Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

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Day 4 of Spring. How will this Spring differ from last Spring ... in terms of TEA. Please share of course! 12 votes possible!

This is my first Spring drinking tea, so lots of changes
6
8%
My first "new harvest" Spring
3
4%
I am drinking different types of teas
11
14%
I am using much different teaware
8
11%
I am brewing much differently
9
12%
My cups are generally bigger
1
1%
My cups are generally smaller
8
11%
My brew vessels have drastically changed
7
9%
My brew vessels have gotten bigger
1
1%
My brew vessels have gotten smaller
9
12%
My brewing style has changed dramatically
6
8%
Other, please share
7
9%
 
Total votes: 76

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Mar 23rd, '11, 02:21
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Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by Chip » Mar 23rd, '11, 02:21

Greetings TeaFriends to another TeaDay. Please stop in and share what is in your cup throughout the day.

Yesterday we discussed first purchase of Spring. You can please continue to discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. Day 4 of Spring. How will this Spring differ from last Spring ... in terms of TEA. Please share of course!

We are all looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with ... everyone. Bottoms up.

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Mar 23rd, '11, 02:56
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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by IPT » Mar 23rd, '11, 02:56

In terms of tea, this spring is not much different than the ones preceeding. I might be buying more Japanese sencha and matcha, but I'm not positive yet. It depends on the prices of the new Chinese greens.

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Mar 23rd, '11, 05:15
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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by Herb_Master » Mar 23rd, '11, 05:15

Spring for Oolong drinkers is still some time away.

But early morning sunshine has coaxed my Camelias forth

Image

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Mar 23rd, '11, 05:50
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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by karmaplace » Mar 23rd, '11, 05:50

I'm drinking a lot of different teas compared to last Spring, and I'm using different brewing vessels and smaller cups. :lol: I would say my tea-drinking experience has improved quite a bit since last year! :D

I had some green chai this morning (in one of my new cups) and I'm drinking kheemun rhapsody at work.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by Chasm » Mar 23rd, '11, 08:11

I have more teaware to experiment with, so that will be going on. My brewing hasn't changed dramatically in the last year, but the gradual refinements continue.

I want more asamushi this year. I also want a really good banko-yaki vessel with a steel mesh filter; I'm still getting better results out of my cheap poured slurry banko houhin than out of my other pots when it comes to my favorite fuka.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by JBaymore » Mar 23rd, '11, 08:20

Other here.......

In late spring... I'll be drinking cha in Japan.

best,

..........john

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Mar 23rd, '11, 09:49
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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by Nenugal » Mar 23rd, '11, 09:49

Allmost all is different this spring, I rarely had tea at all last spring.
Today my cups is filled with 999 Tie Guan Yin from WanLingTeaHouse.

Mar 23rd, '11, 10:20

Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by brlarson » Mar 23rd, '11, 10:20

No major changes in my tea-ware or -habits, although I do plan to drink more Japanese greens that I did last year.

Started the day with Hou de's shui xian. Kirameki is also in my immediate future.

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Mar 23rd, '11, 10:51
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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by tortoise » Mar 23rd, '11, 10:51

I've got some finer brewing vessels this year AND it is the first time I will purchase shincha.

All out of tea, but postman assures me I have a package from the mandarin later today. So that's good news.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by greentam » Mar 23rd, '11, 11:00

This has been the year of new tea exploration! I stepped away from tea bags and went for full leaf, so no more brewing from the microwave! :lol: I can't wait to see what other amazing tea surprises this year holds.

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Mar 23rd, '11, 11:30
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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by artmom » Mar 23rd, '11, 11:30

I marked Other. I'm not ordering any First Flush teas of any description this year. I've found I like several Second Flush or later teas.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by JRS22 » Mar 23rd, '11, 12:40

A lot has changed for me since last spring. I now own 3 porcelain gaiwans, small, medium and large. I also own a small tokoname kyusu. My cups are smaller than last year, but not small enough, so there's still teaware on my shopping list.

I explored many different chinese teas this past year, as I did the first year I was drinking tea. The big difference is that this past year I was steeping my tea properly, so I have a better sense of which ones I like. This coming year, CY2011 harvest, my focus with chinese teas will probably be to compare a few varieties from different sources, rather than many different varieties. Long jing, tphk, an ji bai cha.......

Two other big changes - no more shincha - I prefer the mellower tea that's available down the road. And I LOVE puerh. I know this about shincha and puerh because I had the opportunity to experiment with so many different teas in the OTTIs.

In my cup this morning, the last of my 2010 bai hao yin zhen, followed by a shu puerh sample that was a gift from a fellow Teachatter. It was good, but I'm probably going to concentrate on sampling more aged sheng puerh. I'm not old old, but I'm too old to plan 20 years ahead, or even 10 years, in my tea purchases. I want aged puerh, and I want it now.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by Chip » Mar 23rd, '11, 13:42

Thank you Herb_Master for coloring our TD with our favorite species of plant's cousin!

:mrgreen: Enjoying everyone's posts today! Very insightful! :mrgreen:

Little has changed dramatically here, steeps have gotten smaller, but this is more out of necessity (dwindling leaf) more than anything ... and therefore brew vessels I use are smaller ... leaving the larger kyusu-s idle and in turn smaller cups. This will likely change as teas are replenished!

Also more types of tea I think, more pu-erh, and some more oolong. Will Darjeeling creep back into the regular line-up?

The uncertainty of what is going on in Japan and the even bigger uncertainty of how government agencies like the FDA may react/overreact to the situation has me wondering if Japanese teas will be a scarce commodity this Spring. Although last Spring they had the very late and damaging freeze which had everyone pretty freaked out and scurrying to buy.

So as much as things changed, they remained pretty much the same.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by Elovitz » Mar 23rd, '11, 14:06

Different teas and vessels this spring. Finally got a basic yixing to start learning gong-fu. Also trying a lot of different Japanese and chinese greens.

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Re: Wednesday TeaDay 3/23/11 Springing forward?

by entropyembrace » Mar 23rd, '11, 16:21

Very different this spring!

Last year I was still using only my large glass pot and general purpose mugs to brew everything. In the past year my teaware collection has grown a lot...mostly towards smaller and more specialized pieces.

Also the teas I´m drinking are different...last spring it was Taiwan oolongs and 2nd Flush Darjeeling that made up most of my tea consumption....now I´m drinking mostly raw puerh and sencha.

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