There are some giant's kettles near Pirttimäki, photographs taken on October 11th.
Today I bought half a kilogram of tea, mostly oolong, but also a little bit of pu-erh. This should last for several months.
(Posting title is from the poem everyone’s dying... by kari edwards.)
Here are some more photographs from Saturday, when I was walking in the center of Helsinki with my daughter. The glass-covered exteriors of the buildings provide a lot of opportunities for photography, at least on sunny days.
I did a bit of shopping on the net on Sunday. I have an HP multifunction inkjet, and it eats ink cartridges at a rapid clip. I ordered a 4-pack of the cartridges, and debated some time whether I should invest in the 364XL cartridges or not. But the best price for the normal cartridges was less than half of the XL versions.
And then I ordered some green tea. My last order was on January 10th, and I have less than 100 g of tea remaining. It goes surprisingly fast when you drink 1-2 liters of tea daily.
I ordered four types of green tea, altogether 400 g, and that should last until summer at least. I ordered once again Yunnan Bi Luo Chun, aka Green Snail Spring Tea, which is my all-time favorite. In addition I ordered Wu Liang Mountain "Mao Feng" and "Zhen Mei", and Ruay Sui tea from Taiwan which I haven't tried earlier.
(Posting title is from the poem I Love You More Than All the Windows in New York City by Jessica Greenbaum.)
Yesterday I went to Luukki and walked first to lake Väärälampi, crossed it over the ice, and returned from there via lake Halkolampi, again crossing the lake, twice. I started walking 20 minutes before sunset, and returned 50 minutes after when it started to be quite dark already.
It was cold, about -16 °C, but there was no wind so it was a rather pleasant to walk on the snow and ice, mostly on paths made by others walking there before me.
Today I made - the first time ever - Pu-erh tea, and it was fine. I read the Wikipedia article about Pu-erh tea and learned quite a lot. I didn't realize that "Mao Cha" in the name of the tea I bought (Pu-Erh Lao Mao Cha) means "rough", which is the first stage in the process of making Pu-erh.
I checked and it seems the tea I have is a loose-leaf version of Pu-erh, ripened for tree years but not pressed into a cake. The process includes microbial fermentation and oxidation, but this is a different process than in the making of so-called black tea. The leaves are very dark gray, almost black, but when brewed in hot water some green color becomes visible. The taste is somewhat different from green tea, rather mild, with a fruity sidetaste, maybe plum.
(Posting title is from the poem To One Unknown by Helen Dudley.)
Yesterday the topic of green tea came up while having a discussion with a friend, and yesterday evening I started reading about various types of green tea on the net. But the shops on the net are just too tempting, and it didn't take long until I had made an order for four different types of green tea: Junshan Yinzhen, Ruay Suin, Yunnan Bi Luo Chun, and Wu Liang Zhen Mei.
Of these only Yunnan Bi Luo Chun was known to me previously, and it is my all-time favorite, so-called "Green Snail Spring Tea". Another favorite, which I have been drinking at work recently, is Yellow Tea Huang Xiao, and I'm waiting to compare it to Junshan Yinzhen, a yellow tea which is said to be rather excellent. (In fact, while writing this, I got an e-mail saying that my order for tea had been shipped.)
I have also tried green tea from other places than China. Vietnam Ché Ngon So was rather good, although maybe a bit plain. I have also something rather different waiting to be tasted, Pu-Erh Lao Mao Cha. I'm not sure at all whether I will like it as I have never tasted a Pu-erh tea before.
For brewing the loose-leaf teas I have been using a Piao i type glass teapot with an infuser, which makes it easy to make several cups of tea from the same leaves. I have one such teapot at home and one at work, and both get a lot of use. The one at home is a bit broken (the button opening the valve at the bottom no longer works properly), but it works well enough for now. I have had both teapots for a year, and given the amount of use they have I'm not too unhappy with the durability.
(Posting title is from the poem Tea-Strainer by Joyelle McSweeney.)
I read from a book that it takes only two weeks to change a habit, any habit. The author got rid of her coffee addiction in two weeks, which was impressive.
Not impressed? Maybe I should mention that Finland is number one in coffee consumption per capita, 12 kg annually. (Norway is second but far behind: 9.9 kg.)
And this means that coffee is consumed in meetings, at lunch, during breaks at work, and so on. So it is quite hard to stop drinking coffee when you are used to it.
My daily average intake has been 2-4 cups of coffee for over 20 years, but that is little compared to the average Finn. Anyway, in January I decided to try drinking tea instead of coffee, because I noticed that my coffee consumption was increasing.
One contributing factor was that I had bought an infuser for brewing tea (I have now two of them), which is a convenient way of making fresh tea as long as you have hot water.
During workdays I now drink 4-6 cups of tea daily, and during weekends 2-4 cups. And this week was the first one when I haven't consumed a single cup of coffee. Last week I drank one cup.
Of course, I haven't completely escaped the coffee addiction. When I smell coffee, I get the craving, but coping with it is getting easier and easier.
However, long meetings pose a problem. Often the tea that is served is almost undrinkable. Either too hot water - at boiling point - has been used, or the tea has been brewing too long. (Another matter is that often the coffee isn't so good either, but when you have the habit, you drink it anyway.)
And I much prefer green tea, which is not so often available. So, at work I often go to meetings carrying a cup of green tea that I made myself.
Of course, you could think that I have just replaced an addiction with another. But I don't think green tea is anywhere comparable to coffee in terms of addiction.
Finally, something about photography. Mike Moats made a posting in which the title caught my eye: "Do you have the natural ability to see art in nature?"
My spontaneus reaction was: that is the wrong question. The right one is: "Do you have the ability to see nature?" At least it is so for me. I don't try to see art, I try to see what is there to be seen.
Today was a sunny day. But I didn't go skiing, as the doctor recommended not doing any exercise which makes you sweat as long as the flu is bothering. So I went walking instead.
And what was surprising was that it was warm when you were in the sunshine. A novel feeling after the long winter: sun isn't so low on the horizon any more.
I mentioned in a posting two months ago that I bought a tea infuser for brewing green tea. In fact, I bought two similar ones, one for home and one for work. I have experimented with several brands of green tea, and slowly I'm getting the hang of it, occasionally using too warm water, or letting it brew too long.
Today I drank a lot of green tea, about one liter of it, to fight the symptoms of a flu which has bothered me since Thursday. Coughing, headache, some pain in the muscles, but no high fever so far.
And in addition to the flu I injured my left foot slightly yesterday, hitting it agains the sharp corner of the leg of an armchair. The middle toe has a dark red-blue bruise, and walking is a bit awkward. But still, I managed to go for a short walk today, taking some photographs at night.
(Posting title is from Green Tea by Dale Ritterbusch.)
Ten days ago there as an off-topic article at TOP, by Ctein, about tea. Here I found a recommendation for brewing tea: "How do I brew tea? I am like a total fan of the individual PIAO 1 infuser."
I searched the net for this piece of glassware, and found several sites selling it or a similar product. Finally I found a Finnish site selling a similar tea infuser, brand name Huang (if you can call it a brand), which looked good enough, machine-washable etc., and so I ordered it.
The Huang tea infuser arrived just in time for Christmas, and after a little bit of use, I must say that this is for sure a great way to brew tea. In appearance the infuser is exactly like the one in the Ctein article. I bought a package of flavored green tea as well, "China Green" imported by Nordqvist to Finland, which proved to be an excellent choice.
I'm not a big tea-drinker, but sometimes I get the urge for green tea, ever since I drank a lot of it while visiting Shanghai a few years ago. Now I once again remembered how good it can be to drink tea.
Maybe drinking tea was the reason why I had the energy to go for a walk outside, despite the wetness and the darkness. Snow is all gone now.
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