New tea user; questions about brewing & Zisha Yixing po

[floridahawk]

I am new to the tea experience. I am wanting to switch from coffee to tea for numerous reasons. There is a tea house in my area that I have purchased some red teas and was given a sample of black to try. I bought the red b/c was told was very little to no caffeine and could drink all day at anytime. Wanted the black for that "wake you up in the morning jolt".

Currently I have been making an ice chai tea by throwing the leaves into stainless steel mixing bowel, then when it cools decanting into a glass pitcher and keeping in the fridge for all day drinking. Not sure if the stainless steel is the best thing don't want to leach metals into the tea. Have gone online and see a lot of things, including Zisha Yixing pots from a distrubuter in the states that look very nice for about $35. I have also seen some very inexpensive ones on ebay. The site www.acornplanet.com talks about how there are alot of cheap ones out there that may contain LEAD in the "clay" that it is made of! It also talks about seasoning the pot.

My question is two fold: 1.Do you have to use only the same type of tea in one of those pots? Can I use green, or black or red brewed in the same pot? And one buying one of those cheap ones out there how do you know or can you really know if you are getting a product that is safe to make tea in? Some of the pots are really pretty but I know that sometimes cermaics made overseas can have a lead content in them and not be safe to use.

Also, I perfer generally not to drink anything out of plastic especaily hot. I feel that there might be some leaching of chemicals from the plastic threw heating it. I onced did some testing on glad ware that was being heated up in the microwave, and it was losing weight from heating to heating. So, hence my reluctance to drink/make anything hot in plastic. I perfer glass or ceramic any day. Any suggestions/answeres would be much appreciated. !

[Mike B]

Currently I have been making an ice chai tea by throwing the leaves into stainless steel mixing bowel

Maybe you meant a different word...

[floridahawk]

I asked a question about brewing tea in a Zisha Yixing teapot. I thought this was a forum about tea. Not a forum where puerile little boys from Tennessee can act elitist and get their jollies mocking people. So I wrote “bowel” instead of “bowl”. It was an honest mistake. I asked what I thought was a good question that deserved a good answer. Not to be bantered by a nasty little boy who has mistaken himself to be a man. Get a real life and become a real man.

[jzero]

MikeB was kidding with you FloridaHawk. Don't take him so seriously.

Regarding teaware, I've heard similar concerns about lead in earthenware. I would probably fork out for a better-quality one.

Some people prefer to have different pots for different types of teas. I think that's mostly a function of personal preference and how sensitive your tastebuds are to residual flavors that might get passed on to subsequent pots of tea.

[himthatwas]

Wow, floridahawk is a nasty one. I'd definitely stick to the decaff.

Seriously though you being a novice how do we know you didn't happen to buy a book that also happened to have a typo on the word bowl and though "Hey, they know better than I."

I wish I knew the answers to your questions. I can say that you will get a bit of an overlap on flavors but not enough that it would detract from your drinking experience. Course you do seem kind of touchy so you might want to get a seperate one for every kind, and a different glass, and a different spoon. I think it would be overkill but some people are that way. The red tea's do tend to have a bit more of a lingering flavor so you might want to give it a double rinse after using that.

I am glad to hear that you don't use any available bowel for your brewing. It would probably make you an angry person.

[chris]

Relax, all!

Our new user floridahawk may not be familiar with the fact that we not only talk the tea talk, but we also try to have a little fun!

As LadyArden has pointed out, MikeB is our resident editor. It's not that the rest of us don't see the spelling/grammatical/definitional errors, we're just not as obsessive-compulsive about it. Plus, I'm feeling that there may be some deep-seeded issues with stainless steel mixing bowels in his dark, sordid past.

I'd personally recommend getting a few different pots if you're going to be making different types of tea. Tea is very susceptable to being effected by other flavors, so I usually have a few different ones around. And I ALWAYS steep flavored teas in a different pot than un-flavored (i learned my lesson the hard way after drinking all my teas with lemon overtones for about a month).

There are some plastics that do not act the way you've mentioned -- these are called "food grade" plastics (such as the ingenuiTEA). Please look for this grade when shopping around!

Hope this helps,

Chris
Adagio Maestro

PS... I've got family in Tennessee, and can attest to the fact that residents must by law act like elitist puerile little boys. I think it is in their state constitution and has something to do with the Civil War.

[Tracy]

Sorry, Chris, just couldn't resist:
"Tea is very susceptable to being effected by other flavors..." Did you mean "affected?"

Tongue-in-cheekly,
Tracy

PS--In answer to the Yixing question, you'll get the best answer from Seb. If not, I can tell you that many reputable importers have their pots leach tested and are certified by the FDA (or some organization like that). I asked about this, because as a potter, I know what kind of minerals can show up in clay. Your usual culprits, however, are unstable, unvitrified glazes, not high-iron clays. I'd use a Zisha clay pot before I'd use an unglazed manganese-speckled one...

On food grade plastics, surely SOME chemical/petroleum by-products leach out when heated?

[chris]

correct.... affected. This was an effect of being affected.

[teaspoon]

While I don't know anything about yixing teapots (other than what I've seen on this board), I can attest to the purity of tea brewed in the IngenuiTEA. I'm a staunch supporter of that little teapot, with the one qualifying criticism being that it's kinda a pain to clean the leaves out of unless you have a garbage disposal. Also, I wouldn't worry so much about using a metal bowl. You see metal infusers all the time, with no ill effect on the tea brewed using them. So a stainless steel bowl shouldn't be a problem either.

About said bowl, I just can't resist the urge to say that to be honest, I'm surprised Mike B only saw fit to correct the spelling of that single word, without continuing on to fix the grammar in that entire paragraph. That's just how he is. Just be glad you're not Pete Vu, and live with it like the rest of us do.

~teaspoon the legendary troll-hunter

PS~Chris, I'm sensing that you're not on good terms with this family in Tennessee?

[floridahawk]

Thanks everyone for all of your help. Yes I know maybe I do need to get off the caffeine. But my god the headaches that I am experiencing trying to get off the coffee! The coffee I make it one step below espresso. Breakfast tea is nowhere near as strong as the coffee. Caffeine withdrawals!!!!

I have put off the idea for now of acquiring a Zisha Yixing teapot. I think I should wait until I get more familiar with tea and teapots before spending the money on an expensive pot. Also, I am fortunate that there is a Chinese grocery store in my area. Found a very nice porcelain teapot for only $9.00 there. They also had tons and tons of teas, most of which were not labeled in English. Unfortunately, I was not able to find someone who could both speak English and translate the Chinese writing for me. I did pick up what did appear to be green tea, however it was not very good. The tea on the shelves had the appearance of being there for a very long, long time, which I am sure, would affect the quality of the tea. At least the tin is nice and can be reused. Plus, I am fortunate enough to have a good teahouse nearby where I can purchase quality teas.

PS. I will try from now on to check my grammar and spelling first before posting.

Thanks again everyone who responded.

[Guest]

Somebody asks a question and you can't even be civil. It's not fun, Site Admin., it's disgusting, improper behavior from you and yours.

[Marlene]

our site admin (chis) was perfectly civil, 'guest'. one of our regular posters may not have been particularly civil, but he wasn't exactly inflamitory either. perhaps you too mr guest could use a little civilty yourself?

[teaspoon]

To add an important point to Marlene's already suitable post, Chris did a decent job of trying to smooth ruffled feathers by explaining (note that I did not say excusing) Mike B's behavior. Which is something he didn't even have to do, as no message board moderator is responsible for the posts of the users.

~the fiercely defensive teaspoon

[Mike B]

And hi. All I did was point out the word "bowel." I thought it was funny -- because, against my better judgment, I still find poo humor funny. I want to be better than that. I want to subsist only on witty New Yorker cartoons and the quips of Noel Coward -- but I can't.

You know what I didn't do? I didn't call the poster with the fast-flying fingers "puerile" (though, by the way, nice vocab word). I didn't call that person elitist, nor accuse said poster of being from Tennessee. Heck, I even sent an apology to the poster saying that I didn't expect my pointing out the word "bowel" was going to cause the reaction it did.

Did that poster apologize back, not only for the "puerile" business, but for also calling me nasty and telling me to grow up -- that I needed to become a "real man"? Let me help you with this one: No. But P.S.: Real men? Totally would laugh at the word "bowel" in any situation, including some medical ones, because as I said above, the word "bowel" = hilarity.