I totally agree with you. When I said it's cheap I just meant it's cheap compared to other similar objects.wyardley wrote:Whether it's worth $200 to you (or me, or someone else), is of course another matter.
I'm in the same boat so don't feel bad...JP wrote:What I'm really after is something to provide hot water for multiple infusions when I'm having a session with a nice puerh. How do others here accomplish that? Right now I'm reheating water on the stove top as needed, but that isn't very elegant and somewhat unpractical.
I would say zojirushi, plenty of others would too, you can get them in a variety of sizes and they seem to be the best quality product out there for functionality of heating and boiling water.
Electric kettle, or alcohol burner / kettle combo.JP wrote:What I'm really after is something to provide hot water for multiple infusions when I'm having a session with a nice puerh. How do others here accomplish that? Right now I'm reheating water on the stove top as needed, but that isn't very elegant and somewhat unpractical.
The chat concerns preparing Chinese tea, but the ritual style for Japanese steeped tea reflecting Chinese taste (ritual sencha/senchado), uses a ceramic hearth ryoro on which sits an unglazed ceramic side-handle pot for heating water bofura that is transfered to a teapot (side-handled ceramic kyusu or handleless ceramic hobin) for steeping leaves. You can Google each utensil... :-) There is also a brief thread re' senchado on another tea chat-- www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=65500 .
A bofura will NOT have a tea strainer-- it is only used to heat the water. Tea steeps in the kyusu or hobin, which often includes integral strainers at the base of their spouts.
When focused on ritual, senchado can engage the mindfulness required of Japanese whipped tea ceremony chanoyu, but has its own aesthetic flavor with emphasis on communing with nature through arrangement and choice of objects in the manner of Chinese literati. Early modern Japanese aesthetics was infused with the spirit of senchado-- often expressed as "refreshing breeze" seifu.
Iron pots with spouts & bail handles tetsubin were objects of social status in 19th/early-20th century Japan-- not for direct brewing (though you can heat water in them) so much as for offering an inviting hearth when placed over the hibachi. These heavy kettles were used to heat water (not steeping!) for inexpensive bancha tea. Kettles (ginbin) of copper, silver or gold were more often employed when metal kettles were used to heat water for sencha. Modern, lined-iron tetsubin can be used as a replacement for kyusu, but their choice misdirects use of tetsubin originally.
I read that Giko (Chinese Yixing) ware was introduced to Japan by Obaku-sect Zen founder Ingen (arrived from China in 1654) as teaware. When early sencha enthusiasts who appreciated bonsai recognized the beauty of green tea in imported Giko (Chinese Yixing) teaware, they ordered pots for bonsai from the Chinese kilns to enhance the display of bonsai foliage. Japanese kilns later competed for unglazed, aesthetic stoneware business against the precious, imported Giko ware.
A bofura will NOT have a tea strainer-- it is only used to heat the water. Tea steeps in the kyusu or hobin, which often includes integral strainers at the base of their spouts.
When focused on ritual, senchado can engage the mindfulness required of Japanese whipped tea ceremony chanoyu, but has its own aesthetic flavor with emphasis on communing with nature through arrangement and choice of objects in the manner of Chinese literati. Early modern Japanese aesthetics was infused with the spirit of senchado-- often expressed as "refreshing breeze" seifu.
Iron pots with spouts & bail handles tetsubin were objects of social status in 19th/early-20th century Japan-- not for direct brewing (though you can heat water in them) so much as for offering an inviting hearth when placed over the hibachi. These heavy kettles were used to heat water (not steeping!) for inexpensive bancha tea. Kettles (ginbin) of copper, silver or gold were more often employed when metal kettles were used to heat water for sencha. Modern, lined-iron tetsubin can be used as a replacement for kyusu, but their choice misdirects use of tetsubin originally.
I read that Giko (Chinese Yixing) ware was introduced to Japan by Obaku-sect Zen founder Ingen (arrived from China in 1654) as teaware. When early sencha enthusiasts who appreciated bonsai recognized the beauty of green tea in imported Giko (Chinese Yixing) teaware, they ordered pots for bonsai from the Chinese kilns to enhance the display of bonsai foliage. Japanese kilns later competed for unglazed, aesthetic stoneware business against the precious, imported Giko ware.
Last edited by sashai on Dec 10th, '08, 15:27, edited 1 time in total.
Very interesting post, thank you. I read that Ro water is not good for sencha, and either side handel ceramic heating device is ideal, just like the Chao Zhou stove we were talking about, and silver ginbin would be the ideal for the absolute best tea experience, but money is an issue with some of us, so the ideal material for heating water should be hard earthenware, yixing zisha material, not glazed ceramics, or glass, Dragon teahouse sell stove top safe glass kettles, and warmer stands.
At the tea ceremony the water would boil for a long period of time, on charcoal in a tetsubin, and they get the water out with a hisaku laddle, until it hits the tea it would cool down to the right temperature, but isn`t that water flat for tea? Or for matcha it doesn`t count? Or they never thought about this? I use a teacup and I pour 60cc water to the cup and than half into the raku, whisk slowly, and then all the water and whisk it till your arm hurts.
I suppose you are referring to the idea that water you use for tea shouldn't be fully boiled, which you mentioned above -Oni wrote:At the tea ceremony the water would boil for a long period of time, on charcoal in a tetsubin, and they get the water out with a hisaku laddle, until it hits the tea it would cool down to the right temperature, but isn`t that water flat for tea? Or for matcha it doesn`t count?
I think that while this idea is very common in Chinese tradition, in Japan people don't care about tea water being boiled - I think they sometimes boil tap water for some minutes to get rid of chlorine (Japanese tap water often contains lots of chlorine) and I think the electric kettles that many Japanese use (made by Zojirushi for example) also produces water which Chinese people would call old as it has been boiled and then can be sitting for hours.Oni wrote:for no tea should the water boil for a long period of time, nor should it be allowed to fully boil (old man water, or dragon water),
This idea doesn't seem to be so common in Japanese tradition.
Is there really a fact behind this theory - or isn't this just an unfounded traditional belief?
I guess you must make experiments to see if the water gets bad by boiling - I haven't noticed any difference though.
Yes, I haven't seen any facts, but since there probably there isn't any thorough study with for example a chemical analysis of the tea made with different water,
I think it would be interesting to make a blind testing experiment - testing hot water which has been boiled and not, and tea made with these types of water, without knowing which is which.
I don't see any obvious reason why you should avoid a full boil though.
I think it would be interesting to make a blind testing experiment - testing hot water which has been boiled and not, and tea made with these types of water, without knowing which is which.
I don't see any obvious reason why you should avoid a full boil though.