I had been going with something between the tall glass and gong fu. A small, tall pyrex jug which I put lots of leaf in and went for many quick infusions, then a few very long infusions.
The cat put an end to that about a week or two ago, now I'm using a 100ml gaiwan whilst looking for a new jug.
I always consider things like that positive, I mean of course your out of a very useful brewing vessel which sucks, but cats always seem to break certain things... maybe thats just my crazy mind thoughProinsias wrote:The cat put an end to that about a week or two ago, now I'm using a 100ml gaiwan whilst looking for a new jug.
I use my 120 ml gaiwan or a 200ml glass pot, depending on the number of tea drinkers. In either case, I leave a "root" -- a small amount of tea covering the leaves in the vessel between infusions.
A tall glass method is great, and this is how tea is brewed in Huang Zhou (home of Long Jing) in China. This photo was taken in the village of Lung Jing, at a local tea house. The tea was served in tall glasses with a thermos on the side. If you look closely, you'll see glasses filled with tea on the little table.
A tall glass method is great, and this is how tea is brewed in Huang Zhou (home of Long Jing) in China. This photo was taken in the village of Lung Jing, at a local tea house. The tea was served in tall glasses with a thermos on the side. If you look closely, you'll see glasses filled with tea on the little table.
A more convenient alternative is to drink out of a glass thermos with a strainer. I have a stainless one from china, but i find it imparts too much flavor to green tea. These thermos things are very popular in china (usually stainless or polycarb). Just brew the same way as with a cup, but the leaves stay put.
Like this:
http://www.summittea.com/catalog/produc ... &s=teaware
Like this:
http://www.summittea.com/catalog/produc ... &s=teaware
Thanks for the linky.
I have a plastic one that i won't use. (but does have a nice insulated sleeve to keep it warm).
I've been looking for glass.
I have a plastic one that i won't use. (but does have a nice insulated sleeve to keep it warm).
I've been looking for glass.
“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone: “so I ca’n’t take more.”
“You mean you ca’n’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone: “so I ca’n’t take more.”
“You mean you ca’n’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”
Apr 26th, '09, 18:29
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I cold brew long jing in a glass with ice in the summer, it's divine. The ice has the added benefit of straining the leaves.
Do something different, something different will happen. ( Gong Fu Garden )
I use the same method for chinese greens (I don't drink japanese greens), blacks, yellows, and greener oolongs. I use le creuset on gas range to heat water, brew in a 3-cup jenaer glass pot without infuser and decant into a bodum glass pot. I did a lot of experimentation and I find that neither tall glass nor gaiwan work nearly as well as this "two glass pots" method.
With chinese greens, in particular, with lightly brewed chinese greens (that's how I prefer them), there are a few rules of thumb essential to make them work. First, water should be heated on gas range, not in electric pot. Second, if you drink gong-fu style tea (any type) beforehand, green tea will seem too mild and the subtle flavour will not come through, if it's brewed stronger, flavour will be too vegetal. I will either drink greens the whole day through or do greens in the morning and midday and gong-fu in the evening. Third rule is that there should be no infuser, unless infuser takes up the whole volume of the vessel, like in bodum infuser mugs (which are also perfect for chinese greens, except that I want more tea than just one mug). Fourth rule is that the pot should be glass, other materials take away the heat too fast even when preheated and greens never come out just right. And final fifth rule is that the glass for drinking should be also of glass material and should not be too small - at least 5 oz or so, if it's smaller, it cools down too fast and the perfect green flavour is lost.
All in all greens are very tricky to get right, some are more reliable and others are less.. with most of them I got to the point where I'm 99% sure I'll get it perfect if I'm careful.
Of course, the tea itself has to be good, lately I'm a big fan of some teaspring offerings...
With chinese greens, in particular, with lightly brewed chinese greens (that's how I prefer them), there are a few rules of thumb essential to make them work. First, water should be heated on gas range, not in electric pot. Second, if you drink gong-fu style tea (any type) beforehand, green tea will seem too mild and the subtle flavour will not come through, if it's brewed stronger, flavour will be too vegetal. I will either drink greens the whole day through or do greens in the morning and midday and gong-fu in the evening. Third rule is that there should be no infuser, unless infuser takes up the whole volume of the vessel, like in bodum infuser mugs (which are also perfect for chinese greens, except that I want more tea than just one mug). Fourth rule is that the pot should be glass, other materials take away the heat too fast even when preheated and greens never come out just right. And final fifth rule is that the glass for drinking should be also of glass material and should not be too small - at least 5 oz or so, if it's smaller, it cools down too fast and the perfect green flavour is lost.
All in all greens are very tricky to get right, some are more reliable and others are less.. with most of them I got to the point where I'm 99% sure I'll get it perfect if I'm careful.
Of course, the tea itself has to be good, lately I'm a big fan of some teaspring offerings...
Welcome to the forum, Rainy Day! Thanks for sharing your brewing method. What ratio of leaves to water do you use when you brew in a glass teapot?Rainy-Day wrote:IAll in all greens are very tricky to get right, some are more reliable and others are less.. with most of them I got to the point where I'm 99% sure I'll get it perfect if I'm careful.
May 4th, '09, 14:30
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
For me it depends somewhat on the leaf style. I usually do larger needle-style teas in a small Yixing pot and decant to a just-the-right-size ceramic cup from one of the potters we visited in the hills above Gyeongju on my only visit to Korea. Eyebrow teas and such seem to do nicely in a celadon infuser mug from another potter up in those hills. At work I make do with an ordinary Chatsford mug infuser in an ordinary 10 oz. porcelain mug. I've tried a couple glass pots, but without much success--cheap construction, probably, since they managed to break on me after just a few uses. I--gulp--don't even own a gaiwan, but that's sure to change one of these days.
Thanks! I followed usenet tea group for many years but it's getting less and less traffic. So I will hang around here now :-).teashionista wrote:Welcome to the forum, Rainy Day! Thanks for sharing your brewing method. What ratio of leaves to water do you use when you brew in a glass teapot?Rainy-Day wrote:IAll in all greens are very tricky to get right, some are more reliable and others are less.. with most of them I got to the point where I'm 99% sure I'll get it perfect if I'm careful.
I don't weigh leaves so it's hard to answer, and it also depends on particular tea, I think I use about two table spoons for 3 cups, but that doesn't say much because different tea take up different volume. It really helps to swish dry leaves around in the pot because it's much easier to see how many leaves you used and add more if needed, or, if you used too much, adjust steep time.
I forgot to mention in the first post, but I usually only use first steep and discard the leaves, (again after much experimentation I confirmed that I usually don't like 2nd steep as much, and also for simplicity and to save time), and I use 2 minutes infusion for some teas and 3 minutes for others. For instance, teaspring has an excellent cheap long-jing that requires 3 minutes because the leaves are pressed and take some time to expand. The two recent yellows I'm drinking, I use 2 minutes: huo shang huang ya and meng ding huang ya ('09). For BLCs I'd usually use 2 minutes.