12 August, 2009

Tea Tasting Event

With life returning to an approximation of normality, it gives me great pleasure to introduce a new tea-tasting event.

Let's drink some tea.


Plums
It's about time


Tea for this event is being generously provided by Yunnan Sourcing. We're going to be sampling the five 2009 Yunzhiyuan / Ruicaoxiang* cakes made recently by Scott and his colleague. Long-time victims readers of the Half-Dipper will be familiar with the format:

1. Please e-mail me (hobbesoxon at gmail dot com) if you'd like to join in. The 15 available places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Places tend to fill up very quickly, so I will add names to a "reserve" list after the first 15 have been filled, in case anyone withdraws. There is no charge - thanks to Yunnan Sourcing for providing support.

2. Please only join if you're willing and able to taste each of the five samples within two weeks of receiving them. The samples should be with you in the next few weeks, so if you're going away on holiday and won't have time to taste them, please think twice about taking a place in the event.

3. The five cakes come from five different mountains/regions: Yiwu, Banzhang, Youle, Bulang, and Wuliang. The samples will be anonymised, and we'll find out which cake is which at the end of the tasting.

4. I'll publish an article for each one of the five teas, one every three days. Please pop your notes for that tea into the "comments" section of that article, so that we can collate ideas and opinions. If you have a tea-blog, feel free to write your opinions elsewhere, too - but please be sure to at least leave a comment here, so that we can get a discussion going.

I hope that you enjoy the event!


*Yunzhiyuan: YOON-DJER-YOOAN, lit. source of clouds
Ruicaoxiang: ROOEE-TSOW-SHEEANG, lit. auspicious grass scent


Auspicious Grass
Auspicious grass


Disclaimer: I trust that it goes without saying that there is no personal profit involved. I even bought my own samples of these teas already - silly me.



Edit:  Holy smoke, thanks everyone for the e-mails.  I've received over 50 in the first half-day!  I'm sorry to have to disappoint the majority, but I've allocated all of the 15 spaces (first-come, first-served basis) and regretfully have to close the event now.  I have tried to reply to each e-mail: if you've not made it onto the main list, I've got you on the reserve list as promised. 

Late edit: two more requests have arrived while I've written this.  I feel terribly guilty not to be able to include everyone, but I'm sure you understand.  Next time, perhaps!

(Of course, anyone is welcome to join in the discussions if you have these samples already.)

21 comments:

Bret said...

I,d love to be a part of this throw down. Ive seen the cakes that your (hopefully me too) will be tasting and they look to be quite promising.

Wojciech Bońkowski said...

This sounds very exciting. Please do count me in. (Sent you an e-mail).
Best, Nerval

- Stas ^_^ said...

Oooh!

speakfreely said...

Wow, thanks! This will be fun.
Email on the way.

toki said...

Would love to! Thanks : ) T

Unknown said...

I sent an e-mail, which I hope you received. I'd love to be part of the tasting event!

Renegade said...

Yay! I'm one of the first 15. Email sent! I'm a long-time lurker of this blog, but a first time commenter. I am a fervent supporter of the church of half-dipperism, however.

Tuo Cha Tea said...

Nice, email sent few hours ago.

Hobbes said...

Thanks, all! I should have replied to each e-mail by now - humble apologies if you didn't make it into the first 15. You're more than welcome to join in the discussions, of course. :)


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Bret said...

Yikes! I didnt get an email. Should I be worried?

Hobbes said...

Dear Bret,

Yikes, your e-mail turned out to be in the spam folder!

Hobbes said...

Please send me your address and I'll send you some of my own samples. They won't be those for the tea-tasting event, as they are being sent directly by Yunnan Sourcing, but hopefully you'll enjoy them anyway. :)


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Bret said...

Done! Thanks for the opportunity to participate. Looking forward to this pu-community exchange of opinions.

MarshalN said...

Nothing works nearly as well as free tea to get people to come out of the woodworks :)

Hobbes said...

Hehe yes. Statistically speaking, I don't know the majority of my readers! And I'd like to know them. =)

Who's out there?!

Jan Kusters said...

whooopeeee! I just received my own order from Yunnan, including the 5 tea sampler this is all about. As I am fairly new to Pu erh, it will be a great learning experience to sample the teas and read what others say about it...

Hobbes said...

Ah great, Jan - I hope you'll leave your comments for each tea when we get around to them :)


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

sp1key said...

I've got the samples too. Is this the page where we will be posting feedback to share on this tasting event?

Cheers,
Sp1key

Hobbes said...

I'll post a spêcial page for posting results when I get back =)

Matt said...

Hobbes,

Should one post a blog on some of these samples now or should one wait until your post and then publish?

Peace

Hobbes said...

Dear Matt,

Please feel free to blog about these samples if you wish - I'll put up a page here at the Half-Dipper for discussion of each sample once everyone has had a chance to try them.


Toodlepip,

Hobbes