My Ebay Pu Erh's

[MarshalN]

Yes, I am recommending using hot water. I will suggest to compensate, less tea leaves should be used and perhaps infusions should be faster. Right now, from the pictures, it looks like a lot of leaves, and I don't think that's a good idea.

If you use gaiwan, then it should be very short infusions with more leaves, but also you can try less leaves with longer infusions. Tea brewed the latter way, however, will tend to be rougher on the tongue.

Thanks for the kind words about my blog. It's funny, I never thought of the pictures on my blog as good looking -- they are rather utilitarian, IMHO. Compared to other blogs that try to put up more artistic photos, mine are terrible, but I think they get the job done better by focusing on the tea, and not the aesthetics.

[Salsero]

What could be more aesthetically pleasing to a bunch of tea addicts than big beautiful pictures of tea leaves!!

Thanks for the advice on water temp and brewing.