Lok On Tea Stalk

BabelCarp is right. LokOn is Cantonese and LiuAn is Mandarin. My versions from several vendors is fermented tea leaf and nothing like Kukicha stem. I think you must have something else.

Jim

Ozzy wrote:

"Space Cowboy" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Ah well, it certainly looks as one would think stem ought to look -- rather thin (brown) cylinders, about like dark brown needles that get slightly thicker at the ends, ca. 1/2" long. These do not give a hint of unfolding into leaves or leaf-fragments even after two long infusions.

The bag is printed in Chinese on one side, English on the other: "Golden Sail Brand", LokOn Tea Stalk, S295, China Tuhsu Guangdong Tea Import and Export Corporation. It is 454g net (1 lb) which means that it was specifically designed for export (as perhaps its having so much English at all would have told a brighter individual). Searching the English web site for Guangdong Tea etc. didn't prove particularly illuminating, either...

Perhaps one of your vendors is on-line and has illustrations of what their LokOn Tea Stalk looks like?

Thanks, Ozzy

If your bag says tea stalk then that is what it is. But generally the word Lo(u)kon is indicative of black or fermented leaf. There are previous posts in the NG on the subject. Pictures are easy to find using a search engine. Jing has a picture of the LiuAn 500g boat basket packaging which is typical in my Chinatown.

Jim

Ozzy wrote:

"Space Cowboy" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Thanks for the URLs. Looking at them, & following your suggestion re other images, indeed LuiAn tea looks nothing like the stuff I've got. Also, the price was a lowball $2.95/lb. The fragrance *is* reminiscent of Kukicha that I've had in Macrobiotic restaurants. So maybe it is a "peasant tea" version of LiuAn, fermented and/or roasted to account for the color.

Anyway the liquor is good, and I will just have to experiment as to methods of preparation and how late I can drink it.

Ozzy

What you have sounds interesting. I've never had tea stalk from China. Only Kukicha from Japan. I've paid $35/500g for 'aged' LiuAn from a Chinese vendor and $6/500g for something in Chinatown. I can't tell the difference.

Jim

Ozzy wrote:

"Space Cowboy" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com:

I was surprised & pleased at the effect. Liking strong tastes, I am generally prone to the "a little is good, a lot must be better" fallacy that can so easily be fatal in tea brewing, but the cream finish seems to get stronger with steeping time and there doesn't seem to be much bitterness, though I've yet to just let it go for ten or fifteen minutes. The taste seems to get markedly less with the second infusion, though.

(BTW, I can't shake the suspicion that somewhere real Asian peasants would roll their eyes at the thought of people who are rich enough to import tea from China to America even bothering to give stem a trial, let alone a second go.) But I haven't done near enough experimenting, though.

Ozzy

Are these the same peasants that roll their eyes at our consumption of gunpowder?

Stalk is an amputation of the plant. By definition it should be scarce and cost more than leaf. I have teas that are multileaf stem branches but not the stalk itself.

Jim

Steven Dodd wrote:

Danny