Helping Broaden My Horizons

[ssjaken]

I'm fairly new to the tea "scene". I've been doing the whole leaf tea infusion deal for about 3 years now and haven't looked backed. All the teachat posts i've read have been invaluable. But alas i need to expand my heights of tea, and go forth out into the void more.

The only infusion/steeping device i have ever used is the Adagio ingenuiTEA. Fantastic device, two teaspoons 16 ounces of water (is a cup of tea 8oz or 12oz. I'm never sure!) and its heaven in a plastic cup.

Well during my kitchen remodel my ingenuiTEA was damaged and i am without delicious tea (well not really, i've just tossed the leaves in the cup old school chinese style and just not consumed them).

So i am in the market so to speak for a new steeper/infusion contraption. I am open to any and all suggestions, help this semi noob tea connoisseur!

THANKS!

[olivierco]

I would suggest a small porcelain teapot (or a gaiwan). You can brew any kind of tea in it.

[ABx]

I would say that it depends on how much you want to broaden your horizons. Are you looking for something relatively familiar? If so, I'm sure others can give you a few suggestions. If, however, you want to start looking seriously into Chinese tea, then I second Olivierco's advice of a small porcelain pot or gaiwan (serenityartinc.com has them both cheap). For Japanese green teas there are kyusus and other Japanese pots. It just really depends on how far into the rabbit hole you're looking

[ssjaken]

well the ease of use of the ingenuiTEA is awesome, would be nice to see other devices like it out there. As for tea pots, i really want a cast iron japanese tea pot, i've seen a few at my asian markets that are pretty cool.

[Victoria]

It is convenient, but I think it's time for an upgrade.
If you want to continue brewing English style,
you could opt for the personalitea pot. Or maybe the petite
glass pot, since you can still watch the leaves.

It took me quite awhile to let go of the ingenuiTea,
but once you do, you'll wonder why you waited so long.

Venturing further, a nice medium size Tokoname kyusu
will really help your appreciation of the tea brewing process.

[Intuit]

Nix the Japanese cast iron teapot. Eye Candy at best. At worst, stews the delicate teas.

Buy another ingenuiTEA. It worked for 3 yrs for a reason. This will be your standby, to use for conventional teas, casual brewing, into the foreseeable future.

Get yourself a cheap digital thermometer, timer, small pocket digital scale. Learn how to measure and infuse tea properly.

Sharpen up your brewing technique (practice, practice, practice) until you are confident of your skills. During this time, put your money into 'software' - use TC to familiarize yourself with various common teas and tea vendors. Buy samples, practice brewing, tasting.

Buy a professional style tea cupping set (or two), learn how to use it to carefully evaluate new teas in a highly controlled, precise and reproducible manner. This reduces factor variation, and you can better analyze results while training your palate. Otherwise, 'learning' teas is a 'random walk', happenstance.

Sharpen up your brewing skills at progressively smaller volumes by purchasing a couple of inexpensive porcelain teapot, per Abx's advice. Buy 12, 8 and 6 oz sizes.

Practice brewing your favorite teas at smaller scale, still carefully employing proper brewing technique.

Progress stepwise to better grades of tea, where smaller scale won't break the bank. Watch your tea budget, resist the urge to simply collect teas. Read the forum, ask specific questions when you need technical clarification or are unsure of new teas or vendors.

If you wish, you can explore and practice Eastern style sequential infusion technique. When you are ready, that's when you buy a gaiwan, as a tasting/technique sharpening tool and portable, no fuss tea making device. At this point, you may consider purchasing specialized teaware for Asian teas. Have a budget in mind, save up your pennies.

Begin exploring the more expensive teas best suited to this technique.

This process will take no less than 1 year. Jumping the gun before your palate appreciation and skills are developed is to be avoided.

[ssjaken]

It is convenient, but I think it's time for an upgrade.
If you want to continue brewing English style,
you could opt for the personalitea pot. Or maybe the petite
glass pot, since you can still watch the leaves.

It took me quite awhile to let go of the ingenuiTea,
but once you do, you'll wonder why you waited so long.

Venturing further, a nice medium size Tokoname kyusu
will really help your appreciation of the tea brewing process.

i looked up Tokoname pots and found a style called shoryu that is very catching. Im going to look into getting one locally. I saw Alton Browns episode on tea on his show Good Eats, and was turned onto the cast iron ones.

What about single cup infusion? I've seen alot of cool "Pen" infusers , where you put the leaves in a slot on a metal tube and its enough for one cup and it strains the leaves and everything.

Personally what does everyone use in their day to day tea? I drink all kinds, darjeelings/english in the morning and greens and roobios afternoon and oolong/green at night. That damn ingenuiTEA pot does em all perfectly, would be nice to find something that can mimic its Convenience.

But as for brewing a whole pot at a time, im definitely going to get myself a nice japanese pot like a Tokoname or Cast iron, you've helped me with that decision!

Thanks.

[Victoria]

These which you are calling "pen" or stick infusers are horrid! The worst!
They don't allow for the leaves to expand at all! And Rooibos will be a huge mess.

I think maybe a mug infuser might be the right choice if you are looking to infuse. Here's a nice sized one one: http://www.nmteaco.com/Paris-Tea-Strainer_p_118.html. Or this - but get the larger size, it still fits in a mug just fine: http://teasource.com/merchant2/merchant ... t_Count=10

This is a great pot, I use mine often:
http://www.amazon.com/16-Oz-Glass-Tea-P ... O0K4A0RY3K
But I replaced the glass infuser with a metal infuser similar to above.

[ssjaken]

Nix the Japanese cast iron teapot. Eye Candy at best. At worst, stews the delicate teas.

Buy another ingenuiTEA. It worked for 3 yrs for a reason. This will be your standby, to use for conventional teas, casual brewing, into the foreseeable future.

Get yourself a cheap digital thermometer, timer, small pocket digital scale. Learn how to measure and infuse tea properly.

Sharpen up your brewing technique (practice, practice, practice) until you are confident of your skills. During this time, put your money into 'software' - use TC to familiarize yourself with various common teas and tea vendors. Buy samples, practice brewing, tasting.

Buy a professional style tea cupping set (or two), learn how to use it to carefully evaluate new teas in a highly controlled, precise and reproducible manner. This reduces factor variation, and you can better analyze results while training your palate. Otherwise, 'learning' teas is a 'random walk', happenstance.

Sharpen up your brewing skills at progressively smaller volumes by purchasing a couple of inexpensive porcelain teapot, per Abx's advice. Buy 12, 8 and 6 oz sizes.

Practice brewing your favorite teas at smaller scale, still carefully employing proper brewing technique.

Progress stepwise to better grades of tea, where smaller scale won't break the bank. Watch your tea budget, resist the urge to simply collect teas. Read the forum, ask specific questions when you need technical clarification or are unsure of new teas or vendors.

If you wish, you can explore and practice Eastern style sequential infusion technique. When you are ready, that's when you buy a gaiwan, as a tasting/technique sharpening tool and portable, no fuss tea making device. At this point, you may consider purchasing specialized teaware for Asian teas. Have a budget in mind, save up your pennies.

Begin exploring the more expensive teas best suited to this technique.

This process will take no less than 1 year. Jumping the gun before your palate appreciation and skills are developed is to be avoided.

sage advice my friend. my digital scale is broken, i use it for cooking and making homebrew beer so another need for a new one is justifiable! lol. I have a pino USA digital water kettle, just punch in your desired temp and it goes right to it.

ill definitely look into cupping sets and a nice porcelain pot would be very nice to have.

As for the scale, where would i go to learn what kind of tea needs what kind of weight (IE greens at 1 gram or blacks at 3 grams ) and any literature that i should be reading?

[ABx]

I really wouldn't worry about the professional cupping sets. Those are used to really stress the tea, making most of them bitter to the point that most casual drinkers would find intolerable. A gawain and perhaps a small porcelain pot would probably be your best bet. Again, http://www.serenityartinc.com has the cheapest (and they have porcelain pots sized for gongfu cha that can't be found elsewhere online).

If you're just starting out then I would keep it relatively simple, and then you can get others as your interests dictate. Getting gaiwans with different thickness, for example, is good if and when you get interested in the differences in heat retention.

Again, if you want to specify what you're looking to get into, then it would be easier to give more specific recommendations. Intuit's advice could be very good or very bad, depending on what you're looking for.

As for things like scales, you can also measure by volume. As for where to find that advice, you can always ask when you encounter new teas that you have trouble with or visit sites like http://www.chineseteas101.com/ - but if you're observant you'll notice that you can use pretty much any amount of leaf if you adjust the steep time. Experimentation will tell you more than anything.

[Ritva]

If you want something similar to Ingenuitea, there are Piao I teapots
http://www.piao-i.com/enweb/PiaoITeaPot.html
http://purepuer.com/puer_tea/do/category/Piao_i_teapot
or Kamjove brewing devices
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Yunnan-Sour ... ec0Q2em322
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea- ... ec0Q2em322
Just note that when they say the volume is 1000 ml, it means the volume of the outer pot. The volume of the brewing compartment (inner pot) is much smaller, for example 350 ml when the outer pot is 1000 ml.
My boyfriend has this Piao I http://www.piao-i.com/enweb/GL-888.html
and he finds it very handy.

[Intuit]

>Those are used to really stress the tea, making most of them bitter to the point that most casual drinkers would find intolerable.

Incorrect. It's the competition brewing style that affords bitterness in inferior teas. Standardizing vessel, water, leaf loading is a sensible approach for learning a tea and comparison with others of its type.

[ABx]

Incorrect. It's the competition brewing style that affords bitterness in inferior teas. Standardizing vessel, water, leaf loading is a sensible approach for learning a tea and comparison with others of its type.

You can get bitterness even in good teas if you stress them too much. That competition style brewing is how those cupping sets are intended to be used. They're not bad, but you're a lot better off with a small porcelain pot or a gaiwan. I thought as you did until I actually got a cupping set and found them to be no better, and many times not as good as a gaiwan or pot.

There's really no objective standard for brewing vessel. A cupping set is just one option that you have, and it's not really the best unless you're a pro taster at a competition. The bottom line is that they're a waste of money, IMO, whereas a decent gaiwan will serve you well for as long as you're drinking Chinese teas.

Getting a wide range of brewing vessels is great if you have an idea of what teas you're into and, more importantly, you are interested in exploring all the differences in heat retention and such (and have a good deal of disposable income). However, if you're just starting out and don't know where you want to go, how deep you want to go, and just want to try different teas, then loading up on gear could potentially make things more confusing and leave you with a lot of unwanted stuff in the end. As an example, if someone is getting into wulong and starts getting curious about the differences in brewing in things like yixing (but is unsure about things like dedicating a pot or matching a tea to a pot), then I think it's better to just get some porcelain ware with different thicknesses and shapes and experiment -- once you know how your favorite teas turn out with different pots/gaiwans, the move to yixing will be much more obvious and natural. If you're still at the point that you don't even know what types of teas you like best, though, then you'd probably be best served by getting one or two versatile brewing vessels while you explore tea. I've also seen a good number of people start out with Chinese teas, only to drop them entirely in favor of Japanese green teas.

Yes, everyone is going to have different approaches that work best for them, but once you're past the majority of experimentation you'll find that you gravitate toward a favorite type of tea (even if not exclusively), and then look at your teaware collection and say: "holy crap, what a bunch of crap! I never used half of this stuff; I should have just spent the money on tea."

Everyone will find the way that's best for them but, generally speaking, if you take things slowly (or at least approach them with patience) and don't try to do too many things at once, then you can save yourself a lot of time, money, and confusion.

[Chip]

There's really no objective standard for brewing vessel. A cupping set it just one option that you have, and it's not really the best unless you're a pro taster at a competition.

... or if you want to get several sets and do side by side comparisons. Of course, you could do this with other vessels as well as long as they are the virtual same, but it is "fun" to have cupping sets in the house, available for comparing teas.

[ABx]

There's really no objective standard for brewing vessel. A cupping set it just one option that you have, and it's not really the best unless you're a pro taster at a competition.

... or if you want to get several sets and do side by side comparisons. Of course, you could do this with other vessels as well as long as they are the virtual same, but it is "fun" to have cupping sets in the house, available for comparing teas.

Of course you can also get those lots of gaiwans from places like DTH for less money than two cupping sets, which often produce better results and never stop being useful


If you look at the pics of sit-down comparison tastings, they usually use gaiwans. My understanding of the cupping sets is that their primary advantage is convenience in carrying around at an expo.

I'm not really arguing against them, just that they offer no advantage over a gaiwan. If you have a good gaiwan, then a cupping set isn't going to do anything more for you (unless it offers some unique practical value to your particular circumstance) and after you use it a few times it will likely just collect dust.