Dragon Brand Lung Ching

Interesting. How does one define "normal" lung ching (jing) leaves?

Honeydew. The tea has begun its fermentation cycle. Keep in the fridge and drink up soon. If the leaves look pinkish or brews pinkish, time to throw them away.

Danny

Alex Kruppdlg5b8$b75$ snipped-for-privacy@ruby.cit.cornell.edu11/16/05

Alex,

It has been my experience, and only my experience, that a nutty aroma and flavor is not a sine qua non of Long Jing (Lung Ching). Sometimes a mild, little citrus bite takes center stage. If the honeydew smell is pleasiing to you, I think you're lucky and you hit on something nice. It sounds fine to me, at least. Another explanation is that you have hit on one of the many Long Jing-like teas, not authentic, but nonetheless often quite acceptable.

What is the correlation between heavy rains and clorination?

Michael

samarkand437be30c$ snipped-for-privacy@news.starhub.net.sg11/16/05 20: snipped-for-privacy@uk2.net

Danny, That's very interesting. What does "honeydew" mean to you in this context? I immediately got a Bao Zhong impression from Alex' description. But, I'm just projecting, of course. Michael

If the honeydew scent is detected as a top note - not yet quite the sweetness of it, but the slightly "alcohol" whiff of it, very much like the sweet breath of a person wuffering from diabetes - that is the start of the fermentation. When you get the full sweetness of a honeydew sans the green leafiness, and the tea brew a pinkish liquor, the green tea is spent.

Usually under cold conditions this does not happen, it happens when a green tea is kept in a relatively wram location.

Danny

By this you mean something other than the enzyme-mediated oxidation that happens in the manufacture of oolongs and red/black teas, right?

Because the microbes probably aren't the ones involved in fermenting Pu'er?

/Lew

Yes, the correct term should be oxidation. Oxidation takes place as soon as the tea leaves the pan, the more one opens the can of tea the more often it happens. However, who's to say that fermentation at some point in time doesn't creep in, especially if the panfrying was not done thoroughly, the fixation process was not completed. I gather the oxidation will begin the process, and the fermentation completes it - but we need Dog Ma to explain this to us...

Maybe it isn't chlorine, but at least around here the water gets a bit murky after a heavy rain. Our town's water comes from a river so after a heavy rain the metals in the soil get washed into the river. In the northeast of the United States there is a lot of acid rain, so the low pH of the rain frees the aluminum from the soil and allows it to wash into the rivers. I think they add a bit more chlorine to the system to compensate, but I could just be tasting the other stuff.

Alex

I hope you aren't worried about aluminum, for you're getting 40 to 100 parts per million in your tea.[1]

/Lew

Alex Kruppdltr3t$444$ snipped-for-privacy@ruby.cit.cornell.edu11/21/05

Hi Alex,

Ah, these are taste additives to improve the quality of river water in the United States. I take it your town doesn't add raw sewage to the river as well? Might as well, since it's probably not illegal. Makes *me* proud. You can taste clorine, but the combination of aluminum molecules combined with the clorine has got to be a winning combination. (Guess it makes the discussion as to whether the water is drawn from the edge or the middle of the river a bit superfluous, eh?)

BTW, we try to send all the bad stuff to NH. VT should be spared.

America! Love it, or leave it!!

Michael