aaaaah, pictures

Timing is everything! I came home around 12:45 last night and found a little package at my door. It's my nikon camera! After more than a month at the nikon repair shop, it made its way back to my hands. :) Here are a few shots of my new tea shop, Tea Habitat. :)

Marine layer and pu-erh

Spring in So-cal is quite humid. Marine layer hovers the beach communities in the morning, which is giving my pu-erh a good dose of replenishment. I can smell the sweet aroma of my pu every time I walk by. Palos Verdes is particularly misty/foggy every morning and evening. You can see rolling clouds on the hill top. As I will transport my stock to that location, they should age really well. One of the cakes was over dehydrated at arrival, I am hoping the moisture will reverse the effect some what.

Tea Habitat - Grand opening!

I am in the final stage of preparation. Grand opening date is June 2nd, this Saturday. Grand opening celebration party is scheduled on the following Saturday June 9th at 2 pm till whenever. Everyone is invited! Free food and drinks! Formal invitation will be sent out and posted early next week.

Tea Habitat
21B Peninsula Center
Palos Verdes, 90274
teahabitat.com

At corner of Hawthorne and Silver Spur, across from TJmaxx
http://maps.google.com/maps?um=1&tab=wl&channel=s&client=firefox-a&hl=en&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=mammoth+beverage+mix

My camera is STILL in the repair shop. Nikon is taking their sweet time. I will have to borrow a camera and take some shots.

There will be loose ends here and there at the beginning. I expect to smooth it out in a few weeks, especially hiring and training the right staffs. I intend to improve as time goes by with better service and products.

Sorry for the broken writing, I am extremely tired and still a million things on my mind at this hour.

Exhale

Finally I can exhale! After working 12 to 19 hours days since Sunday before last through last Friday, we passed every required inspections from city and county. The shop is officially good to start business.

Last week was quite brutal. After failing inspection 3 Fridays ago, I demanded an other inspection last Tuesday. The contractor did not show up for 4 days although promised me to be working on Sunday (mother's day), of course I didn't find any body at the shop. I had it with Marco, my generosity and patience were taken for granted. I called Sunday and Monday, no answers no return calls. I gave up. To me that's a termination of contract. Chris (works for Marco) later informed Tim the plumber Marco is working on another project and would not be showing up on Wednesday. I really don't care at that point. My priority is to pass inspection and open my door. Obviously his priority is another project which might bring him more money. I can understand how that can be his priority, but it's conflicting with mine, which he's not delivering results according to our contract on time. Friday (9 days later) was the first time I spoke to him, he told me he couldn't get in touch with me. What a bunch of bull! I told him I stopped payments of the extra $6500 he asked for and the contract is terminated. I changed the locks the same day. Chris called and threaten to file petition to keep me from opening. First of all, I did not sign the contract with Chris, he's not a partner legally on paper yet. Why the hell he has a saying in this other than trying to intimidate me like a bullie?! Second, if they try anything at all legally or illegally, I make sure they'll loose their pants, not only they won't be able to keep the money I paid in full (including works they did not complete), they will be responsible for loss of revenue, all expense incurred during the 1.5 months delay, money now I chipped out of my own pocket for the remaining works done by Tim and legal fees. I would also file complain at the Better business bureau, they will be audited and possibly lose their license. I would leave comments on line warning others about their services. I do not hesitate to take out my claws when I have to.

I feel I am more than generous with Marco, checks were made ahead of scheduled payments. I even gave him a free Los Cabos vacation package as a personal gratitude. Despite common sense of not to pay contractors until everything's done, I naively believe in good nature of human, believing others will treat me the same as I treat them, that I will not be taken advantage of if I don't take advantage of others. Especially I had a decent relationship with Marco. Every body needs money some time in their lives, if I can open my door, I really don't mind paying. Money has no value for mere accumulation of money. That's my philosophy. It took Marco 2 months to earn my trust, and took him only 2 days to loose it. There is a bottom line, my patience can only go so far, and to be honest, it's been far more than the norm. The livelihood of my business is my responsibility, when the people I rely on to work for me is no longer reliable, it's up to me to make things happen without them. I am not even a bit sorry. No one deserves pay for works they didn't do!

As a result of this, I told my mall manager about this incident, Marco will not be hired to build a restroom in the mall. I am not sorry, in fact it's my obligation to inform her, so she can keep her job rather than getting F@#$ by Marco's lack of work ethic. I tried helping him obtain as many jobs as possible through my connection previously. He's the one who turned away the opportunities.

Tim the plumber came to rescue, he showed up at 4:30 pm on Mother's day and we started working non-stop till Thursday afternoon (the day we passed health inspection). Building inspection was passed the very next day. He will be rewarded for what he had done for me. So far Tim is the most reliable person I had worked with.

The sign guy who took my money paid me back only portions of the deposit. When I asked him for the rest, he said I am tight with money right now, won't be able to pay me back for a while. It has been 1.5 months! Why why why???? Why men do not live up to their words? Why men make promises that they can't keep??? That's my retirement money I worked hard for, which he took advantage of and now he won't pay up!!!!!! DA F%$#!!!! All the bull shit about him being brought up in South Africa with good integrity, good ethic, good moral, good value, his behavior is the opposite of them all. Just like Marco, bsing about how responsible he is, for his clients, his family, his oversea family and blah blah blah... I have no one to blame but myself for believing them. Shame on me?

The battle goes on

After the second time the health inspector did not show up for an appointed inspection, I gave up calling her directly. I went straight to the headquarter, asked for her supervisor. The first supervisor I spoke to 3 weeks ago was a male with an accent. The second "supervisor" I spoke to last Friday was a female name Janet. I called again Monday, I spoke to an other female but not Janet, Tim the plumber called 3 minutes after I hung up, spoke to a Virgina. Every one of them are all her supervisors and promised to find out the situation and will schedule an inspect asap. Well, we didn't get any confirmations from any of them. The whole incident made me believe that they're all pretending to be the supervisors trying to cover each other's asses, and make you run around like a mad dog. Today is Tuesday, she showed up at 1:30pm unannounced, as soon as she came in, words came out of her mouth were, "I thought you were ready to be open, I don't know why you insist on me coming like this. I told them I'll show up, what's the point of calling?" Well, she must live a sucky life and hating it every moment. If I were her, I'd so hate myself, I might even quit!

Here she walked around and picking on things that were not on the previous list which we completed. The restroom is pre-existing before my time. I did not make any modification to it knowing better not to F#$@ with something's already approved previously. Now she insist on hooking new pipes to the big water heater instead of the existing tankless water heater in the bathroom. Her excuse was "I did not see that last time". Evil thoughts did come across my mind at that moment and hours after she left. Now I have to rip off a whole freakin wall to install new pipes. Just like she wants, I put every thing together so she can come tell me to rip it all off to re-do them, and then bitch about why she shouldn't be here the first place. This is the type of people working for our government at the lowest level. I think I should move to an other country.

Some people's got the talent to make others miserable. I have a feeling she'll do the same thing over and over again. Next time she'll have something new that she "missed" purposely.

Absolute BS

It's absolutely unacceptable behavior, intolerable even by saints. This is the second time the health inspector did not show up for an appointment. Friday of last week, I called for an appointment, of course she didn't answer. I left a message as a ritual, and of course no return calls. Tuesday of this week, I got up early and drove to her office to make an appointment. Her office hours are Tue and Thur 8 to 10 am only, 4 hours in a week!!!! If I missed one of her office day, it'll cost me a whole week. I just can't take that chance. So I made the appointment with her in person for Thursday morning 7 am as of yesterday. She put it down on her book, I saw it with my own eyes! I verified with her again before I left her office. She knew she did me wrong and still put the blame on me by volunteering quote "I didn't understand your messages." If she knew those messages were mine, doesn't that mean she admitted not returning my calls purposely?! Ok, I can swallow my pride for now. Whatever you biatch wants to play nasty.....

Well, I got up at 5:45 am on Thursday morning, met up with the plumber Tim and contractor Marco at 6:45 am at the shop. We waited and waited till 10:30 am. NO SHOW again!!!!! OH MY #$@%#%&^#$$#$@#!#$!!!!!

I am so furious at this moment, I feel sick to my stomach. I can't win with her, she'll do what she can to sabotage me now and in the future. I can complain, but it won't do me any good. But I called her supervisor again today anyway. God knows whose side is she on, but she seemed nice and calm and understanding during our phone conversation.

Whatever it is, it's not professionally acceptable. If it's a personal issue, I will lose down time and money, she'll make my life miserable for as long as I am in business. But then again, I'll raise hell if she continues to play nasty. I'll go to the state counsel if I had to. I will file a law suit for reimbursement of financial loss due to the hold up if the situation persist.

Wall patching day

Today is a new day, in the sense of something entirely new to me. Sanding, patching, re-sanding walls aren't "smooth" enough by Health department standard. I can see if something like a concrete or red brick wall would be too rough. But tiny bumps?! My contractor was going to do the work, but couldn't make it here today, so I decided to do it myself. How hard can it be??? Is there anything I can't do at this point??? Well, just do it! I am stuck with this mentality for now, but I am a little resentful for whatever reason. As much as I like Marco, I begin to show dissatisfaction of his absence.

The night before, I spent 3 hours sanding part of the walls to prepare for the patching. Around 10:30 am, I started the process of smoothing the walls. That involves using a metal spatula scraping some plaster binding compound (in pink, hot pink) on the walls, and then scrape till it's flat, then let dry. The pink compound will become white when dried. After a brief break, I was back to sanding. When I left the shop, it was almost midnight. I was tired, sore, hungry, thirsty, dusty and looked like a walking drumstick dipped in flour waiting to be fried. My fingers were shaking all the way from the sanding machine. My cuticles are flaky and messed up. My finger nails are chipped here and there. My paws look like crow's feet. An Epsom salt bath came to rescue as soon as I got home, added a little seaweed to take away the dusty toxins. Now come to think of it, it's like soaking in a tub of miso soup without the miso. Boy, don't I crack myself up some times.

I got an unexpected call from the sign guy, who took my money, but still no sign guy. I'll meet him on Monday at his friend's shop to negotiate a deal for my sign. He claimed he paid out $500 deposit to an other company for the material before he sold the shop. Now he's willing to refund what's left. What kinda business conduct is this???? It was delayed by a month, still no sign at this point and I have to pay $500 for the hassle?????? WTF!!! I believe I am still on US soil, not some 3rd world country ran by Mafias right?! But then again, I am happy to know that I might get SOME money back. The funny thing is, he said I should become his business partner doing business in China. HA HA I chuckled for a long time. I don't know how can people want something from you, but won't even attempt to make a good impression. Trust and punctuality are must haves in business. What the hell are they thinking?! I begin to think I might be too naive to take in every words as they were true and meaningful.

Tomorrow is another day of painting. Another day of negotiation, try to keep my money in my pocket day.

further updates

I thought it'd be all done by now as of this week.... BUT....

Last Tuesday was the original appointment day with the health inspector after spending 2 weeks hunting her down, how ever she did not show up. I kept calling everyday there after till Thursday, no answer, no calling back. She hit my limit by Friday. I called the main office attempted to change inspector, apparently, it's not an option. My call was forward to her supervisor, after explaining to him about the situation at 9:30 am, I received a call from the inspector herself at 1:30 pm announcing her arrival in an hour. My instinct tells me she's coming with a vengeance. Having a couple of guys there might defuse her a bit I thought, but my contractor was pouring concrete at another job site. After spending 20 mins at the shop, she quickly listed 14 items for correction. Items were passed by the building inspector, we now have to replace and re-finish by her rules. Well, she dumped a shit load of rotten lemons over my face there.

Late last week, I made arrangements to have furniture delivered on Saturday from 3 stores. Due to the inspection incident, I had to cancel them all except one that I picked up on Friday morning. My sis-in-law met with me at an antique store to pick up a Ching Dynasty antique bed I purchased back in Nov. When we showed up, the girl at the store raised an eyebrow, “just the 2 of you?”. Well, 4 ladies dissembled the bed into panels and loaded them up to my truck. The young lady was later inspired by the fact that women can do what our mind inhibits us from doing. Here I was hauling a truck full of furniture down the free way when I got the call from the inspector. Well, I can’t move the bed in as a result, so my sis-in-law suggested taking the whole thing back to her garage for temporary storage. 40 miles later, we were back to her house. Seeing my niece, nephew and my parents shifted my attention from the problems, I was happy to be there with the kids. It turned out the load was too big even for the garage.

Saturday, I dragged the whole load with me every where I went. My girlfriend’s taking a night class at UCLA, a marketing class for the medical industry. A paper is due next Thursday. I hauled the load to her house and stayed there over night to work on the paper. Lemom flower patels rained all over the bed over night, it smelled quite nice. A blessing from a fairy!

Sunday morning, I hauled the whole thing back to my place, some of the panels are too tall to go under the garage door, I ended up parking the truck on the street while I took a shower. Yes, I was paranoid the whole time. I invited a few LA tea members for a preview of the shop at 2 pm. There I hauled the whole thing back to where it was supposed to be 2 days later. The world does go around! After setting everything up and while waiting, I started unloading the tall pieces. My logic was to leave the heavy low height pieces on the truck so I can get in my garage, then unload them when the contractors are there on Monday. Takuro our newest LA tea member showed up and helped me moving, Will and Louis showed up soon after and lent helping hands too. I can’t thank these guys enough for helping! Nick joined us for tea later as well. After tea, I can’t resist the temptation to put the bed back together, so I did and it looks wonderful, covered with plastic sheets.

Today, I arrived at the shop early in the morning, had a meeting with my contractor Marco and Tim the plumber, discussed issues regarding the “corrections”. We decided to find out about what we can get away by meeting the inspector at her office tomorrow morning, Tim will be the spokes person. A couple of guys laid the bamboo floor and put on a second layer of stains over the counters. I went for a ride with Tim to a plumbing specialty store for a new water heater, one of the major replacements. Yeah the effort I put into moving that giant 75 gallon tank inside the store was a waste. Well, what can you do! No one seems to know the BTU equivalence of 18kw electric model. Health department says 80k btu, the manufacturer says 62k. Knowing this is a potential opportunity for the inspector to pick on, we printed the spec sheets for tomorrow’s meeting. Once she agrees to something, she can’t eat her own words later.

Any how, it was an interesting ride with Tim. Tim is a veteran from Ronald Reagan times, met the Reagans 4 times during his presidency at the white house with honors and metals. He seems to be well read judging from the conversation, well aware of world issues, and I found 3 books in his truck. When I first met Tim a week ago, he was a happy camper with a girlfriend. Over the weekend, his gf broke up with him, and that lead to an interesting conversation, rater unexpectedly profound. The subject of living together prior to marriage was the start of the conversation. His point of view is despite the common belief of living together prior marriage prepares you for an emerging marriage, statistic shows other wise, twice of the couples who lived together prior marriage tend to divorce more than ones who didn’t. A conventional old fashion care taker that Tim is, in his own words, explained what the word husband means, besides a woman’s spouse. Husband means a man with duty to make a woman happy, take good care of the people in the house, ensures the family is functioning smoothly. My eyes got a bit watery there. Then he carried on. What is self? The existence of self has no meaning unless you can please and contribute to your love ones. Self-centered which many of are in this society contributes to high divorce rate and self-isolation. What makes a man happier than waking up in the morning, a woman thanks god for a man’s presence in her life? Well… I don’t get to hear something like this with a serious tone much nowadays, or it was just words without delivery of action. It certainly made me contemplate for a while. Goodness in a man has no boundary, not limited by education background, profession, or bank account! Cheers to that!

Update on progress

Counter shelves are done, will be stained tomorrow

All appliances are turn on, all plumbings are hooked

Platform is in form and looking good, will put on bamboo floor and side covers, to be stained tomorrow

I redid the cherry tree at the door, it's now matching the one by the platform (still no camera as of today)

Today, we had an appointment with the health department inspector between 2 and 4 pm. I worked my butt off for 2 days (started working at 4:30 am), pushing the contractors and plumbers to put thing together before inspection, well, no show!!!! WTF!!! Not even a courtesy call to let me know she's not coming. I waited till 5:30 pm, left a message at her office. Of course I can't bitch, I can't even raise my voice, nor that I can blame her for not showing for any unreasonable reasons. This is the kinda crap I have to put up with for the last 6 months. Sure I get upset, but my mind is immune to this kinda shit by now, some times I feel numb, it's better to save a breath, not worth getting all work up for shit that can't be fixed. Things will fall into place at its own pace, that's my motto. A hot bath of Epsom salt with lavender essential oil can rid your body pain and tune out stress. I have been utilizing this regiment every other day if not every day for the last 3 months. I need my sanity!


I also need to remind myself how far I have gone so far:

Jan 06, discovered I want to run a business again

Jan - late march 06, research market, prepare business plan and estimate cost

Late march, start looking for a physical location (estimated 3 - 6 months)

August (5 months later) found this location

December (4 whole months) to negotiate a deal to lock down on a lease. It's nice to be rich, vacancy is not an issue.

December, architect drew up plans for submission to city of RHE and LA county health dept

Mid Jan 07, all plans approved (right on schedule)

2 weeks after plan approval, first contractor (I spoke to 2 months before approval) whom is a church friend of our family friend bailed on the project. Sheesh, can't count on a friend nor a christian, especially a christian contractor whom happens to be a friend's friend. Wasted my time and gave me bull shit excuse. Such a flake! Contacted an other contractor via a friend. He gave me a quote (friendship discount) that tells me nothing but he doesn't want the job. Which was alright. At least no bull. I can handle rejection, but let me know right! Found a logo designing company in Studio city to design my logo, it turned out crappy, I paid $1200 for junk that I can't use.

Early Feb, got hooked up with a neighbor's friend, big time contractor with 50+ union crew members, projects at Disney Land. Another friend of the neighbor who owns a company that install cabinets, offices set ups, cosmetic of remodeling for all the Penski dealerships around the country, who agrees to set up my counters, cabinets, platforms and etc...

Late Feb, Bob pulled a building permit for $1700. 2 weeks later, came back to me with a quote of $38k for only the plumbing portion. Well, that's not going to work, but at least Bob was very genuine and that's just the kind of "high price" subcontractors he knows.

Immediately, late feb, search for contractor information on line, came across Service Magic dot com, I just throw in some job to see what kind of response I get, ding, like magic, my current contractor call me 10 mins later. 3 more called and took them 2 weeks to come up with 3 sets of quotes.

Early March, all quotes were in and I selected my current contractor. Signed contract, scheduled to start working the following monday, scheduled to be finished by March 20. I thought we are still on schedule despite all the delays. Change of contractor is a not easy, I now have to pay $2400 for all the permits again. Bob the previous contractor had to request a refund from the city, I still don't know if he got the money back as of today. I need to give him a call.

Same week, early march, contractor insurance needs to be upgraded to meet landlord requirement, should had taken no more than 2 days, and turned into 2 whole weeks. The first few days, I called for follow ups, didn't hear from the contractor, I panic and thought of the worst that he took my money and ran away. Called utility companies to turn on services, no one has my address correctly. The center is so obnoxious, it has its own address, "the center" instead of # and street where it's on. Water man came and turned on the meter, but the water was not running, he refused to trouble shoot. My contractor found it later. Same thing with gas, meter was on and running, but instead, gas was leaking even nothing's hooked. Service man put a plug on the meter preventing further leak. My contractor took care of that again. Took me a week of research to find a local cable internet provider. Although I knew Cox was the only place, but my address was not registered at their data base, so on their website, I have no cable provider. Equipments were purchased from a couple of vendors, scheduled to be delivered next week.

March 23 midnite, ground breaking started literally, saw cutting concrete floor for proper drainage. 8:30 in the morning, got a phone call from the management office, complaining concrete in the storm drain. My heart dropped to the floor. Fear of having to look for contractor again, what a nightmare that would be. Got my sleepy ass up and arrived to the office to face the devil. It turned out wasn't a big deal, the contractors cleaned up afterwards and no more complain. Same week, started shopping for a sign company, overwhelmingly expensive for an aluminum sign which is required by the landlord. Saturday, Homedepot called me up at 7:30 am, informed of a delivery. It was a Saturday!!!! I dragged my ass up and drove 45 min to the shop. There was the delivery man with a fork lift, on it was a crate of a big 75 gallon water heater tank and cabinets and bamboo floors. He dropped the crate right at my door and left. It's another jaw dropping experience. I called for help, no one's available. Contractor showed up 3 hours later although told me he'll be there in one. I waited and waited, at the mean time, I kept looking at the pile of stuff. Finally I decided to move them inside by myself, the most reliable person is oneself! I got everything else in and down to the giant tank. I then managed to got it stuck in the middle of the door. A shopper stopped and helped me move it all the way inside. I left feeling invigorating. On my way home, I realized my track lights were not in the pile. So a stop at homedepot, the not so helpful "helpers" took an hour to figure out my lights were not included, they don't have them in stock even tough the computer says they do, finally I got my money back and went home for a much needed nap.

End of March, schedule for first inspection, we waited for a whole afternoon, no show. Then I got a call from Bob the previous contractor, he informed me the inspector called him, telling him we over did thing before first inspection. It turns out the city gave him the wrong info, he went to the wrong store (same center), yelled at the wrong people, called the wrong contractor. The point is, Bob was under the impression that I was using his permit behind his back. I had to swear in life of my toes to ensure him my current contractor is legit and we have new permit not under his name, therefore not his liability. 2 days later, the plumbing crew of 4 guys, my contractor and myself waited for the inspector again. Once we spotted him at Pinkberry's, one of the guys stalked him till he entered our door. Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. First building inspection passed. I was happy as a kitten. Everyone in the center started to talk about my contractor for passing at the very first time, usually take a couple of rounds. The center manager wants my contractor now. Called Gene the cabinet guy to start the job, he was in Arizona at the time and agreed to come by in a week for an estimate. We found out architect made a big mistake. Instead of 72" under counter fridge space, he had down 58", now all the plumbing is finalized and covered back up, all the hook ups are at wrong positions. Fuck is what I said! Plumbing is the most expensive, labor intensive, time consuming and crucial part of remodeling in case you don't know. So instead of redoing everything, we decided to rearrange the equipments which is going to interrupt work flow. That's the world I live in now, every now and then it knocks the senses out of you.

Early April, floors were tiled after the concrete was put back in. Found a sign company and paid down payment. Gene was supposed to come by, but didn't show, called a couple times, he kept postponing. I got fed up and negotiated a deal with my current contractor to build the counters. Sunday, my girl friend and her niece, my sis-in-law helped me paint the walls from 11 am till 6 pm. Girl friends are the best and the most reliable. I stayed till midnite to touch up and put up base cove, get ready for plumbing hook up the following day. The next day, I couldn't even lift my arms. YZ told me that she took pain killer before sleep and she's all good the next morning. I had to take pain killer for 3 days.

First week of April, one of the contractor left for vacation. He arranged his partner to have appliances plumbing hook up and build counters. The partner built a tall ass railing over the platform, looking like a cage, I told him to cut it down, he refused to until inspector comes. He then build frames of counter. Expecting deli case shipment last week, but was turn away because the floor guys said it won't fit through the door. Well, people don't give a rat's ass about you or your timeline like you do. That is just the bitter truth. I had to reschedule the 4th time (a week ago was the original delivery, but the driver got lost twice), contractor needs the case for final counter fitting. Plumber who did the rough plumbing was supposed to hook up the finishing plumbing part, but never show nor return calls. The problem was he thought the pay was for rough plumbing only. Chris the partner got pissed and switched plumber, schedule to start work next week. So now, Chris can't get jack done, he was schedule to finish all those task within a week, turned out he did less than 10 hrs of work in the whole week. I was not happy!!!

Following monday, stopped by the sign company to pick up banner, walked in and greeted by a new face, and informed that he's now the new owner whom knows nothing about my sign project, no money, no paper work, no words, nada. Panic alarm ringing in my ears!!!! Called the previous owner (number provided by the new owner), he actually did answer, and offered a refund or a deal with his friend. I haven't seen a dime so far, just dragging ass.

Sunday morning, I got a call from my sis-in-law, my mom was admitted to the hospital for kidney stone and infection. At that point, my sanity fell apart. I worked hard on letting things go, take difficulties with ease. All of that melted under the pressure of my mom's health issue. I was in the garage crying my eye balls out in the darkness. I felt mentally brutalized. I stayed with my mom till Wednesday morning before returning to deal with matters of the shop. She's released the same afternoon and happy to be home with the grand kids again. Phew~

Second week of April, main contractor came back and found that nothing much was done. He got pissed and smacked a piece wood so hard and punctured his finger. I took maters to my own hand, went home and got a big olde pick up truck, drove to the ware house picked up the deli case flew down to PV on the free way. The contractors took out the door of the entrance and the deli case, smooth sailing, there my deli case sitting inside after a 2 weeks ordeal. Just when I was feeling a little exited about the deli case, contractor point out the case needs condensation drainage, and the architecture plan did not show a floor drain for it. But the health and building department stamped the plan. So I just have to pray that she won't notice during inspection, so I don't need to saw and cut and dig and retile the floor again. Man, I was happy with my architect until the mis-labeled fridge and the deli case issue. These mindless mistakes can cost me an arm or a leg. Building inspector came, it was not even an issue in his book about the height of railing over the platform. The delay was all for nothing. I think Chris was sucking time for other projects, I believe they have 5 projects going on at the same time. Called health department for inspection, no return phone calls, kept calling till Friday, still no contact. What a bitch.

Saturday, I walked in the shop, literally it was jam packed with plumber, granite counter installer, counter builder, my contractor, electrician installing lights, neighbors stopping by, security guard Oscar was nosing around too. Oscar is a very nice guy, he let me pull my big pickup into the atrium to unload the deli case. The place was like London with heavy fog (granite dust). Boy I almost choked. But it was a scene to be joyful for. Things are happening.

3rd week of April, the plumber confirmed by the city that all pipes have to be copper, which was not indicated on the plan by my architect. In case you don't know how much do copper pipes cost, it cost me a couple extra thousands. Another big mistake by the architect. Part of plumbing hook up was done and passed the inspection, waiting for final sign off after health and fire department. Part of the counters are covered and shelved, cabinets are hung up. Called fire dept and scheduled following monday inspection, called health department again and again, finally got a hold of her on Thursday morning (a week and 2 days from first call, shit is right), scheduled for follow tuesday (today) between 2-4 pm. Contractors showed up only twice this week no mater how hard I was pushing. I don't have a gun and can't put one over their heads. Saturday, contractors worked till 9 pm, appliances were still not hooked.

Monday, 23 of April, I went to the store at 4:30 am, Fire department came right on time at 10 am, in and out in 2 minutes with signed approval. He even let me get away with not having to install an extra sprinkler. Yay!! Called contractor for heads up for tomorrow's important inspection, either make it or break it deal. Cell phone network out is the message I got. Panic attack again, the inspection is so important to me, I just can't let this take up more time. Came home at 2 pm, tired as hell and fell asleep. around 4:30 pm, got a call from contractor, schedule for morning work. Well, I can't blame a man at the doctor's office.

Tuesday, 24 of April as of today, came to work at 8 am, plumber got everything hooked up. I ran a cycle on the dishwasher to see if it works, 10 sec later, the floor was flooded with water, OOPS! Tim the plumber found out it was a leaking host and fixed it. Everything else are running as well, ready for health dept inspection, inspector no show!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a biiiiiiiaaaatch!!!!!!!

Boy, what's next?! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I can hear the metal clunging noice when I bite! ;)

This is the story of my project thus far. A lot of uncertainties, a lot of unpredictibilities, a lot of more money here, more money there, a lot of delay, a lot of rent to pay, a lot of things not getting done especially in my way, a lot of waiting for this, waiting for that, waiting for this department, waiting for that inspector. On top of that, a lot of "when is it going to be done?" Oh god, I would puke if I hear it one more time. Patience is golden!!!!! I still don't have a sign. Some times I wonder, just wonder. There are times I feel the need to vent, but most of the time, I am immuned to it all. I still loose sleep over shit like this every now and than, but life goes on, I refuse to get upset for longer than necessary. When life throws a rotten lemon at you, dodge it or eat it up like a proud man with eyes shut. One thing I truly learn to accept is, you can rush and push all you want, if the timing isn't right, it's just not happening. Not to say sit and wait for it to happen, rather do all that you can, yet don't get hung up on immediate gratification. Patience patience and a lot more patience.

Through out the last couple of months, I got to know my contractor Marco really well. He's reliable eventually, it may not be right away, but at the end of the day, he's there and gets things done. I like that he gives me options and sugestions without imposing like Chris. He's doing a lot of little extra fixings without extra charges, he even pay for lunch some times. Either people take advantage of my trust in them, or they want to invest in it. Marco wants to import building materials from China with my help, perhaps in a year once both of our businesses are set to auto pilot. My girlfriend's husband is a contractor in China, was awarded a contract building the current Beijing international airport. Here I just want to live my dream of having a peaceful life style in a good and safe neighborhood, there is the temptation of doing something big. I can't say I am ready for it, but when it's time, I'll just let things evolve on its own course. Those who just want a quick scam of my money, karma will kick your ass! Oh, believe me karma is oh soooo real!!!

Well, all is going to be worth while, this is what I tell myself constantly. The whole experience has turned me to a walking bamboo. Characteristics of bamboo are reciliant, flexible, durable, almost unbreakable. This is only the beginning, there will be a lot more to face in the future, in theathers near me.

Marco end up getting multiple job offers from my job. The nail salon hired him for a tile floor and granite counter job, the management office asked him for a bid on a vacant store, building a new bathroom, a Korean gentleman wants him to retile his floor. My next door neighbor is moving out in July, so who knows, he might get that job too after the new tenant sees what he did to my shop. He'll have my business if I were to build something else.

This turns into a book already, should have a movie made about it. :P

technical or not

As a result of an online tasting, aside of each individual's taste, experience and preference of tea, same parameters resulted in very different outcomes. That raises my question in duration of steeping. Even though it's 10s on paper, does that 10s include pouring in/out time? I think some would clock 10s after closing the lid then pour, which technically speaking adds 5 to 15s to the total steeping time depending on how fast you pour and from what vessel, in turn, can be significant for delicate teas, particularly greens.

My practice of 10s, is from the time the first drop of water touching the leaves to the last significant drop of water comes out of a pot or gaiwan. Which is a quick pour in and out, almost immediately. Steeping time is when tea leaves are submerged in water in whole or partially, to my understanding.

Lately, I pay more attention to the technical aspects of making a good cup of tea, I feel less relaxed about drinking tea. My initial liking of tea was emotionally driven. The mental setting, yi jing 意景 is what I enjoyed the most. Not to say that the quest for science in tea isn't important, it is over rated in the US. All the science proofs, researches and what not circulating in the media definitely generate interest, however it's the kind of interest to seek a magic pill. How many bonding benzene rings are there in a leaf?! I might as well pop a green tea tablet. Although it's all about tea, I personally feel science is clouding the pure tea drinking experience. My tea tastes much better when my mind is cleared of science and skill. After a while, one can establish his own set of skills to make a good cup of tea, it becomes habitual or auto pilot that emphasis can be focused on enjoying the taste, experience, surroundings, companies, etc etc. So if I over steeped a brew, tea is kinda like human, you can mess it up and still be loved!

I remember days when my girl friends and I had little tea gatherings after nice dinners. We talked mostly everything else but tea. That is what tea meant to me, tea is there to enhance our lives, not consume our lives.

The semi-official LA tea club have gathered a few serious tea tastings, I enjoyed it very much. The new friends I made, the generosity of the members, the knowledge I learned from them, the new teas I got to taste otherwise not, and more. In future gatherings I would like it less tea fanatically formally oriented . Yes, I know it's a tea club! Now that we got pass that initial awkward stage, we can drink tea like old friends do, tea is just the glue. Hey gang, love you all!

Progress

Follow up of the progress. The camera is in the "garage" getting a fix up now, hope I'll have it back by next week, so I can take some pictures.

The frames of counter cabinets are up and nailed to the ground, shelves are done, waiting to be stained. Granite counter tops are also done, deli case is set up. I am very happy that the EXTREMELY high railing of the platform is coming down. It looked so ugly, imagine drinking tea in a cage? Yeah, king kong drinking tea in his cage. The contractor was trying to push me to keep it as is even I asked him not to put them up. So we settled on the final words from the city inspector. The inspector's book says a platform under 3 ft, no railing is necessary. I have a difficult time dealing with people try hard to deceive you, sell you false products/believes to benefit their own gain/convenience. Even after I verified with my architect of the building code, the contractor still tried to keep the cage. I can understand the rivalries between contractors and architects, however discrediting ones professional knowledge totally is plain arrogance. Too much beer drinking probably contribute to that kinda male animalistic behavior in the world of construction.

I stayed up till mid night the other day to put up another cherry tree. I am much happier with this tree than the first one. Will follow up with a picture when I have the camera back.

Moving along slowly

Blank Canvas


First cut

Wall frames are up, pipes are laid


Holes are filled, dry walls are up

Floor tiles are done

Walls are painted

First mural is up, but not quite ideal.

Lights are partially mounted, but no pictures to follow through. My NEW camera is broken. My niece knocked it off my hand and broke the lens. I feel the need to cleanse my mantra, there has been series of events happening in my life lately that I have a hard time digesting. You can only take what life throws at you with a grain of salt.

Slow

I am sorry for the sluggish posting lately. It's been crazy with all the remodeling going on. I'll resume posting once I have more free time. Drink up every one! :)

My pet project

Having my own tea lounge is an idea has been brewing for a year now. A year ago, I was seeing someone in SD, we hopped in a popular local cafe for late night desserts. Loose leave tea is offered by the cafe, there must be 20+ varieties, plus specialty coffee from famous coffee producing regions all over the world. To my taste, they are mediocre (both coffee and tea, even their desserts), but far more superior than most restaurants have to offer. I was shamelessly bragging about my good tea and skill to my date, and he agreed. I jokingly said to him, I could have done better than this. Well, that idea got stuck to my head since, tickled my hidden fancy often enough that I decided to pursuit it.

My family had been in the food industry since I was 15. We had 3 restaurants in a couple of large mid-west cities. Medium size dine in, fast food to a full scale 4000 sq ft full liquor licensed dine in restaurant. Yeah, I can make a few good drinks other than tea. ;) Growing up with such back ground has definitely planted an entrepreneurial root in every vein of mine. I truly believe the 3 key factors required for an event to take place and succeed in old Chinese wisdom: timing, location and harmony of human, 天 時, 地 利, 人 和. In my 20s, running a business was overwhelming, time and personal life must be sacrificed. Timing wasn't right and my heart was not harmonious with the business. I even had dreams that I was burned as sacrifice for some mysterious god like creatures, whom devoured my cooked physical being and my screaming spirit struggled to escape in a vaguely visible smoke form. I constantly reminded myself never to run another restaurant ever. Climbing the corporate ladder became the next trendy thing to catch on. I liked the uneventfulness of having a 9 to 5 job, as soon as I got out of work, worry free is a sensation I was not familiar with, but it felt good. I needed a break from running a business, and it turned out to be a long 7 years break. Living by other's bureaucracy for 7 years is as much as I can take. Ooooh, the 7 years itch! 3 weeks of vacation time is just not enough to satisfy my travel crave. It's one thing to change direction of your life/career, it's an other to change who you are, what you are born to do, and passionate about.

My cooking/entertaining skill also took a back seat, the only time to whip them out are holidays, when friends and families get together. House parties up to 120 guests, with themes, seafood, BBQ and traditional Chinese food. Food has got the grease to bind friendships together smoothly. Friends are always curious why not open my own restaurants, there were even a couple of investors with serious offers. I like cooking to a degree that I am not stressed out about people yelling at me where are their orders. Cooking at leisure is what I love, but it's too labor intensive in a commercial environment. I shy away from any thoughts of having my own restaurant.

In 2001, a year after I learned about kungfu tea, a family friend suggested I should have my own tea house since I am so intensely passionate about it. His father a tea veteran for 50-60 years offered to be my purchasing agent in China and Hongkong. Not having any thoughts of owning my own business at the time, due to lack of knowledge of the industry and tea itself, the tea house idea was way far back in my mind. My interest in tea gradually transcended from self-indulgence to a bigger picture over time, years to be exact. Working in a large health organization constantly expose me to the subject of preventative care, how to change the way we live for better health, in turn, of course save them money - lots of money on long term care. Health care industry learned that it's MUCH cheaper to spend money early on for scheduled check ups, nutrition advisory, educational seminars for 10's thousands members than spending millions on ONE transplant case. My objective is solely to avoid suffocation of pain and immobility inflicted by any illness. Looking young is not a bad bonus either. Tea becomes part of the solution of self-care health regiment. No one can take care of your own health better than yourself. You must have the will, you must have the drive to take care of yourself. It's not just the EGCG that gives you the health benefit, the practice of kungfu tea, the calming environment it provides, the tranquility it promotes are all parts of healthy living. Physical health comes from within - good mental health and clean colon track. Having over 20 years of chronic auto-immune deficiency syndrome, I learn that a peaceful mind is the key ingredient to healing, and tea is my salvation. The task to discover peace is daunting, and it only comes from your own experience no matter how many times you have heard how great it is for you from others. It's my mom's job to keep feeding me those messages, and I thank her for implanting them in my subconscious mind tirelessly. Maybe I am a bit of a rebel, I took the time and heartaches to learn this important life lesson. Most people would interpret peaceful mind as some one never gets upset, never show anger and such. Maybe it would be eventually, but my current stage of peaceful mind is to let out all the negative emotions in a non violent or destructive manner without interfering or hurting others when necessary, while building up tolerance and understanding of human mind which dictates our behavior. You must expel toxins in order to have a clean mind, repressing it internally will only snow ball an explosive break down in the future. Tea is an important and intricate part of my life.

A change from the health angle, tea culture has drawn my interest deeper and deeper, without a specific goal, it was just an obsession for self indulgence at the beginning. In recent years, movies made in China featuring century old houses and furniture tweaked my interest of how refine and artistic my culture used to be, and will be again. The romanticism embedded with wisdom reflected in everyday living back in the old days is mesmerizing and eye opening. I was educated here in the states with very limited exposure to my own culture, I now want to seek out to learn more rather than waiting for it to become available in the US. I often imagine sipping tea in a wood carved open window second story pagoda like structure, right next to a meander canal, looking down at boats slip by, passersby on stone bridges, willow trees swaying in gentle breeze, cicadas singing in a sunny summer afternoon. Or waking up in a beautify wood carved Chinese bed to a glorious morning, a gaiwan full of hot tea waiting on the table. What a beautiful way to live!

Those fantasies were manifested into reality through traveling abroad. It sure struck up more fantasies. One of them is to live in Paris for half a year with my mother. She loves Paris, it's modern, it's old school, it's artsy, it's easy to get around, all the modern features to enhance this richly aged ageless city. Ok this is not tea related, but I can drink tea in Paris other than wine. Wait, this sounds like pu-erh. Rich, aged, ageless!


The more I dwell into, the more obsessed I become. There are misrepresentations of Chinese culture or Asian culture as a whole in the US, both among Asians and non Asians. My fantasy is to re-introduce to the masses the art and culture of China other than cheap consumer goods found in Walmart and 99 cents only stores. Nothing wrong with that though, it lubricates the economy wheel. Disposable funding creates demand for quality and artistic life style, affords the artistic culture to grow and strive. It's not uncommon that Chinese-Americans express shame when the term "Made in China" is brought up. I was no exception for a period of time. Well, that shows how naive and lack of serious knowledge I was.

Having these objectives in mind, the direction of my tea shop is inevitably be very "Chinese" with antique (some reproduction) theme. It's a start and will improve over time. It's all about the art of living and living to enjoy it! I don't claim to know everything about tea, although I made it my mission to generate interest in tea culture, it's up to the inquisitive minds to continue learning, it's also the motivation for me to continue learning as well.

2001 Yi Wu and more new pots

Pu-erh in the picture is 2001 Zhong Hua Yi Wu by Jing Ye Hao, a sample from Houde. It's on the thin side even I used more leaves than usual, about 5g. Color is light amber and clear, taste is smoked wood/veggie, not the actually smoke smell or taste, but like smoked duck but not cigarette smoke, if that was a good analogy. An indescribable flavor, perhaps a cooked prune in syrup taste? A little bit of sweet after taste, medium round mouth feel. It's a decent tea. I can't say I like it as much as others I had, but maybe it'll age better, and I think it has a good chance.



My never ending obsession of obtaining teapots. Pear shaped teapots are my favorites for now. A new member to the pear family, and the larger pot is up side down handle dinosaur egg.

My journey down the tea path

An intro of my tea drinking days. I have been reading pu-erh community for a good 6 months now, also posted a couple of times. I enjoy this pool of tea wisdom immensely. Only recently I discovered a link on pu-erh community of reader/user bios which I have not done. In a way, I am not quite comfortable shouting out my life in a big community as such. So without being "mysterious", here is my tea bio.

I started drinking tea ever since I could remember having visitors at just a few years old, mainly black and loose pu. It's a tradition to treat your visitors with tea. It's part of being Chinese which I feel extremely lucky to be to have such early exposure to the world of tea, although not the greatest tea at the time.

After landed on land of the free, North America, for many years, I had lost in touch with my roots. Those days were about re-adjusting, trying to fit in in a new culture/country. Coke was cool although I could never get used to the sugary taste and the carbonation. Then it was the cocktail days in college. Gosh, the memory of alcohol after taste still urks me from time to time. Then it's coffee for a couple of years after college, cuz it's a social pad for people watching. However they were trendy/cool beverages I never find my passion sink in any of them, not quite satisfying either.

The turning point of discovering quality tea, rich history and art of China was 1998, my first trip to China since landed on North America. I had my first kungfu tea in Beijing. It was intriguing to observe how it was done meticulously, especially after knowing the term "kungfu tea" since as little as only a few years old. I came home with 20+ yixing teapots. The airline made me checked in my teapot full carry-on, and broke a couple of pots and cups. Evil airliners! At the time, I was infatuated with the designs of the yixing pots, without knowing and learning about its usage and properties associated with tea. My friends were also contaminated by my new found teapot craze, I ended up giving most of them away, only a couple of them left in my hands as of today. I learned what quality tea taste like since.

In 2000, I made LA my new home after living in various cities in the Midwest. A friend of my close girlfriend signed up for a 4 day tea seminar provided by Mr. Wang - owner of Ten Ren San Gabriel store, of course I tagged along for curiosity. It was a 3-4 hours session on 4 consecutive Saturday afternoons. The class was taught by Mr. Wang himself, a tea master, competition participant/winner at many Taiwanese tea events. He no longer gives free classes due to change of business direction in recent years. This seminar has further opened my sight. I have since drank tea the kung fu way only, oolong (family) is my primary choice, sheng pu has crept up on my list for a little over a year now.

The experience has inspired me in many levels, not limited to just tea, it is a continuous walk down the path of 5000 years Chinese culture in all aspects. In addition to tea, I am also interested in alternative healthy living. Long term stress has caused me health problems that western medicine is not able to cure. Base on my own discoveries, I am inspired to introduce and share them with others in this fast pace society, where highly stressful working/living style is unavoidable. I am currently working on opening a tea lounge with a tea bar in Palos Verdes. I will take on the mission of teaching/introducing the wonderful world of tea with what I know, share with and learn from the knowledgeable ones. I had the opportunity, and so should everyone else. My goal is to provide a relaxing space to rediscover ones center. Having good health both mentally and physically as the foundation of life is the only way to succeed in all areas, and have the luxury of live to enjoy the success. LA is my long term home, I hope to see tea culture flourish here, but not limited to here!

http://www.teahabitat.com/

New pots

No title

I am trying extra hard to be creative tonight, but my brain is constipated! I am tired but sleepless, watching South Park mindlessly in the middle of the night, wondering what can I do?! hmm maybe take some pictures of my new pots. I haven't done that for a while, quite a few pots are waiting to be photographed. I had tasted so many tea lately, I can feel them oozing out of my eye balls. My pee must contain more EGCG than a bottle of Lipton white tea! My dad brought back a lot of tea from Guangzhou, he had also shipped another 70kg. I can have tea parties everyday for a year without running out of supply. Wish I could be more productive at composing tasting notes. Lately, my mind is refusing to function like I want it to. Everything I know about tea is drowned by stress.

I just remember I am down to a very thin roll of toilet paper, but I am not going anywhere at this hour even if I had a stomach ache. I'd be too paranoid, even a fly would scare the crap out of me. The after trauma effect that is! It's been extremely insanely busy lately, that's why I am low on stock, I usually have a spare pack of the 12 big rolls some where. But still not a good excuse. I am being incoherent here...

Ginseng Sake

It's a rather common practice to add herbal medicines in rice wine in China, the remedies are long term nourishments which improve health and prolong life if drank daily over a period of time. Ginseng is one of the common kind, other odd remedies are lizard, rat, snake or tiger weenie, yeah..... you read that right, it was not a typo.

I am making a ginseng sake here. Since sake is a low alcohol content rice wine, it's suitable for my taste. The ginseng I am using is a small inexpensive red ginseng root, they are widely available at most herb store in China towns across the states. Loosen the ginseng bundle, rinse with water and let air dry, then simply put them in the wine. I used 3 bundles in a 1800 ml bottle, 4 should be fine too. This ginseng sake is ready to drink in about a week. A shot glass (1 - 2 oz) of sake at dinner keeps the doctors away! The taste is great, the sweetness in ginseng significantly mellows down the sharp alcohol taste. Drinking it warm is even better, the aroma of rice and ginseng blend well together which add dimension to the enjoyment.

Nutty and moonlight oolong

I tasted the moonlight before the nutty, for reason of its appearance. It has silver hairy young buds mixed with dark green leaves.

The first brew was a quick 10 s pour, light with floral aroma; the 2nd brew was a 1 minute steep, I tasted sourness, bitterness and wood/compose, sour stiff and cinnamon sweet after taste. 3rd and 4th was a minute each, tasted similar to 2nd but less floral.

Nutty is the least attractive looking leaves among the 3 samples. It's also the reason I saved it for the last, however to my surprise, it tasted the best of the 3.

Quick 1st pour - 10s, clean mouthfeel, very floral, sweet in taste; 2nd was 30 s steep, stronger aroma of floral and fresh mulch, hint of mint, sweet pu-erh like after taste.

Both the Snow and Moonlight oolong resemble sun dried peony. Nutty is high in floral aroma, hence more like a oolong, it's also less oxidized than the other two.

My preference is Nutty, Snow and Moonlight in that order. However I won't replace my TGY and high mountain oolong with the Darjeeling varieties any time soon. They are more of the European afternoon tea choice, the term oolong associates with these tea does not match the Chinese oolong in "spirit", perhaps a imitation of technique, but without the essence.

Unknown age green clay Yixing pot

My father was in China to attend my cousin's wedding. It is nice to have family and friends who fuel my tea obsession. My cousin gave me this unknown age old yixing pot! It's very smooth to touch, well seasoned with use, wonderful art work, and I love the mythical representation of the figure.

Buddhism promotes the idea of Karma, kinda like a score card through out your life, before life, after life and every life there after, basically eternal; your family can inherit your karma as well, roughly speaking. Monks particularly accumulate good karma by not eating/killing animals, eliminate desires, promote peace, no wrong doing, and so on. Once they reach the level of kindness of god, they become immortal and assume super power in order to continue to do good for the human kind.

This pot portraits a monk with super power where he's capable of inflating a raggie bag (his luggage/belonging) as his transportation vessel across the sea, fly over the clouds.

Snow oolong

T-ching tasting samples: snow, moonlight and nutty oolong. I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week, so I am going to do a quick tasting of Snow oolong before I leave for LAX.

Dry leaves: a lot of white hair young leaves, some what broken, sign of fermentation.

3 g, gaiwan, boiling water

The first brew started off well, floral, smooth with hint of sweetness

Boy that was as far as I could get on Tuesday!

Almost a week later (Sunday night), here I attempted the second tasting.

Same parameters, 10s, 15s, 30s, 60s

Started off with floral, hint of sweetness but not lasting; the second brew was more amber in color, compose and some leather hint, medium to crisp body, reminds me of my orchid barks; 3rd brew, compose taste is getting stronger and bitterness is noticeable; 4th, losing flavor rapidly, after taste is a little sweet mulchy.

This tea resemble Sun dried white peony more so than oolong, both in appearance and flavor.

I am really short on time, so I'll skim on the pictures.

Decorated in Hong Kong

Chinese New Year is this Sunday, so it's time to clean house! As a result, I packed up some clothes that I no longer wear, drove them to a local thrifty shop for the Aids foundation. Okay, I don't know where Goodwill is. Anyways, I found this little ginger jar, made in Japan, decorated in Hong Kong by Y.T.. One man's trash is another woman's treasure?!

I'll use it to store my 9 yrs old loose pu-erh.

05 vs 06 Lao Ban Zhang bricks

I bought a 2005 brick last year and liked it a lot, so I bought a lot of 10kg of the 06 bricks for aging. Although I had both tea today, my focus was away from tea, so I can't give accurate tasting notes at the time being. Pictures below show the difference of the two.

Left 05, right 06, both look about the same, however 06 seems a little less compressed than 05. I can break off the 06 rather easily in large pieces of leaves.


Left 05: Small broken leaves, this could be from my clumsy technique of breaking the brick, also I am currently prying the middle of the brick.
Right 06: Some whole leaves can be seen, consist of both young and old leaves.


Closer look of the 05 wet leaves.


Closer look of the 06 wet leaves.


Both are similar in color, light amber.

My home gallery

I shamelessly am very proud of my hall of prune blossoms.

My opium addiction

Here are my bricks, 10kg of 2006 Lao Ban Zhang pu. The excitement I feel about these bricks is similar to an opium addict found a supply of the gooey paste in bricks on the opium bed.

Speaking of opium, tea and opium got mingled together starting late 1700's, the British forced opium import to China to pay for tea consumption instead of paying with silver, triggered the famous Opium War in mid to late 1800's. The lost of Hongkong, forced open trading in ports of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai, the nation was brutalized by the British and other European countries, lingering resentment of the western countries are still among many Asian countries in addition to China. It was the most difficult time in all China history.

Tea has been a luxury item highly sought after and fought for for hundreds years. I can't imagine not indulging every sip of tea I can get my hands on. I treasure my tea more than diamonds and gold! Tea can nourish your soul, enrich your spirit, cleanse your flesh. Beauty within is the ultimate endeavor.

Change of comment setting

My blog is targeted by a handful of spam online promoters recently, featuring adult contents and various commercial products. To prevent further spamming and maintain the "purity" of my tea, I have changed comment setting of this blog to registered users only with text verification. I apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding!

Green day

Part of my loose leaves order arrived over the weekend. Inside of this box are mao fung, silver needle, sun dried bai mu dan, traditional bai mu dan and 10 kg of Lao Ban Zhang.


Sun Dried Bai Mu Dan

This is my favorite out of the 4 greens. Although I am not a big fan of green, this Bai Mu Dan has the floral aroma of a dan cong, sweetness of a pu-erh and the lightness of a green without the bitterness and grassiness.

4g, gaiwan, crab eye water, bottom throw
It started with a strong sweet floral aroma, liquid is clear yellow, sweet, a lot of flavor for a green. Being sun dried, it should be categorized as white instead of green?! Well, it has all the characteristics of white, no much of green at all. It can take long steeping and hot or warm water, taste great hot or warm. The flavor does not turn bland in anyway. It's a great tea for beginners and every day office drink. You can't make a bad cuppa with this tea no matter what tool you use. Well with the exception of bad tap water maybe. Love it! A good skilless tea.


Silver needles

Attractive looking leaves, young and hairy, though not as hairy as some others I have seen. It's also on the thin side.

4g, gaiwan, crab eye, bottom throw
It was nutty and grassy, astringent, very light yellowish color, sweet after taste, dry mouth feel afterwards, can't take long infusions. It's decent, but nothing to brag about.


Jade pole
interesting looking tea, my first perception was these might be some old leaves. Turns out they are very young and tender, long thin leaves picked right after spring rain.

4 poles (4g), gaiwan, crab eye, bottom throw
Sweet and nutty, a bit astringent, slight sweetness, last 3 brews, faded quickly after the second. Its flavor is better than the silver needles.

I had 3 out of 4 greens so far for the day, and already drunk. But, I am going to hit one more - traditional bai mu dan.


Traditional bai mu dan

This is a true green version, steamed then dried.

4g, gaiwan, crab eye, bottom throw
Light floral, grassy, hint of nutty and astringency, sweet and nutty after taste, last 3 brews, mild in every way as a typical green. Bitter and astringent when steeped for long.


Difference of the 2 bai mu dan

Left: traditional (steamed green); right: sun dried (fermented during drying). Sun dried version is very flavorful compared to the steamed version. The fermentation allowed the break down of the sugar, gave it a honey like sweetness brew after brew. This is my re-orderable item.

Birth of Lapsang Souchong - Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong

Myth of Lapsang Souchong 正 山 小 種 (Main mountain small bush)

Wu Yi Shan has long been the major tea producing region through out China history and today. Gong Bing - Tea cakes were produced before the Ming dynasty, loose leaves thereafter. Before tea became a fashion in European, black tea was no where to be found. It was born due to an accident. A military troop past by a village, made themselves comfortable by sleeping on top of a layer of tea leaves which were being sun dried during the day. The village people couldn't collect the leaves over night, then found the fresh leaves completely fermented the next morning. These leaves were to shipped to Europe originally as Wu Yi Yen Cha. But as a result, the village people smoked these over fermented leaves to mask the flavor using fire wood. The name Lapsang Souchong was given to this new product. Interestingly enough, the Dutch loved the smoky flavor and ordered more, hence the spread of Lapsang Souchong in Europe.

Lapsang Souchong is Fukkienese, Fu Jian in modern day. Tea is also Fukkienese, De' is how it's pronounced. It became Tee in Dutch, then Tea in English. Cha is the official name in China, also used in India and the rest of Asian countries. Geographically, Fu Jian port was the first landing of the Dutch to load up ship loads of tea. De' was therefore adopted by the Dutch and carried back to Europe. In fact, most imported tea from China to Europe are of Fukkienese names. I couldn't make sense of Lapsang Souchong before I found it on an English/Chinese tag at WHF years ago.

1996 Zhong Cha Orange Uncooked- MengHai

It's been a while since I post anything. Wish you all a happy new year! Beginning of the year is the time to plan, so I have. One of them is drink lotsa tea of course. :)

I am drinking a 1996 Zhong Cha "orange in orange" uncooked pu-erh by MengHai, sample from Hou De.

Dry leaves smell nice, aged forest floor, mixture of dried leave and wood, no smoke or unpleasant smell. Medium compression, complete dehydration made it easy to break off leaf by leaf, shiny and white hair leaf tips can be found.

4 g, gaiwan, boiling water

Rinse, pour immediately, I usually taste the first rinse to see how drinkable it is. I was expecting something fermented astringent or even musty taste, to my surprise, it taste sweet and nutty right from the beginning.

1st brew, 10s, reddish amber color, clear, smooth creamy mouth feel, sweet, nutty, woody, hint of bitter after taste.

2nd brew, 10s, more red, heavier nutty, woody flavor, smoother and creamier than first, hint of bitter, subtle sweetness

3rd brew, 5s, color remain dark reddish amber even with shorter infusion, similar to 2nd brew but sweeter mixed with same level of bitterness.

4th brew, 5s, nutty, less woody, sweeter, light creamy mouth feel, lingering creamy mouth feel

5th brew, 10s, it become sweeter, floral flavor is coming out, quite interesting

I made 15 brews, each gets sweeter, but lighter in color, more floral and nutty, woodiness is almost gone since 8th brew.

Open leaves, mixed regions, some young meaty leaves, some matured meaty leaves, small amount of thin large leaves do not seem to come from the same type of tree as the meatier type.

Over all a well aged raw pu.

Pink blossom 20x30"

New recent painting up sized from 9x12" to 20x30". I feel the pressure of my over ambitious project 36x6'.