Thursday 31 December 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 !!!

Dear All


 
Wishing you a wonderful Chocolatesnew month and a happy new year in advance.    

Don't Cubicles too hard but work smart.  May your boss appreciate you and say Thumbs Up Good Job.  
Take care of yourselfDreaming.    Pamper yourself and buy some beautifulShopping Wedding Dress.  

Don't worry coz   Dollar   will come from above.   May you also purchase  or change a House  and a Car.      
May the days ahead be busy but easy Watching The Clock,     Relax  and  go CruisingPilotaround the world.   It's important to have good health,  therefore, eat more AppleBroccoliCarrots  and Corn, but not too much Fat Fat Guy.
Do remember to Tennis at least once a week.    Don't Good Vs Evil with your sweetheart, and be generous to say Hug And KissI Love You.    
Here's wishing you and all  your Family Portrait  a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010 and may you all be well and happy ALWAYS!

From : James Oh

Tuesday 29 December 2009

A GUIDE TO BREW PU'ER TEA

Hi! Everyone,

Below please find:-

A GUIDE TO BREW PU'ER TEA 

1 Prepare the necessary teaware and lay out the proper setting . If we have two guests, then tea tray, clay teapot for two, clay tea pitcher, filter, tea towel, tea utensils, two large clay cups, two coasters, kettle, tea receptacle and presentation vessel are required.

Teaware preparation

2. Take a chunk of compressed pu'er tea.
Peel off a small piece of pu'er cake

3 Break off the small piece of the compressed pu'er tea into loose leaves at the presentation vessel. If the compressed tea does not break off easily, use a knife to loosen up the tea. If the pu'er tea already comes in loose form, then scoop the loose pu'er tea from the canister and simply place the tea on the presentation vessel.

4 Take a moment to observe the appearance and to smell the aroma of the tea. Then pass the tea presentation vessel to your guests for their turn to admire the dried tea.

5 Make sure water has just reached the boiling point. Then remove the kettle and pour hot water into the teapot at least 1/3 full of tea leaves.

6. Pouring hot water from kettle
Drain hot water into pitcher completely. Alternatively you may pour boiled water from teapot into pitcher

7. By this time, the presentation vessel may probably returned from the guests back to the host. The host will opens the teapot's lid and ready to put dried tea from the tea presentation vessel into the teapot.

8. Tea presentation vessel
Left hand holds the presentation vessel and gently push the dried tea into the teapot.

9, Transfer of the tea
Top up boiled water into teapot before closing its lid. Gently shake the teapot.

10. Shaking the teapot:
Pass the teapot to guests. At this time, the teapot is warm with tea inside. The guests should know that they are to open the lid and smell the dry tea's aroma, which is very different from its previous state when it is sitting on tea presentation vessel.

11. Guest opens the lid and smells the tea's aroma
Close lid and pass to the next guest.

12: While the teapot is being passed around, the host pours water from the pitcher into the cups. If there is any water remaining inside the pitcher, then discard it into the tea receptacle. This should not happen if the host has gauged the size of the teapot and the cup correctly beforehand. But it is alright if this happens. No big deal. The rinsing of the teapot, tea pitcher and cups are meant to warm up the teaware.

13. Pour water into the cups. Discard water at tea receptacle
Fill up the teapot with boiled water. Closed lid. Wait about 5-10 seconds. Then pour out. This is known as the warm-up brew. Set aside this brew on the side. This will be discarded as shown in Step 15.

14. Pouring of the warm-up brew
Again pour water into the teapot. Close lid. Wait for 20-40 seconds.

15. Pouring hot water
Keep on pouring warm-up tea on the outside of the teapot, especially those made of unglazed Yixing clay.

16. Teapot seasoning
Pour tea into the pitcher before transfer to the cups. The purpose of the pitcher is to balance the tea evenly amongst all the guests. Remember that each infusion of tea will give you different taste. Some pitchers, depending on the sizes, may have bigger capacity than the small tea pot. To ensure even effect, it is more appropriate that everyone has tea from the pitcher, even if it is filled by different infusions from the tea pot.

17. Pour tea into the cups
Place the cup on the coaster and pass it to the guest. Tea is placed in front of the guest for his enjoyment.

Continue to infuse tea until the taste of tea has disappeared completely. The tea can usually last up to at least 8 infusions.

James Oh

Sunday 20 December 2009

THE TAO OF TEA

Hi, Everyone,

Today I am going to talk about The Tao of Tea.

The Tao of Tea is basically covers :-

Brewing Tea Correctly to produce excellent tea. The rule specify what are the rules and procedures involving from the past till todate. It evolves with time and lots of creative works are added in and it was treated as art, rather associate to the Chinese culture.

Discover the art of brewing correctly.
Types of tea, water quality, temperature, quantity of leaves, and steeping time are all important and relevant factors in determining the quality of tea. Tea should be brewed to match your personal preference and taste.

Water Quality
Water plays one of the most significant ingredient, apart from tea leave in brewing good quality of tea. Non-chlorinated water is highly recommended to use so as to produce good quality of tea especially green teas. Chlorinated tap water may affect the taste of tea making it less appealing. Therefore, water filter system which gives water a pH level of slightly over 7 is preferable.

Water Temperature
It is very much depend on type of tea you brew. For green tea, water should kept below reaching boiling point. This is because boiling water tends to over cook the tea leaves. In addition, when water is boiled, oxygen not only evaporates, but the crisp mineral texture in the brew is also lost. Whereas Pu'er can be steeped with boiling water.

Quantity of Leaves and Steeping time
If unsure, always start with lesser amount of leaves and steep them longer. This will gives you more control to the tea. Good quality tea leaves with appropriate amount of tea leaves will not go bitter, unless they are steep for a longer than the time it required. In short, you can see that brewing pure leaf teas is to be as simple as "hot water and tea".

You may use the following suggestions for steeping different types of teas as a guide:-

Green teas: It can provide multiple infusions. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the tea leaf, the faster the infusion.

Pu'er teas: For most pu'ers, the longer you steep, the smoother they become. For the compressed pu'ers,  the recommended steep time required is twice the loose leaf pu'ers which takes at about 3-4 minutes

Appropriate teawares
Apart from the above, appropriate teawares are also important so as to preserve the heat, taste and flavor of the tea. The setting of the teawares will add color to the atmosphere and conversation.



Technique of pouring tea from the tea pot
To add to the excitement, various tea masters using various 'kung - fu' style of pouring tea out from the teapot to each of the tea cup, bowl at various position precisely and speedily. The speed and accuracy demonstrate the skill of their skills.

In this Tao of Tea, it tells us the importance of patience, persistence and meticulousness are important ingredient to cultivate this healthy hobbies. Great observation and passion is also needed so as to master the skill.

Hope you are well entertained. Stay tuned again for more..

James Oh

Thursday 3 December 2009

TEA : AN ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY PRODUCT

Hi, everyone,

There is undeniable truth that tea is not only a healthy drink, but it is also equally useful and beneficial as follows:-

a) Fertilizer

Tea leaves can be used as fertilizer after use. I used to throw the after used tea leaves into my flower pot as fertilizer and I found that the plant is not only growing more healthily, but it blossoms more than before. 

You may try it out and see whether you will have the same result. Thank you in advance for your kind participation.

b) i) Tea Pillow

The dried and used tea leaves can be inserted into pure cotton fabric(or Quality silk) and made  into kid's tea pillow. Some find that it is not only helpful for Children to sleep well, but also help keep their bodies grow in good condition.


   ii) Travel tea Pillow

Tea Pillow in Car


Alternatively, you can also used the same process and turn it into travel tea pillow such as the lovely pure cotton fabric travel tea pillow shown above. It  can assist you to have a good sleep while traveling.

Please recycle the used tea leaves into something useful and beneficial. Recycling is the key to greening the environment. Do not underestimate this small act, because the impact can be very great. Don't forget that we have more than 6 billions people on earth.


Let us stand together and green the environment we live in. Who else will care if we don't? Let our one voice, one spirit and one action speaks. Your support toward this direction is greatly appreciated.


Thanks for your precious time and trust you are well entertained,


James Oh