I must disagree I have been doing this for thirty years now and amlmost always with glass tea pots and have worked great. At home I use a stove top tea kettle, does an excellent job at work I use a cofee pot and coffee filters, I just simply filter tea through the coffee stream. My advice is to concentrate more on the teas themselves then the tea pot. I have found that an average coffee maker will get the job done in an excellent maner. In the area of teas not all granulars are made the same. Some have more caffine then others some are smoother than others. If I want a jolt I will use gunpowder, it came by that name for a reason. I have found the best place to shop for teas are specialty shops, such as in my area there is a store called ME Swings that sells both coffee and tea, and has excellent blends of teas. Safeway is ok not great, in my opinion. The best grocery store for these tends to be Magurders. I have found three types of teas and here my impressions of each after thrity years of doing this: Flavored - tends to be the mint, pepermint, spearmint - tends to be popular among the women, stay away like the plauge. Black - tends to be most of the teas we men drink, most prelvant is Earl Gray, made popular by Captain John Luke Piccard of the StarShip Enterpise (says to his machine Tea Earl Gray hot). Green - Most prelevant is the Gensing tea, if you look at a fresh cup the tea will be tinged green, thats how it got its name. Gren tends to be great for people like myself with a family history of heart problems. That's my opinion and I am sticking with it.
Actually the term gunpowder comes from their look. Gunpowder was a impressive invention. It was invented in China, and china happens to be the source of many of our teas. The tiny rolled up pellets of tea reminded them of how gunpowder looked, hence it's name. Heck, i've seen decaffinated gunpowder tea.
Glass does work well (frankly most mediums work well.. except something silly like plastic) but glass has two features as opposed to cast iron that I note. One is obviously how much more delicate a Glass Teapot is, however since no one is throwing them around it shouldn't make THAT much of a difference unless of course there is a physical flaw in the glass. However the heat retention in Cast Iron is second to none, which I personally like. Having said that though, different schools of thought are always welcome and none are wrong. Just differences in viewpoint.
Multiple infusions I've been enjoying some Lapsang Souchong tea that I picked up a few days ago. It's good for three infusions and I find myself enjoying the variances in flavors and aromas between the infusions as I make each succeeding cup. But it got me to wondering, do some of you store the "used" tea between infusions for a later date. If so, how?
Most teas I deal with are not suitable for multiple infusions, but in the cases where I have heard of multiple infusions it seems most of them are part of a ritual and the infusions come very quickly after each other and not say.. a day later. I would think quality would suffer if you tried to store wet tea for later use.. but to be honest it is not something I have really thought about too much.
Enjoy my tea friends... Basic Introduction to Japanese Tea ceremonie in english. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN5de0HR_ME http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNMh0tdwxyQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoYZqd5tHN8&feature=related
I found the same thing through trial and error. Now, even if I only want a cup, I make the pot. (All infusions, usually only 2) The extra is put in a glass jug in the fridge, I make some Iced Tea concoctions for work out of it. For all of you bargain hunters, I picked up 6 tins of this yesterday at T.J. Maxx It's single origin (Japan). Their website sells it for $18.50 for a 3 oz. tin. I paid $2.99 per tin. Might be worth checking your local stores.
Since I last posted in this thread, I've gotten pretty big into tea. I've been drinking mostly green teas. I really enjoy Lung Ching and Silver tips. I just made an order with an ebay vendor Yunnan Sourcing of a few different types of Pu-erh to try. The most experience I have with the stuff are those little "nests". I wanted to try the real stuff. I also ordered a gaiwan to brew green tea.
Great thread guys I am more of a coffee person myself, but do enjoy this places teas from time to time: http://www.celestialseasonings.com/ Quite nice, and I like a variety of there flavors
Padron, if you like celestial seasonings and are looking to try fresher loose leaf tea check out http://www.teavana.com I love their teas but am not a huge fan of straight tea leaves and purely natural tea flavors.
No I haven't, but i've heard good things. I stocked up pretty heavy on my last trip to Japan, but I had always used www.o-cha.com myself. It's really amazing how common green tea is over there. You can buy really good prebottled tea in most vending machines. Here, I can't even find a single bottle of plain green tea. They all seem to have sugar, or additional flavorings, which just aren't for me.
What do you think of the pu-erh? It's one of the few teas that improve with age. It's amazing to think you're drinking tea from such an ancient tree.
I use a tea infuser that can be found at Teavana or other sources. Here is a link: http://www.teavana.com/Teavana+Perf...page_no=1/edp_no=3970/shop.axd/ProductDetails I find this combined with a 4 cup Mr Coffee for heating water is just right.
Very cool. I found myself lookin at this today. It looks like the same unit. I usually use my kyusu pot, but this looks great for when i'm short on time. Are you happy with yours?
