Wednesday TeaDay 8/05/09 Purchasing or brewing?

[Victoria]

Hello.

New here, and thanks to Chip able to come online.

I've just started the tea journey, but have been reading the forum for a few days and gaining information and enjoying the posts. Today I'm drinking Kagoshima Sencha Sae Midori. Each brewing session is a new experience as my 'technique' is still under development.

So far the process of exploring tea and teaware has been both invigorating and calming. It's great to have so many helpful and enthusiastic travellers to show the way (or ways!)

Kind regards,
Carl

Welcome to the forum Carl! We are having a slight glitch with the posts in TeaDay showing up on your count. So hopefully your "0" post count will increase soon!

Sae Midori is one of the greens I have been able to master and have really been enjoying it this spring/summer. Tastes great iced too.

[Salsero]

For me, good tea is much easier to brew than bad tea, but most tea still needs an informed approach to brewing.

[leiche2]

I find both technique and source/quality to be equally important. A high quality tea can easily turn undrinkably bad with a healthy dose of inexpert brewing. Likewise, I've made some pretty good cups out of low quality tea.

No tea for me right now, as it's hot and I'm attempting to finish packing for a trip.

[Maitre_Tea]

I like to say that brewing is more important...but I thought "brewing" meant the same thing as drinking tea, not just referring to the technique.
Even though I like to purchase high quality teas, I feel like I'm missing the point of drinking tea, which is to brew, and not spend all my time on vendor websites

Purchasing is obviously good because you want to purchase the best tea, but you also want to make the best use of that tea...and even though some people can "brew no wrong," there are others ways to improve your technique, like messing with water softness/hardness or playing around with heretical brewing methods (Japanese in Yixing! Gasp!!! )which might give you surprising results. Even though you can find brewing instructions easily, half the fun is doing more experiments yourself!

[sriracha]

I somehow often have the sneaking feeling I'm not doing everything completely right, not getting the most out of my tea.
Not that I need everything to be perfect but perhaps I've missed some minute detail that would make it so much better if I knew.

[MASALACHAAAAIIIIII]

BOTH!!!! GOOD CHAI + SKILL= NUMMY!!!!!

Only a pot of yucky green from a local japanese restaurant so far today, no more loose tea there . Going to have YM soon, then some masala chai!!!!

[tea-guy]

I think purchasing. How can I brew tea if I have none?

In my cup this afternoon: Lu Mountain Cloud and Mist Green Tea from Stash Tea

[depravitea]

I think purchasing. How can I brew tea if I have none?

Word.

[Victoria]

Rounding out the TeaDay with some of the last of my *hoarded* Tea Masters Subtropical Forest Boazhong from Spring 2008. At the time this was fresh it was some of the best tea I had ever tasted. Now a year later it has lost most of its sparkle, but it's still a decent cuppa.

[DoctorD]

Great question, Chip. I think, on balance, that if you're serious about purchasing you are also likely to be serious about brewing; otherwise why bother? And brewing makes a difference, as I continue to discover more often than I'd care to admit. But it has to start with the purchase. As others have said, the greatest brewing skill and best teaware in the world ain't gonna make a mediocre tea great, and if you start with quality the worst your brewing blunders will likely produce is something, well, better than average. I still remember my very first mail-order bag of orthodox whole-leaf tea and the "aha" moment as that first cup of ambrosia hit the taste buds. My brewing parameters were probably off by an order of magnitude, but the leaf was good stuff, from a good source, and the rest is history. (Which happens to be my academic discipline, so I may be prejudiced...)

The usual morning Longjing, and some delectable Gyokuro this afternoon. I'm thinking some recently-arrived Alishan oolong may be coming up shortly to finish off the day.

[depravitea]

My brewing parameters were probably off by an order of magnitude

LOL nicely phrased! I've definitely been there.

[Chip]

Busy day today.

Humbly I say, great question and I do not have an answer for it , blaming it on Analysis Paralysis. But a lot of excellent answers.

Began the TD with Kawane shincha from Rishi, freshly opened bag. Next up, Genmaicha served with sashini and sushi in a tetsubin at the sushi bar, and finally Yutaka Midori with DW from O-Cha to end the TD.

[entropyembrace]

I think both the brewing and purchasing are important...with lousy leaf even the best brewing technique will only produce something decently drinkable...but if you botch a single bush dancong it isn't going to be very tasty even if it's among the best tea available...

Today I had some Bukhial Estate Assam in the afternoon and now drinking Formosa gunpowder green tea.

[silvermage2000]

I am split with the two.