my first real green tea experience

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Aug 22nd, '07, 18:22
Posts: 15
Joined: Jun 10th, '06, 00:48

my first real green tea experience

by macatea » Aug 22nd, '07, 18:22

Up until today, I had never had loose leaf green tea. I had received an ingenuitea mug which I used for the sampler herbals, but never ventured further. I just stuck with bagged green, white, and black teas.

Today I discovered an herb and tea oriental shop that had a wide selection of tea. Lots of bagged tea and lots of loose leaf varieties. Some of the loose leafs were in big jars which was very intriguing. I recognized names like dragonwell, gunpowder, jasmine, etc. the prices ranged from 20-50 dollars a pound. I was a bit hesitant because the tea was "bulk" style, and who knows how long that tea has been there. The tea leaves looked like the pictures I'd seen and they looked pretty good so......

I asked to have 3 dollars worth of dragonwell. Well I just finished my first cup and second cup (second infusion) and I'm not sure if I can go back to tea bags. The taste of this tea was nothing I've had before. Full of flavor but yet so delicate.

Anyhoo, I found myself sifting through the tea leaves like a little kid looking at worms. But what I was looking at was how big and full the leaves were. "so that's what they look like?" I asked myself. I was amazed. I always opened a tea bag and found lots of "tea grounds".

I guess a few questions I have are:

1) do you think buying bulk teas in a jar is fine? To me, I could buy a dollars worth of a tea without any risk

2) do you find yourself looking at the leaves after you steep a cup of green or white tea?

3) do you remember when you transitioned from tea bags to loose leaf?

Thanks for reading. I just wanted to share this experience. any replies are appreciated.

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Aug 23rd, '07, 10:45
Posts: 449
Joined: Mar 23rd, '07, 10:32
Location: dirty Jersey.

Re: my first real green tea experience

by xine » Aug 23rd, '07, 10:45

macatea wrote:
Anyhoo, I found myself sifting through the tea leaves like a little kid looking at worms. But what I was looking at was how big and full the leaves were. "so that's what they look like?" I asked myself. I was amazed. I always opened a tea bag and found lots of "tea grounds".

I guess a few questions I have are:

1) do you think buying bulk teas in a jar is fine? To me, I could buy a dollars worth of a tea without any risk

2) do you find yourself looking at the leaves after you steep a cup of green or white tea?

3) do you remember when you transitioned from tea bags to loose leaf?

Thanks for reading. I just wanted to share this experience. any replies are appreciated.
Welcome to the world of loose-leaf tea! Yay!

Buying tea in bulk is fine, as long as you're going to drink it. Just be sure to keep your leaves in dark colored airtight containers- UV light hurts the lil leaves. Also keep in a dark, cool place, not out in the sun/heat. If you do this, your tea will last a good amount of time.

I do look at my tea leaves all the time. I think of Harry Potter and divination and trying to 'read' my tea leaves, but then I realize, I am at work and not at Hogwarts and yeeeeah. I think they look like little vegetable patches after a rainstorm. :)

I only got into loose-leaf tea when I started working here at Adagio. Mainly, because I did not know how to brew loose-leaf tea and thought they were too time consuming. How silly I was back then!

The teabags I did use were either Mighty Leaf or Republic of Tea, which is considered 'gourmet' and do have some fun flavors, but now I can't have plain green, white, black, oolong tea in a bag. Unless it's an Adagio tea bag, because we use the same loose leaf tea bag, and unless I'm forced to. But yes, it's always good to hear about people discovering good tea- I'm always trying to introduce my friends to loose-leaf tea, but I'm having trouble getting them off coffee and the teabag.

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Aug 23rd, '07, 11:52
Posts: 1559
Joined: Jan 28th, '07, 02:24
Location: Fort Worth, TX

by Space Samurai » Aug 23rd, '07, 11:52

1) I think buying tea from bulk jars is generally okay, but you can't be sure of freshness. Sometimes those teas can sit in those jars for over a year, soaking up light and air, and the employees may or may not know anything about tea, which can lead to improper storage of their back stock (my bulk dept. likes to store the tea with the spices, or mix scented teas with non-scented). But that's just something to think about it. Being able to buy small amounts of tea at a time can be a great way of trying a lot of new teas without spending a lot of money--or wasting, if it turns out you don't like the tea.

2) YES! I am always sticking my hands in my tea leaves when I'm done, poking aroun, stretching them out. Its part of the experience.

3) It wasn't an all at once thing for me, but shortly after I discovered Rishi and Fair Trade I stopped drinking tea bags unless I'm sampling something new that came in (Even if its crap, I still need to sell it).

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Aug 27th, '07, 11:51
Posts: 552
Joined: Aug 23rd, '07, 00:42
Location: Somewhere in the wilds of Montana, but never without a teacup.
Contact: skywarrior

Re: my first real green tea experience

by skywarrior » Aug 27th, '07, 11:51

macatea wrote:Up until today, I had never had loose leaf green tea. I had received an ingenuitea mug which I used for the sampler herbals, but never ventured further. I just stuck with bagged green, white, and black teas.

I guess a few questions I have are:

1) do you think buying bulk teas in a jar is fine? To me, I could buy a dollars worth of a tea without any risk

2) do you find yourself looking at the leaves after you steep a cup of green or white tea?

3) do you remember when you transitioned from tea bags to loose leaf?

Thanks for reading. I just wanted to share this experience. any replies are appreciated.
Welcome to the world of tea.

Buying bulk is ok, but keep it away from light. I'll look at the leaves afterwards if they're rather unusual to start with. I drink black, green and oolong, so there you go.

I still drink both. The trick to the transition is to get some really good tea to start with, otherwise you won't transition. For years I've tried various loose teas only to shrug and go back to the teabags (yeah, I have no taste). I'm also really fussy about having tea leaves in my tea. (I know, I know!) It took technology to catch up so I could enjoy a cup of tea without spitting out tea leaves. I now have a lovely Japanese teapot with an awesome strainer. I also have some strainers that guarantee I won't get a leaf in my tea.

Adagio teas made me rethink the whole tea bag/ loose tea thing. The teas were smooth and complex enough to warrant going from bags to loose.

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