Sweat and Steam - Yoga and Tea at YMC

Last Saturday my partner, Daphne Chua, and I co-hosted a yoga and tea event at YMC.  Daphne teaching the yoga portion and I, of course, leading the tea tasting after.  It was a beautiful session and both the yoga studio and tearoom were packed.  Check out the pics from the tea tasting below.

Also, a special thanks to Vincent Mourou for providing delicious chocolates from his company MAROU, which makes single origin chocolate from Vietnam.  It was a welcome and tasty edition to our event.

 

 

[The many toys of a tea infusionist]

 

[Making Matcha]

 

[I love ending the day with matcha]

Tea Room Coming Soon

Saigon is a city on the go and on the grow.  With so much to do and not enough time to do it, it surprises few that coffee is the #1 beverage consumed here.  And while the dentists may be thrilled by all the condensed milk related cavities they get to bill every month, there are some people here looking for a break from it all.  A break from the noise and a break from the go, go, go.

On Water In Tea

Water, it's more important to making a good cup of tea than the tea leaf itself.  Water makes up well over 90% of a cup of tea and choosing your source of water is just as important as choosing your source of tea.  Good water with mediocre tea leaf makes a better cup than mediocre water with good tea leaf.

Photos from our Tasting at Lam Boutique

 It took a new year to get these photos up but here they are!  Lam Boutique was a gorgeous place to do this this tasting and everyone had great energy.  Loved it!

2011 Gyokuro Hoshino

Of all the Japanese whole leaf teas, Gyokuro is the most prized.  In early spring, when the first new shoots start growing on the tea trees, the plants are shaded from the sun for the last 20 days before being harvested.  By reducing the sunlight, the tea leaves compensate by producing more chlorophyll and less catechins.  This results in a tea with more sweetness and less astringency.  Because of the intense conditions this puts the plant through, Gyokuro is only harvested once per year to allow the tree to recover.

Ask Mr. Tea

When talking to people about tea I sometimes find that my expectations of what people should already know sets the bar too high.  A classic example is how I'm always surprised when somebody doesn't know that green tea and black tea come from the same plant.  Now, now, don't worry if this is you, because I've just discovered an interesting fact of history.

Tea Tasting at LYON Center

Many thanks to everyone who came to Operation: TEA's first tea tasting on Saturday at LYON Center.  We had twenty participants and tried 7 different teas.  Also, a big thank you to Robert and Monique of LYON Center for generously hosting our event.