Firing Under The Moon

First firing of the year. Waxing moon keeps an eye on snow-covered garden, hills as well as on frozen ponds. Before its edge touch the ground, all cones are going to be tired and I will go to bed.

Fire and Snow. Lights and Shadows.

Tong E Cha

I have spent this morning with Korean tea. Partly oxidized Korean teas are mostly called Balhyocha. In this case, leaves are not only oxidized but also pressed or shaped to kind of ball. This gave name to this tea - it is called Tongecha - cake tea. According to Matt, it is quite new thing in the world of Korean teas. I was aware  that Czech supplier TeaMountain offer this tea, but before I got to buy it, my dear Spanish friend Antonio give me chunk of those interesting leaves. Magic globalization! Tea going from Hwagae valley situated in south of Korean peninsula to Czech Republic, thereafter to Barcelona tearoom and then back to middle of Europe as a friendly gift.

Leaves are dark, small and lively looking. I removed them to small porcelain jar. After a while smelling to this jar I found dark, but sweet and very clearly speaking fragrance. When in many balhyocha you will find spicy or even sharper tones, here it is almost clear, dark chocolate.













Pressing of the tea is light so it didn't surprise me that even first brew was strong. But not too strong, it couldn't kill liveliness and vibrancy of the tea. Second brew become more smooth and filed my mouth with thick taste. The kind of taste, which brings me back to the childhood - candied fruits coated by dark but sweet chocolate.

It was interesting to contemplate how the tea slowly changed thru brews. The chocolate was still there. The aroma of chocolade changed with every cup. It went from heavier orange - citrus aromas over resin and light peprmint to violet or other sweet flowers fragrances. Smelling to empty cup was story itself or no less then irreplaceable part of main tale. The content of the empty cup was colorful and sweet in the way which reminds me best wui oolongs I had. The empty cup was full. And if I have missed that than my tea session would be poorer.






For high quality of those leaves speak (among others) their stamina. I haven't found a break point among brews. Liqueurs become slowly lighter but still sweet and fragrant. The seller says that you can prepare ten, full-blown brews. I confirm that. However, good water, right utensils and tranquil attention is needed for that. This tea is worth it.

Thank you for reading.

Cones

For today I chose more or less solely ceramic topic. There were several questions lately: To what temperature do you fire your pieces? How many hours do you fire? Every time, when someone new sees us around the kiln during firing there is a question: How do you know, when to stop?  And I every time start to replay with opening one of our peepholes...

What you can see in such peephole depends on temperature and your "ability" to see. What you should see (among others) is holder or stand with what is called cones or more precisely pyrometric cones. I talk about small pieces of ceramic, which potters use for measuring of heatwork (combined effect of temperature and time). Although it can seems to be kind of not easy to get for "first lookers" the principle is simple and quite natural.

First cone melted down, second one start to soften...

Cones are made from mixture of ceramic materials  (the number of cone determines temperature -time value which can show during firing). More precise and wider definitions you can find reading Wiki. What maybe you can miss there is written between lines: for firing of ceramic is temperature as important as time. You can fire with thermometer, pyrometric cones or with other equipment, but than you will need to watch your watch. Basic benefit of cones lies in ist ceramic nature - it measure heatwork not temperature. For example: when thermometer shows actual temperature 1260°C for let's say one hour then cone 10 (1320°C when rise-up of temperature is 150°C/hour) starts to show us that its time is coming. It shows us how pots (clays and glazes) are feeling. And that is what I am interested in. How my pieces inside the kiln feel not what temperature is there.

Cone 6a in the midle of the kiln has just touch base...

In most cases we use five cones in three peepholes. There are three cones in hottest part of the kiln (06a, 9 and 11), one 6a in the middle of the kiln and one 6a. in coldest part of the kiln. First cone which start to react to rising temperature is 06a which should refer to 960°C. In this time we know that we should start first stronger reduction period. This 06a cone is usually down after around four hours of the firing (not counting several hours of pre-heating). Then after another eight-nine hours, the cone 9 starts slowly go down. Here more slowly means better - it is period, when pots need time to ripen. This cone nine should refer to temperature around 1300°C. After two aditional hours or so cone eleven goes down. Here it is already very difficult to see those cones - it is "white heat" and you need some experiences to recognize what is going on in there. This cone eleven refers to 1350°C. When this final front cone is down we start to watch cones thru peepholes in the midlle and in the back. Depending mostly on how tight the kiln is loaded after one up to five hours also the last 6a (1250°C) cone is down. This "firing curve" is not from school handbook but based on experiences with several hundred firing of different kilns. Each single firing is then our teacher for work in the future. And the best time to learn is during unloading a kiln we have fired. We can see mistakes we have made as well as ways to improve.

Thank you for reading and Happy New Year!

2006 ZhangPing Shui Xian

This morning I opened two new bags - first with tea I got some time ago from Chawangshop. Second one arrived yesterday - new charcoal as food for my "water heated on charcoal" project. Both tea as well as charcoal would deserve more space than this short post. I can promise that as my experiences with charcoal will grow I will happy to share with you more.

Zhangping Shui Xian is rather rare oolong tea. Maybe I was not looking dutifully but I know only about Life in Teacup where you can purchase such tea on the "west". Reading description on Chawangshop and going thru posts on blog of Life in Teacup you can come to know about origin of this interesting oolong. I have not tried it yet so I was exited to see what is inside the very nice package.

just wet fingers and ink is smudged...

I cut this five years old small square brick in half, and put it in to my 90ml teapot. It was maybe too much tea for it. I don't mind to drink strong tea. But as I was enjoing it in my cup I was aware that behind its full body there are covered fragrances. So next time, the second half of the "brick" will be cut again in to the half.

Although brews were strong, let's say powerful, there ware still many flowery and sweet, fruity scents. Roast of this tea is not so strong like with traditional Wui ShuiXian but you can still feel it. Probably those five years of age, created it the tea heavier hints of plums and dry apricots, which this tea has left in my mouth.

If I would like to sound romantic I could say that this tea reminds me "taste of old China". From its package, thru look of dry leaves to sweet aftertaste. But this is just my personal impression - what do I know about it? But it was pleasant mixture of misty, quiet morning and tea leaves what made my day. Hot water in my kettle was slowly gurgling - just one step to happiness. It is decent and interesting tea worth to try. The seller says that "this tea is very good for long term storage". Who knows? But even now there are signs of (semi)aged oolongs and that is good thing.
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For those who are interested in to my new charcoal experience I have, for now, just few words and couple of pictures. I have tried few different charcoals and, till today, as the best work coconut briquettes. Today morning I used "single kind", high quality, Czech oak charcoal. Ok, producer labeled it as "high quality". But truth is that there are rather bigger, nice pieces and chunks. Charcoal is clean and without dust, which makes smoke and smells during burning.

For lighting it up I used gas burner. I leave charcoal in original, bigger pieces and I was afraid how it will work. After five minute on gas and another ten, waiting, if " the light up" was sufficient, I have my first cup in fifteen - twenty minutes. It was faster then I was hoping for!

 Having still enough hot water I have enjoyed six infusion for another forty five minutes. Everyone who uses charcoal for heating water for tea, talks about impact on quality of the tea itself. I like how it works! But I have to make the whole process of preparing charcoal, heating water and brewing tea more calm and get routine. Then I will be more free to see and feel how it improves my tea. For now I can say: It is way worth to be started.

Thank you for reading.


Note: To everyone who would like to learn about heating water by using charcoal fire I can recomment to read and stay tune to Mattcha's blog.