Himalayan honey green 7/25/25

1. Soft, earthen, like sunlight shivering in fields
2. grassy and golden, distant corn, pastoral perspective
3. dulcet lemon juice & citrus flowers crowd my throat

I'm listening to Foresteppe with my tea this time--the stretching, wavering loops and breezy field recordings dizzy and drench each sip. I'm reminded of Moominvalley. twinkly bells and folkish flutes.
The tea leaves look fresh in my gaiwan as if they were just picked. I always love how green tea steeps in water, unfurled and perfect; you don't see it as much with other varieties that are withered and oxidized much more. This particular tea is completely handrolled as well.
Crisp sparkly flavor and pretty notes of roasted corn, or something like it. This tea really makes me think of a calm fairy tale or a bedtime story. The foresteppe pairing really underlines that.
Apple orchard
river of Otherworld (washing memories away)
the cool breeze on my neck
walking barefoot on stone

Final steep, I don't know how many I've done. I slept a lot and well today--the sleepiness still overtakes me and the tea lulls me with its bedtime story flavors. Green teas always give me among the best tea-drunkenness out of the varieties I've had. I really need to have a session out by the big tree but it's been way too hot for that recently ... I can hardly wait for the cooler months to roll in.

White2tea "Heaven Dancong" 7/22/25

Francis Poulenc + dancong.. yes I had dancong last time as well, although this time I'm having white2tea's "Heaven". I have actually had this tea once before a few months back, and I distincly remember that after a couple of steeps it started to taste almost like blood (very metallic). I had my brother taste some without saying anything & he immediately caught the blood-like flavor. My theory is that I over steeped or the water was too hot. So I'm trying it again.

I've become really entranced by Poulenc's piano works, and a lot of other classical music, thanks to someone I've been talking to recently (maybe you're that person if I've sent you this website, which in that case hello!!). I'm not sure what took me so long to get to Poulenc.. it's not that I was put off by him, but sometimes I'm pretty slow with getting to artists I know I'd probably like unless I'm particularly ravenous or on a music-binge. This is why I'm a terrible RYMer.

After the first rinse I immediately catch this really pleasant fruit scent--APRICOTS--distinctly like dried apricots, & there's the beautiful undertone of warm complexity that I seem to find in dancong. I pour the first rinse over my turtle tea pet which I painted at a ceramic place last year.
The flavor is light for the first two steeps.. there really is a fruity flavor and a very mild astringency. The aroma is (aptly) heavenly. I can hear the crickets outside chirping as if to mimic the music playing. The warmth of the tea soothes my headache. There is certainly a very light bitterness about the tea that I could see becoming metallic if there were too many leaves or if it were oversteeped. I'm partly doing this journal in order to remember these things--I tend to get lost in the tea and loose track of how many steeps deep I am. But I guess there's a beauty in that too.
After reheating the water & doing another steep I am still not getting "blood", so I guess it was something I did the first time that muddled the flavors like crazy. It's starting to develop into something more floral now actually .. especially the aftertaste. My mouth tastes sort of like.. orange blossoms? jasmine? I'm not entirely sure what to compare it to, but it's lovely, and the lid of my gaiwan smells almost grassy now. what I like about dancong is that it often feels nostalgic, though I'm not sure why; the flavors remind me softly of some childhood memory which is just beyond my recollection.

During these sessions I like to imagine that I'm drinking the spirit of the plant & absorbing its lifeforce.. after a gongfu session the caffiene and the beauty of the experience coalesce into this wonderful bout of harmony in my mind that doesn't really happen any other time.

But anyway. This is getting to be a long entry. Heaven Dancong oolong from White2tea--really pleasant this time :-) a lesson to always give a tea another chance.


^ excuse the crumby photo, my mystical warm lighting doesn't show up on cameras well..

Ya Shi Xiang 7/16/25

--tonight I'm having this session on my bed, wrapped in my blanket and letting the world slip by unnoticed. I pour the first steep, ten seconds. My gaiwan is perfectly white and the tea leaves inside breath out and expand--the scent is like hot porcelain, summer-swelled jasmine and smoke steeped in humid air. I was thinking I'd pair it with something classical, maybe Mendelssohn, but I went with an ambient record I've not heard before instead.
The tea warms the roof of my mouth.. I guess I'd describe it like the smooth decadence of a warm night.. or taking long, heavy strokes through a pool, and the air is soft.

The evening is more like my morning nowadays. I'm living like a vampire again. Yesterday I woke up thinking about what it'd be like to take a trip somewhere in a nocturnal style--leave in the evening and do everything at night. I guess like how a vampire would do it. i don't mind this sleep schedule as long as I'm getting some sleep, to be honest. but it does suck that I can't do much.
The dancong is sweet and gentle--my mind floats off with its steam, taking me far off into reverie. The music crackles and glitches slowly, weaving through the hour. I'm liking the album so far.

Fourth steep already.. the lid of my gaiwan carries the fragrance of the leaves. Now nightfall suffocates the daylight and in comes the smooth blackness & marks the beginning of my "day".