Winter tea in winter cup

As cold days are not something what I am probably going to get use to, especially when our new studio is still without comfortable heating, a cup of tea keeps me company since morning to evening. The company, which cheers me up.

 

What is my winter tea? What is my cup for cold, chilly morning?

I have realized that there is not simple answer. Each morning is different.  I usually have several kinds of tea, which tell me "I can be the one for freeze morning, I can help you out".  But not always there is the right energy to choose with deliberation, in chilly air - there is time for intuition. Surprisingly for myself, I quite often choose KouCha - Japanese black tea. So I decided to share it with you. 

This one I got like a generous gift from my friend (thank you again, Antonio) and it is from menu of one of the best supplier of Japanese teas I know - TeaMountain. On webpage they say: „Rarity made from Kousun cultivar on farm of Mr.Katahiry in Nunusowa village on Shizuoka. June 2010. The tea was made directly for us as our own special commission."  And good reputation of those people says that it is not only nice story.

Very promising is even smell of dry leaves- citrus or lime fragrances with slight, cinnamon like spices in it. Light roast. Maybe this dry leaves talk to me in the morning.

.The liquor is dark but bright. The dominant character is uncommon combination of lime and some salty "Japanese" in it. It is tasty.

If the first look at dry leaves tells us that it is "dark dark" tea the look at wet leaves shows combination of dark green, light brown as well as dark brown leaves. I usually make three full-valued infusions.

 The woodfired shiboridahsi pictured below helps me enjoy the tea even in cold morning while I light fire in the fireside. 

My "work" shiboridashi - slightly broken but  I like the touch of the fire, running ash, color...

  I am usually not big fan experiments like this. But in this case there is originality and it doesn't try to look like something else. 

The winter cup in front of our "bamboo forest"

 The cup I have fallen for this winter and which I like to use for darker tea was made by Mirka - my girlfriend and colleague. Although it was originally created in series like sake cup or shot (as there is not many sake drinkers in Czech Rep.) most of them have been picked by tea fans as winter cups.

As in my tea caddy there is too litlle left of this tea I hope the spring is going to be here soon....