Tea Scoops for DanCong

[Herb_Master]

I have to confess to being a little lazy and less than professional at times

When transferring the tea leaf to the weighing vessel [for me usually a 'Cha He'], I often forego the tea Scoop and just tilt/pour/jiggle/nudge the canister or ziplock until the desired weight is registering.

However with DanCongs I find myself having to fine tune the weight by using my [heresy warning!] Fingers!


I from time to time use the Tea Scoop that is ever resident by my tea table or kitchen sink!

but this is fairly useless for dealing with larger leaves!

I was browsing around various sites - googling with the word 'DanCong' and a variety of alternative 2nd words when I was struck by a phrase in the search results that suggested a tea scoop was suitable for Phoenix oolongs.

I could not find that exact sentence when I opened the site but it took me straight to one of these Tea Scoops
http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/PhotoDeta ... =XC092_PAR

It made me remember that I already have a couple of unused Tea Scoops hidden in a drawer and NEVER used.



Does anyone own/use the broad flat scoops?

[silverneedles]

shake the leaf out of the bag and/or use fingers to get leaf out of bag/container.

[edkrueger]

Whats wrong with fingers? I wash and dry my hands before tea anyway.

[Victoria]

shake the leaf out of the bag and/or use fingers to get leaf out of bag/container.

Ditto. No scoop.

[wyardley]

If you have a set of tea tools, you can use the flat leaf scraper thing to push the leaves out of whatever they're in. Or, if the tea is in a bag, you can kinda lightly shake the leaves out.

Aside from that, I strongly recommend getting one of the bamboo ones that's even broader than the ones you put a picture of. One like this:


I don't avoid using my hands completely, but I usually try not to.

I would suggest getting a little leaf caddy thing (cha he) to put the leaves in first, or use a small bowl or medium sized teacup, because if you put the bag or canister right over the pre-heated pot or gaiwan, you might get too much moisture into the canister.

[ABx]

I would suggest getting a little leaf caddy thing (cha he) to put the leaves in first, or use a small bowl or medium sized teacup, because if you put the bag or canister right over the pre-heated pot or gaiwan, you might get too much moisture into the canister.

That's what I was going to say; if there's something that I really can't use a scoop for, then I use the scoop to push leaf out into a presentation vessel, and then move them from there into the pot.

Most of the time I just put the scoop into the canister or bag, and then rotate the bag so that the leaf falls gently into the scoop. That works for all but the biggest leaf. I just have a plain cha dao scoop, though, and not one of the big bamboo scoops. I might have to get one, though - my local tea shop has some nice ones with a dragon head carved into the handle

I have used my fingers on occasion, but usually when the leaf is sticking up so I can be sure that I'm only touching what's going into the pot. I've just plain used my fingers, as well as scraped leaf straight from the canister/bag straight into the pot, but I realized that probably wasn't a good reason and switched to what I mentioned above shortly after. Luckily I don't seem to have adversely affected any of the teas that I put over the pot, even though there was definitely steam going into the tea. I did put desiccants in with those teas, though.

[Pentox]

Whats wrong with fingers? I wash and dry my hands before tea anyway.

From what i've heard the reason not to use fingers is moisture from your hands getting into the tea and causing it to go stale if it's in your tin. This really applies to tea that's stored and not the stuff you're about to brew though. I think I heard a thought process on hand oil and tea as well at some point, but I don't remember that one.

Personally I use the scoop by turning the tin/bag/etc until leaves fall onto it, then for small adjustments I use the tongs that came with my teatool set.

[wyardley]

Also, if you have a lot of a tea, it may be worth keeping most of it in a sealed bag or larger tin, and then keeping a smaller tin around for opening / closing / taking tea out of.

If you don't have a sealer, you can get those little clips that hold the bag shut pretty tight... very useful, and let you get out more air than you can with most canisters.

[gingkoseto]

Fingers, scoop, tongs, whatever convenient

No fingers when treating guests. But very often fingers for myself. The tea has been run through many other people's fingers anyway during its processing

[orguz]

Whats wrong with fingers? I wash and dry my hands before tea anyway.

+1

[Bubba_tea]

I just use a little rectangular piece of paper - that way you can have rolled or long dan cong, and then fold it up in a little slide to get the leaves where ever you like 'em, large, small, wide or narrow pot / gaiwan. Imen (IIRC) also had a blog entry where you could just roast the coffee on the paper itself. Versitile stuff!

[wyardley]

Whats wrong with fingers? I wash and dry my hands before tea anyway.

+1

If the 7th grade science "experiment" my teacher had us do was right, your hands actually have more oil on them when they've been recently washed. Just because your hands are clean and "dry" doesn't mean they're not going to add moisture to your tea.

Not saying I don't ever use my fingers, because I do... just saying.