I heard this fruit!) joyfully rolled onto the table! He told me he really enjoyed my speech and our conversations. He is an avocado grower from S. California. I am sure Mr. Ho got really impressed by such kind of people interactions in US.

Overall, I see the magazine itself has built really strong reputation and enthusiasm in US. The President of WTE and V. P., George and Kim, told me they had heard great feedbacks about our magazine all over the floor. Kim had a long discussion with me as how to bring in more professionalism like such into the show and maybe to US market, and how to bring the message of WTE to Asian market. We had talked about doing a Focus Tasting in Pu-erh next year (May 2~4 2009, still in Las Vegas). Soon we will have confirmed date and details to share.

We indeed had a lot of people visiting us and conversations every day. The first and the second day, Ho and I had only small breakfast. By the time we feel terribly hungry, it was like 4:00pm already. Especially the second day afternoon, I felt so weak and my stomach was like starting to digest itself. Luckily a neighboring booth was having free yogurt ice cream and that kept me from falling to the ground. Poor Mr. Ho, he went to each booth to take photos, and was offered many cup of tea with a totally empty stomach.

Las Vegas is an interesting city. I cannot say I like it. I could not find free WiFi anywhere! But “people watching” in the night was quite an experience I haven’t had since living in Houston. The streets in the night reminded me of Taipei - so vibrant, so fun, so many people. An array of “Girls Direct” guys on both side of the streets, clapping the “cards” in their hands and trying to put several cards into hands of every passing person. I asked one guy to take a photo, and he certainly posed for me!

Guang

The good old Hou De website just got a revamp today! Irene and I talked for a long time to improve the appearance of Hou De website. This weekend I finally decided to lock myself in front of the computer to finish the design we drafted on paper a while ago.

Both Irene and I love clean and simple-looking things. The old design of Hou De had some images and text that were never changed and conveyed little message to the visitors. We decided to take out all unnecessary stuffs and keep the essential info as easy to access as possible. The “faq” section will be gradually embodied or constantly updated.

Please let us know if you see any bug or think of improvement. Hope you like the simpler and cleaner looking of Hou De!

Guang

A dermatologist of one of Taipei’s major hospitals unveils his secret of maintaining his own skin, that often gets his female patients jealous. What’s more, now even skin care manufacturing companies want to have him as the “face” to promote their products, instead of hiring younger female model!

Click to read the news (in Chinese)

You can use Babel Fish to translate the pages into English (select Chinese-trad to English).

Basically, his secret is: drinking lots of tea. 4000~5000 cc a day… talking about a LOT of tea! Look at the black teapot in his hand, that’s at least 700 or 800 cc alone - usually the size of tea kettle for me!

Guang

1. 2008 Spring Sha-Lin-Shi “Long Feng Shia” and Li-Shan “Tsui Feng” will be arriving very soon!
2. From the same producer of 07 hand-crafted Dan Hogn Pao and Rou Gui, we received his 07 Spring hand-crafted Shui Xian! Will post soon.
3. Irene will go back to Taiwan next week to visit family and source great stuffs from Taiwan herself. So look forward to new exciting offerings in June!

One of the most frequently asked questions regarding yixings we received is “Are zhu ni and hong ni the same thing. If not, how?” Although the answer is, as the topic says, NO, but I’ve been longed for enough evidences to support the conclusion.

I have a pair of #1 factory’s “Shi Shao Pian (trial firing disc)”, one is of zhu ni, and the other is of hong ni. They have been, however, remained “missing” in my bedroom of my family in Taipei for years. Last week my mom finally unearthed them behind a pile of books on the bookshelf!

Here they are. “Shi Shao Pian” is commonly used by ceramic artist to test the clay’s final quality and performance after kiln firing. The two discs were of #1 factory in around 60s. An unique feature of the Shi Shao Piao of yixing is that the disc was smoothed/burnished on one side, and un-smoothed on the other side. By doing so, the potter could see the final effect of clay with and without burnishing.

See how glittering the burnished side of zhu ni disc is, comparing to the burnished side of hong ni! So, originally, zhu ni and hong ni were regarded as two different clays in yixing. In fact, their natural form and locations of raw mines, the ways the clays were treated and weathered, and the ways the clays were finally shaped and burnished, were ALL different.

I am preparing an article to elaborate more details on this topic and some IMHO thoughts on the collection of yixings for #5 issue of Art of Tea magazine. Will come back to fill in more info and pictures later.

Guang

Recently we received a question regarding the bamboo sets of Weng Ming-Chuan we are offering, as the customer had found the prices on Hou De are several times to what he had found in Taiwan.

Just like most Masters in Yi-Xing, Mr. Weng also has his own studio and apprentices who learn from him. On the same exhibition’s photobook he kindly sent to us, there are two pages showing several commonly used seals by himself and his studio: one group is for exclusively his own original one-of-a-kind works, and the other group is for “limited production” works made by his students to reproduce some select pieces.

So the answer is quite clear. I am very interested in offering his limited production pieces in the near future for a lot less money. But, in the mean time, we need to understand what is original and what is reproduced.

Guang

A parcel arrived today and brought us several very fine antique Japanese tetsubins (cast iron kettles) and silver teapots.

We have been bathed in the beauty and the joy of playing with the 5 tetsubins and two silver pots. I found there are interesting differences among the water quality from the tetsubins and the silver kettle. But I will need to experiment more to really put what I’ve experienced into words.

The 275cc side-handled silver teapot has quickly earned itself a place in my most-often-used-teapots shelf The delicacy and elegance of this piece is simply breathtaking. Though the size is a bit larger most of my commonly used yixings, but the fact that silver is a super heat-conductive material makes the size a very smart/functional choice.

Antique tetsubins and Japanese silver teapots are both topics of profound history background and knowledge. I am very happy to have the chance to start learning them!

Will come back to them soon. In the mean time, please enjoy the beauty of them!

Guang