TeaChat

In my hands right now I've got ... well, my keyboard. But next to my keyboard is a freshly brewed pot of Yunnan Gold in my Meguro teapot.

A heaped tablespoon of tea, 15m of steeping. Yes, 15.

It's tasteless.

Any ideas?

EDIT: To be precise, I have this problem with all the teas I have - Yunnan Gold being the most pronounced. I also have Rooibos Vanilla (1tbsp, boiling, 6m); Earl Grey (1tbsp, boiling, 6m); and Golden Monkey (1tbsp, boiling, 4m)

I had the same experience when I used Brita water filtering system. Teas brewed into crystal clear liquor with virtually no aroma and no actual taste.

Purified water can brew flat tea indeed. Spring water is much better, but many tea drinkers are then faced with buying gallon jugs of spring water and dealing with environmental impacts.

One tablespoon to how much water?

sriracha wrote:One tablespoon to how much water?

600ml - a full Meguro teapot.

Could the water be making so much difference? I've tried both mineral water and reverse osmosis filtered water.

There is your answer ... your tea to water ratio is way too low.

600 ml is a lot of water ... you could try reducing the amount of water.

Chip wrote:There is your answer ... your tea to water ratio is way too low.

600 ml is a lot of water ... you could try reducing the amount of water.

I've taken your advice - 5 heaped teaspoons for 5 minutes seems to be perfect for Earl Grey - now I'll try out the others

Thanks all!

Glad to hear this is improving your results ...

... but I am curious as I am sure others are as well, why are you brewing 600 ml per steep?

I'm using the Meguro teapot, and I've got an obsession with having it full also, I drink a lot of tea.

My girlfriend also likes massive mugs of black tea. I use my old cheap 400ml "yixing" with three heaping tea spoons of leaf. I steep for 3 minutes.
She loves it.
Good thing you can find decent Chinese reds pretty cheap!

I used to drink an earl grey rooibus that took at least 8 minutes of steeping to get flavorful.
Another suggestion for your black tea is keep your steeping teapot hot. I sometimes just splash the outside of teapots w/ very hot water or have them sit in some.

I invested in this: www.amazon.co.uk/DUSIEC-electronic-inno ... m_sbs_kh_5

It's awesome!