Hello from all over the place.
Posted: Feb 2nd, '13, 08:42
Hello everyone,
I'm really excited to join this community so I can truly explore the world of tea with such knowledgeable and interesting people. I'm very new to this but I'm eager to learn so I'll explain a little about how I got into this and where I'm at.
A friend of mine had been telling me about how he'd started drinking tea and found it to be a really satisfying experience and urged me to start. I was more interested in my coffee though and never really payed any attention to it.
A year or so later and his unit is replacing mine in Afghanistan and so we get a few weeks to hang out together. He'd packed his whole tea set in his ruck; tea, tea tray, kettle, cups, the lot. I saw just how involved he was and it really peaked my interest but after going home I forgot about it again.
Fast forward about 2 years and I'm up in Seattle visiting family and he calls and says he's just there for a little vacation. We meet up in the city and pretty soon we're hunting for a tea shop. We wander into Vital T Leaf and immediately the guy there, Tim, asks us to sit down and sample some tea. It was over. We spent the next two hours drinking tea talking with him. He was so excited to meet people who showed a genuine interest in tea he seemed to forget about trying to sell us anything. It almost felt like he was trying to shove every bit of information in there before he closed. He could have stopped half way because I'd already fallen in love. In the end I bought a Piao I, a tasting cup?, a Gaiwan and some Blue People Oolong and Jasmine King. He gave me a bag of Jasmine Pearl and Monkey Pick too. He suggested I start with the Piao I because it is easier to use and once I get better and learn more, I can move up to more expensive tea pots and teaware.
Here I am now back in Florida with my stuff and brewing every morning before the sun comes up and in the evening before bed. I enjoy the therapeutic nature of brewing almost as much as the drinking.
I apologize if that was a little long but I'm just so excited I want to tell you everything.
There are a few questions I had and if anyone could answer them or point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I've tried to use the search but the results are often not what I'm looking for.
The first thing is I think the way Tim was brewing was gongfu. Maybe I'm using the term incorrectly. He would warm all the teaware with the water, then rinse the tea and pass it from cup to cup before pouring it down the tray, steep the tea for a short time and ultimately serve it in quite small tasting cups. So my question was if this is the usual way to brew it at home? I have a tasting cup that is a little bigger than his but Ive been doing it pretty much the same way. Do people generally drink from bigger cups at home?
The other thing was the steeping time. I see a lot on the internet about 3 minutes for this and 5 minutes for that, but on the bags of tea I have it suggests 30 second brews with multiple infusions. Is this the "correct" way or just one way you can do it?
This leads me neatly to my last question which concerns the Gaiwan. I used that to brew my Jasmine Pearl but wasn't sure if the short steep time still applied. I would let the tea steep for 30 seconds, pour as much as I could from the gaiwan to the cup but of course once I'd finished the cup, the remaining tea and water had continued to brew so unless I brew tiny amounts at a time, the tea will brew longer and longer the more I drink. So, for a gaiwan, should one just brew for a longer time and serve it all at once?
Again, I apologize if this was a lengthy post. I'm really looking forward to speaking with you all and sharing more.
Jordan
I'm really excited to join this community so I can truly explore the world of tea with such knowledgeable and interesting people. I'm very new to this but I'm eager to learn so I'll explain a little about how I got into this and where I'm at.
A friend of mine had been telling me about how he'd started drinking tea and found it to be a really satisfying experience and urged me to start. I was more interested in my coffee though and never really payed any attention to it.
A year or so later and his unit is replacing mine in Afghanistan and so we get a few weeks to hang out together. He'd packed his whole tea set in his ruck; tea, tea tray, kettle, cups, the lot. I saw just how involved he was and it really peaked my interest but after going home I forgot about it again.
Fast forward about 2 years and I'm up in Seattle visiting family and he calls and says he's just there for a little vacation. We meet up in the city and pretty soon we're hunting for a tea shop. We wander into Vital T Leaf and immediately the guy there, Tim, asks us to sit down and sample some tea. It was over. We spent the next two hours drinking tea talking with him. He was so excited to meet people who showed a genuine interest in tea he seemed to forget about trying to sell us anything. It almost felt like he was trying to shove every bit of information in there before he closed. He could have stopped half way because I'd already fallen in love. In the end I bought a Piao I, a tasting cup?, a Gaiwan and some Blue People Oolong and Jasmine King. He gave me a bag of Jasmine Pearl and Monkey Pick too. He suggested I start with the Piao I because it is easier to use and once I get better and learn more, I can move up to more expensive tea pots and teaware.
Here I am now back in Florida with my stuff and brewing every morning before the sun comes up and in the evening before bed. I enjoy the therapeutic nature of brewing almost as much as the drinking.
I apologize if that was a little long but I'm just so excited I want to tell you everything.
There are a few questions I had and if anyone could answer them or point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I've tried to use the search but the results are often not what I'm looking for.
The first thing is I think the way Tim was brewing was gongfu. Maybe I'm using the term incorrectly. He would warm all the teaware with the water, then rinse the tea and pass it from cup to cup before pouring it down the tray, steep the tea for a short time and ultimately serve it in quite small tasting cups. So my question was if this is the usual way to brew it at home? I have a tasting cup that is a little bigger than his but Ive been doing it pretty much the same way. Do people generally drink from bigger cups at home?
The other thing was the steeping time. I see a lot on the internet about 3 minutes for this and 5 minutes for that, but on the bags of tea I have it suggests 30 second brews with multiple infusions. Is this the "correct" way or just one way you can do it?
This leads me neatly to my last question which concerns the Gaiwan. I used that to brew my Jasmine Pearl but wasn't sure if the short steep time still applied. I would let the tea steep for 30 seconds, pour as much as I could from the gaiwan to the cup but of course once I'd finished the cup, the remaining tea and water had continued to brew so unless I brew tiny amounts at a time, the tea will brew longer and longer the more I drink. So, for a gaiwan, should one just brew for a longer time and serve it all at once?
Again, I apologize if this was a lengthy post. I'm really looking forward to speaking with you all and sharing more.
Jordan