Monday TeaDay 5/4/09 Amount of leaf/importance?

[Chip]

Enjoying Spring Sprout CFT/O from Rishi with my wife. This is excellent brewed "grandfather style." I wish I had tried this style sooner.

I just noticed I am TOP (top of page) 4 times today.

[spot52]

Here is my standard spoon for loose leaf; I am a stickler for precision.

But it is hard to store indoors.

[brad4419]

Important for me mainly because of puerh. If I use either way too much or way too little leaf it comes out bad so it is important but but not overly important on a dayly basis. If I have a really good tea and not much of it then it becomes Extremely important.

Earl grey cream, chagtai Banna puerh and green spice chai today

[gingkoseto]

For the song zhong dan cong I am drinking now, I would choose maybe.. maybe... or even not important. This is a mild dan cong and I dare to use as much tea leaves as possible. In many other cases, I could only use half amount as used by a native of Chaozhou

I thought the Chaozhou style was to pack very heavy and brew very strong to produce a brew which is far too strong for natives of other provinces and overseas tea afficianados.

Does the heavy Chaozhou style only apply to other teas such as TeoChew or Black tea and lower grades of Oolong BUT not to DanCong?

Oops, I meant to say "I could only use half as much as used by a native of Chaozhou". which is exactly what you mean. For this tea I had today, either less or more is ok. For most other dan cong, full pack would be too strong for me. I guess Chaozhou people would use Chaozhou style for whatever oolong they have.

I found some cheaper dan congs are quite fragrant when smaller amounts are used, but taste almost like a different tea when larger amounts are used or when infusion is made longer than several seconds - and I found the same for many black teas.

[Victoria]

Checking in late today, spent most of the day with DH starting with breakfast at one of our favorite spots - I was thinking I had an "emergency" tea with me, but I guess I used that last weeeknd. I did manage to find a Jasmine Green in my purse it was better than Lipton's anyway. Then off to a new liitle market in our area we have been meaning to check out. Then off to find a new camera for me. DH has been looking for while now, I really am hoping to find one that will help with my limited photo abilities. I am hoping to improve my TC pics!

Somewhere in there I also had a nice Baozhong, really enjoying this one again after a few months.

Oh and to answer the poll, yes the leaf amount is paramount. It is all about the amount of leaf, to get the perfect cup.

[Dreamer]

Hi All,

I voted "important"...I don't think absolute exactness is required, but can you imagine if you didn't have a clue of how much sincha to use to make a nice cup and you filled your kyusu halfway...you probably couldn't drink the result and you would have wasted a LOT of great leaf!!!!

While you can control the time, temp and amount of leaf, you really don't have control over the actual leaf that goes into the pot at any given time...the leaf that you brewed yesterday quite probably came from a different plant than the leaf you are brewing today and today's leaf might just taste a bit different than yesterday's. And the leaf that you brew today is a bit older than what you brewed yesterday. We can't really control any of that. With all those uncontrollable variables, varying the amount of leaf by a few percent on any given day probably won't matter.

Wow, I got started typing and couldn't stop...must be the sincha buzz!

Take care,
Dreamer

[DoctorD]

Important, but I tend toward the eyeball method rather than worry about exact measurements. I've got one of those Upton scales too, but find I rarely use it. I do, though, really appreciate the tea reviews by folks who insist on getting their parameters just right.

Tonight's cup: Den's 2008 Guricha. Earlier in the day some Longjing and some Lu'an Ga Pian, both from TeaSpring. All of 'em eyeballed, and all of 'em quite tasty indeed.

[tenuki]

Important for what? The amount of tea I put in my gaiwan is not important really.

Taiwan WuYi from FLT today, I'm rediscovering this tea lately. It was too green this year for me initially, but lately I'm using more leaf and a rollling boil and getting great results.

btw, a lot of the automatic electric kettles shut off before a full rolling boil, you have to manually hold down the lever to keep it boiling longer but it's worth it for some teas.

[TheJerseyDevil]

I don't really put much thought into it, though it does seem that I use a lot less leaf for black tea than green. I can usually get more steeps with more leaf, which suits my laziness well.

Enjoying sencha fukamidori right now

[JP]

While I consider the amount of leaf very important, I do admit to often changing the amount that I use by not measuring it. I don't really want the same reliable strength everyday, do I? Of course not.

[iannon]

I do mine by look and feel as well..but i have been considering getting a small gram scale just to see how close i have been and how off i have been or if it will make much difference..anyone recommend what you use?

I use this electronic scale from Upton
http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.a ... goryID=188
It's a little pricey, but it does a great job and I'm very happy with it.

Bruce

went and found one similar on ebay..coming my way. I'll be curious to know how close or off i was on my eyeballing the amounts and how much difference it makes with my japanese greens

[silvermage2000]

I consider the amount of leaf important.