Thursday, June 9, 2011

Spoiling my taste buds: 2011 Imperial Bi Lo Chun in the Probuzeny Slon teahouse



It's been a while since I last visited Brno, the second largest city of Czech republic - honestly, I was beginning to miss the city. Finally, thanks to June being a free month for me, I'm spending few days here since this Monday (and am going back to Bratislava tomorrow). And such visit wouldn't be complete for me if I haven't visited one of the city's amazing teahouses - specifically and most frequently, the Probuzeny Slon, which I've already mentioned a few times. This teahouse sources its teas from LongFeng and Teamountain, known to the readers of this blog as two of my most favorite vendors.
It is a place where I head every time I feel the need to spoil myself, tasting teas which I probably wouldn't buy in larger quantities on my own. This time, my immediate choice after checking the offering of fresh teas was the 2011 Jiang Su Dong Ting Shan Bi Lo Chun Imperial, the highest grade produced. Whole production of this tea was just a few kilograms and this year's pick was said to be of exceptionally high quality. A true statement, I think, even though my memories of last year's version are already quite blunt. I'm not going to talk much more about this tea as it pretty much speaks for itself, being one of a kind and having all I would expect from such tea and even more.
Thanks to the fact that I met the teahouse's headman there and to his generosity, this Bi Lo Chun definitely wasn't the last tea to drink that day, and I left after hours with stomach full of exceptional tea and also a purchase of three simple, inexpensive 2011 greens for daily drinking.




On a different note, I've found this statue while wandering around the downtown - I don't have any clue as to what is it supposed to mean or why is this life-sized statue of Japanese warrior located on this building's roof just a few meters from the city's main Gothic-revival cathedral, but it definitely caught my attention.



5 comments:

  1. You're making my mouth water talking about this tea. And, now you've reminded me that I have the Japanese movie '13 Assassins' waiting for me in the DVD player. Ahoj.

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  2. Ho Go,
    this tea makes tea-lover's mouth water simply by existing :-)
    Hope you enjoyed the movie! Which version have you watched, the older original or the one directed by Takashi Miike? I have had the latter one in my "to watch" list for quite a while.

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  3. I have the latter one but still have not watched it. The taste for blood was quenched by 'True Blood' series. :) Clever TV series.

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  4. 13 Assassins is good enough for me to recommend. A bit too much blood and fighting but good actors, direction, sets, and, mood of the era.

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  5. Ho Go,
    thank you for the recommendation, I am definitely going to watch the movie, hopefully in the near future. And about blood and fighting - well, considering the fact that it's Miike's movie, I would be actually more surprised if it wouldn't be there than the opposite case, so I think I'm going to be okay with it. :-)

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