What is a heaping teaspoon?

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Jun 21st, '12, 15:43
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What is a heaping teaspoon?

by ACardAttack » Jun 21st, '12, 15:43

Okay, so I ordered some tea, and a lot of the instructions says 1 heaping teaspoon per cup, so I did some investigation on google

From the sounds of it, a heaping teaspoon, I just scoop and what ever mountain of tea is sticking up is what I use instead of leveling off?

Now what gets me is that doesnt seem very precise...it seems if you needed a "heaping" it would be better to say like two teaspoons...and I assume when it says teaspoon it means leveling off the teaspoon so you get exactly a teaspoon.

Now has anyone ignored the heaping advice and just did a normal teaspoon vs heaping to see what the taste difference was like?

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Jun 21st, '12, 20:45
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Re: What is a heaping teaspoon?

by debunix » Jun 21st, '12, 20:45

Teas vary tremendously in quantity of leaf per unit volume

Image
Why I prefer a scale by debunix, on Flickr

so I distrust most any recommendation for 'teaspoon' or 'heaping teaspoon' and go with what has generally worked for me in the past with that class of teas, as a start for a new-to-me tea. I use about 1 gram per ounce of water for most, and go up or down depending on how I like the result (too weak, go up, too strong, go down, easy). Small digital scales are inexpensive and easily available from Amazon.
Last edited by debunix on Jun 21st, '12, 21:45, edited 1 time in total.

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Jun 21st, '12, 20:59
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Re: What is a heaping teaspoon?

by Chip » Jun 21st, '12, 20:59

Yeah, go digital! :idea: The scales today are often cheaper than a teaspoon anyway.

Jun 21st, '12, 21:34
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Re: What is a heaping teaspoon?

by ACardAttack » Jun 21st, '12, 21:34

I think I'll have to give the scale a shot...I've had a hard time getting tea just right for me

Jun 26th, '12, 08:56
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Re: What is a heaping teaspoon?

by ACardAttack » Jun 26th, '12, 08:56

Anyone else do measurement by weight? I was trying the 1 gram per ounce, but then I realized just how much tea made a gram...I was trying on my white tea sample, a sample that should make 5 cups according to adagio, but the package is 11 grams, so it couldn't even make half of that.

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Jun 26th, '12, 09:20
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Re: What is a heaping teaspoon?

by Drax » Jun 26th, '12, 09:20

I usually weigh my teas, though if I get very familiar with it, then I'm comfortable eye-balling it (balled oolongs are especially easy). And one gram of tea per one ounce of water is my general starting point for teas with which I'm not familiar, and I usually tweak from there.

That's the nice thing about weighing -- it gets your eye trained and your taste buds calibrated to the results. Once you get used to how things look and taste, you can stop using the scale, if you prefer (of course, you could do the training without a scale as well; it just might require more testing... fortunately that involves drinking more tea...!).

I had the same problem with Adagio samples, though... given the way that I brew most teas, the samples would usually last me 2-3 sessions (vice the 5-10 that they say).

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Jun 29th, '12, 22:15
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Re: What is a heaping teaspoon?

by garrettmc » Jun 29th, '12, 22:15

I used to try to use teaspoons a lot too but I discovered I was being to cheap with my leaf and was missing out on a lot of flavor. IMO I would just try to eyeball it and maybe put a bit more than what the package recommends and just shorten steep time. You'll probably get better flavor that way. After all, the Chinese have so much tea that they aren't afraid of using too much leaf. If you wanna fully appreciate the flavor of a tea IMO you should use slightly more leaf, which you probably will if you just eyeball it.

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