Hey, please share your strange tea habits in this thread: something that may not make sense and may be individual to your taste..
I'll start off with a few examples: I always boil water on a gas stove and can't stand tea made with electric kettles - I feel there's a subtle but definite taste difference for the worse. I'm pretty much settled on glass teaware except for zisha and kyusu pots. The cup has to be glass, two large teapots (for blacks, whites, chines greens) are also glass, and even if I try using a glazed ceramic pot, the taste is so different that I can't enjoy the tea at all. And the last one: I have to shake the water jug vigorously for half a minute before boiling it, otherwise the tea tastes much flatter.
These are not temporary quirks, I've settled into them over many years, even though strictly/scientifically speaking, I'm not sure any of them make much sense, at least it doesn't make sense to me that they'd make the difference between just 'meh' tea and 'yummy!'.
Re: Weird Tea Habits
yep.. me tooRainy-Day wrote:I always boil water on a gas stove and can't stand tea made with electric kettles
close to you again...Rainy-Day wrote:I'm pretty much settled on glass teaware.. The cup has to be glass...
hum.. so I suppose to be a bit odd, even if I never shook water before boiling it (but of course I can try it..).
anyway not so weird in my opinion... here we say a chair for every butt.. if it suits you, it has to be fine...
baku
Re: Weird Tea Habits
I think shaking is intended to aerate the water. Seems to work nicely for me. Whenever I forget to do that (last time that happened was a very long time ago), I immediately notice flat taste of my tea!
Re: Weird Tea Habits
I'll have to try shaking my water next time and see what happens.
Off the top of my head, all I can think of is that I have become a bit OCD about brushing my Yixing pots during use so that no tea/water spots are left. I suppose many would consider this to be good Yixing maintenance, but it can be taken too far.
Off the top of my head, all I can think of is that I have become a bit OCD about brushing my Yixing pots during use so that no tea/water spots are left. I suppose many would consider this to be good Yixing maintenance, but it can be taken too far.
Dec 9th, '09, 19:29
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Maitre_Tea
Re: Weird Tea Habits
Unless you have as many brushes as Tim has (http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... ls-01.html), I think you're in the cleartingjunkie wrote:I'll have to try shaking my water next time and see what happens.
Off the top of my head, all I can think of is that I have become a bit OCD about brushing my Yixing pots during use so that no tea/water spots are left. I suppose many would consider this to be good Yixing maintenance, but it can be taken too far.
Re: Weird Tea Habits
I should brush the glass pots, they get water stains like you wouldn't believe it. But I try to limit my tea OCDs to things that directly influence the taste of tea. So far, anyway.
Dec 9th, '09, 20:16
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Dreamer
Re: Weird Tea Habits
According to my family, everything I do related to tea is a "weird tea habit" 
I'm pretty sure that they're wrong...no weird tea habits here
Have fun,
Dreamer
I'm pretty sure that they're wrong...no weird tea habits here
Have fun,
Dreamer
Dec 9th, '09, 21:16
Posts: 199
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 14:07
Location: Boston, MA
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guitar9876
Re: Weird Tea Habits
haha yeah same here!!Dreamer wrote:According to my family, everything I do related to tea is a "weird tea habit"
I'm pretty sure that they're wrong...no weird tea habits here
Have fun,
Dreamer
Re: Weird Tea Habits
Wow, I'm glad I don't have the fever of acquiring all those implements. I am still using the original set of gongfu basic implements that I bought over 20 years ago! Even the same tea towl. Never had a brush except for my teeth.Maitre_Tea wrote:Unless you have as many brushes as Tim has (http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... ls-01.html), I think you're in the cleartingjunkie wrote:I'll have to try shaking my water next time and see what happens.
Off the top of my head, all I can think of is that I have become a bit OCD about brushing my Yixing pots during use so that no tea/water spots are left. I suppose many would consider this to be good Yixing maintenance, but it can be taken too far.
Dec 9th, '09, 22:19
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Maitre_Tea
Re: Weird Tea Habits
Honestly, I really envy Tim's meticulous dedication to the tea arts. I'm finally starting to read the back logs of his blog, and I'm really astounded by the persistent dedication he shows in the pursuit of tea. If only I could be even 1/4th the tea geek Tim is...
Re: Weird Tea Habits
All you need is money and time.Maitre_Tea wrote:Honestly, I really envy Tim's meticulous dedication to the tea arts. I'm finally starting to read the back logs of his blog, and I'm really astounded by the persistent dedication he shows in the pursuit of tea. If only I could be even 1/4th the tea geek Tim is...