Friday TeaDay 5/28/10 Easiest to overbrew?

[Chip]

Hands down, Japanese greens, yet they appeal to my meticulous nature, so it is all good! Plus I really like the FOCUS aspect, this is perhaps why I chose greens, especially Japanese.

So many things can mess up a pot of sencha, but practice does make perfect, well, approaching perfect.

Yes time is huge, but temp of the water AND the Kyusu temp as well!!!

Also how much particle slips past the screen, thus continuing to brew in the cup. The right kyusu can be big.

This actually happened with my first trial of this year's Houryoku Shincha from Den's. Corrected this with the proper screen and lower temp too to start the TD, came out sooo much better, close to perfection! SweeTea would have to agree while Wulong and Shincha visited the TeaTable this morning.

[Chip]

Wow, this must be the most unified voting I have ever seen on a TD!

[olivierco]

what is the EASIEST tea for you to overbrew?

Low quality tea.

Golden needles this evening.

[TubbyCow]

I laugh at anyone who says pu-erh

I joined the bandwagon and said Japanese green.

Started the day with some jasmine pearls, and now off to taste test a Chinese green from JING - Organic Jade Sword.

[AdamMY]

Having a great Tea afternoon, I was going to have matcha this morning but from the move I had to find a few items.

Now I am having Shincha, and cursing Chip for these SO's because I'm using my Ao Tebeneri's and I realized How lonely it looks having One Kyusu and One Yunomi, I almost want to make them a set by adding an additional Yunomi.

But the last thing I need right now is more teaware

[Cael]

Reading this question the one that came to mind is this one Chinese green that I have. It is possibly the only tea that I can't get to brew just right. I think it must just be bitter before I am brewing it though because no matter how short I make the brew and how I play with the temperature it never brews quite right unless I throw another tea in there. I know that when I got it at the tea house they made it perfect. One day I'm going to find out how they do it.

Right now I am drinking some Chinese Jasmine tea that is brewed perfectly and I am thinking I should get back to work.

[brad4419]

Wow a lot of Japanese greens. My vote goes to black just because its my least favorite and Im more likely to forget about it.

[LauraW]

Yunnan Noir all day at work, now sipping some Caramel Delight before heading off to a friend's for the evening!!

[debunix]

How lonely it looks having One Kyusu and One Yunomi

Those have enough color for a dozen yunomi, plenty of visual effect all by themselves!

Today was a travel day, and I'm reconnecting with the earth with a nice ripe puerh, a mix of a 2007 Mengyan Guoyan Tea Factory Golden Peacock with 2006 Haiwan Tea Factory Peacock Quest (finishing up some samples from Norbu). Nothing more grounding than puerh.

[debunix]

My vote goes to black just because its my least favorite and Im more likely to forget about it.

It's tempting to vote for black tea, as in 'as soon as water hits it, it overbrews', but that's not really fair, since the one type of black tea I drink regularly, Yunnan Gold, has been remarkably easygoing.

[chittychat]

Bi Luo Chun A from Yunnan has been the most difficult tea to brew I ever had. In fact it is the only tea I barely could get right. Luckily the suggestion of Chip saved me from discarding the tea alltogether. His tip, put the tea into the hot water not the other way around.

Had a good Yunnan black gourmet tea for breakfast. I have 9 different Chinese black teas in my cabinet and have never managed to overbrew anyone of them. In case one steeping would be forgotten and the tea has become too strong just add more water.

My great-grandmother drunk black tea till she died at the age of 94. Her tea in the end was so strong only she could manage. So for a guest she always had a pot of hot water ready to dilute the tea. She got her teas directly from India where she was born and lived most of her life.

[Chip]

Thanks Adam for coloring our TD with TC Hagi SO #11, still some available under teaware btw!

Bi Luo Chun A from Yunnan has been the most difficult tea to brew I ever had. In fact it is the only tea I barely could get right. Luckily the suggestion of Chip saved me from discarding the tea alltogether. His tip, put the tea into the hot water not the other way around.

Sounds like sage advice!

If you heard a shout, it was me cursing vista after losing this post 2X. Three is the charm, I hope.

TD continued with tastings of teas I was bagging for the Shincha OTTI. Houryoku and then Kunpu, both from Den's. This made the task more bearable!

[brad4419]

My vote goes to black just because its my least favorite and Im more likely to forget about it.

It's tempting to vote for black tea, as in 'as soon as water hits it, it overbrews', but that's not really fair, since the one type of black tea I drink regularly, Yunnan Gold, has been remarkably easygoing.

I have to say debunix, yunnan gold is my favorite black tea. Its funny that black tea is my least favorite tea but I still really like it. Its not that I don't like it, I just like others a little more Now that I think about it white and black tea are about equal on my favorite list.

Earl grey this evening. I was organizing some tea today and opened a can of earl grey to see how much was left and suddenly remembered how intoxicating the smell can be.

[chittychat]

Reading this question the one that came to mind is this one Chinese green that I have. It is possibly the only tea that I can't get to brew just right. I think it must just be bitter before I am brewing it though because no matter how short I make the brew and how I play with the temperature it never brews quite right unless I throw another tea in there. I know that when I got it at the tea house they made it perfect. One day I'm going to find out how they do it.

Right now I am drinking some Chinese Jasmine tea that is brewed perfectly and I am thinking I should get back to work.

This was exactly what I had with Bi Luo Chun, bitter.

Why don't you try as mentioned here, adding the tea to the water. The way I do it now with this tea: Water about 80 C, add tea, don't stir just let sit for 4 minutes. Decant over a strainer in my case into a thermos. I had now several goes like that and no more bitter taste.

[Skippyandjif]

This afternoon, I had a lovely rose congou tea session (I needed more strong black tea even after the lapsang souchong-- just couldn't wake up today for some reason )... Also, I decided to try putting a little sugar on the spent leaves and tasting them, and it was actually really yummy!! Awkwardness ensued when my brother walked into the kitchen and gave me the weirdest look ever, heh.

Currently drinking a lavender rooibos tisane, which is impossible to overbrew!