New and needing Teapot guidance!

[Vulture]

Some more quick questions, I am still setting up for controlled brewing instead of my usual eye balling.

I was reading a bit and saw how temperature, time, and amount of leaves can greatly impact flavor. Some of the tea's I have tried already might turn out to be a lot better because I know I brewed them wrong

Temperature - for me blacks are easy, just boil and your set so switching to these others, it seems it isn't such an easy task. What type of thermometer do you use for water? The old fashion stick thermometer or something more Techy?

Timing - this isn't hard I can get ahold of timers easily enough. I will eventualy learn the timings on teas later.

Grammage - I know this impacts brewing, at the moment I am using the highly scientific table spoon or plastic spoon to measure my tea. First of what kind of scale do you use to measure tea? Second, is this really needed in some teas? I know my blacks and rooibos is fine the way I do it now.

[olivierco]

Scale or not scale? This question has been heavily debated.
Well if you need one, you can settle for a 1-500g range with 0.1g increment.
I use one quite all the time.
Thermometer.
Any digital one would be OK. I have this one (hanna checktemp) but you can find some fancier ones.

I tend to use it less frequently but it is a great help, especially for brewing new teas.

[Vulture]

Update:

Local shops suck and have almost nothing for teaware. So much for San Diego being a big town. Anyone know a decent place online to order a Yixing pot and/or a Gaiwan?

[Vulture]

So far from what I have seen (or been refered) Below are links to a few Yixing pots and one Gaiwan that I might order:

http://www.mrslinskitchen.com/index.asp ... odID=17645

http://www.mrslinskitchen.com/index.asp ... odID=18355

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262

http://redblossomtea.com/details.php?se ... n&item=128

Anyone have any input on these? (I like the zodiac one alot)

[Vulture]

Since no one replied I felt adventurous and purchased the below two pots:

GaiWan Pot

Yixing Pot

We shall see how these turn out!

[Trioxin]

Hey, they'll do the trick. I've ordered from mrslinskitchen.com a few times. Nice place to deal with, and fast shipping.

[Drax]

Cute pot! I'm still waiting on most of my first purchases to come in the mail. Fortunately my Adagio stuff came in 2 days, so I've got my kettle boiler and a fine selection of greens to tide me over. Of course, all the oolongs are patiently waiting for my pot(s) to appear... hmmm.

As olivierco mentioned (and I sort of insinuated in the other thread on scales), be able to go to a tenth of a gram would be preferable.

I also picked up a very cheap digital thermometer at Target for about $12. It's poker style, so you can also use it to insert into meats, etc (which you can probably do w/ most digital thermometers for food).

I just went to Target because it was really close. You can probably find similar stuff in the kitchen areas of other stores. Or William Sonoma, or other cooking-related stores.

[Vulture]

Yah I ordered some glasses from the daily tea thread. While I was on amazon.com I took a look at their thermometers and scales. I got the two below for now. The thermometer looks great from what I can see.

Thermometer

Scale

My only complaints on the scale is that it had to ship separately so I had to pay shipping (vs free amazon shipping) for it.

[treazure]

I would suggest a cheaper pot, like the ones at English tea store dot com. They are small enough to make enough tea for one person's sitting and cheap enough that if knocked off the desk or counter you won't go into mourning. (Trust me on this. I actually have buried tea ware that's gone on to the Great Tea House of Heaven.) They are also cheap enough that if you take it to work and it walks off with a co-worker, you won't be (too) tempted to commit bodily assault. The main advantage of these cheaper pots is that as you get along in your tea journey and find the areas you wish to explore, THEN you can buy the more specialized teaware. (Unless you are already independently wealthy, in that case...)

As to cups, I have some paper thin porcelain that I love using with non-black teas, but as the tea cools so quickly, they aren't good for my first pot of tea in the morning when I'm doing well to remember how to turn the spigot on to fill the tea kettle.

For boiling water I have gone through several electric kettles, including a plastic monstrosity given me by a friend. Unless you like the taste of burnt plastic in your tea, don't bother buying this. I use a Cuisinart tea kettle to boil water and it has given me almost a year of loyal service despite the cats bouncing it off the counter a number of times. Adagio offers a wonderful kettle with different water temperatures - brilliant! A saucepan works in a pinch, but I'm uncertain about the Teflon coated things.

Jeanne

[ABx]

Personally speaking, a Gaiwan made of Yixing clay kind of defeats the purpose. For me a Gaiwan would be something I can use which stays "clean" and untainted with which I can sample many types of tea in the Gong Fu style. Perhaps leading to buying a Yixing pot for a certian type of tea which I enjoyed in the Gaiwan (if it's a type of tea that lends itself for Yixing brewing). Remember that Yixing clay is unglazed and will soak up the flavors of the tea you brew in it and impart these flavors into the next brew. Just my two cents....

It's more common to find yixing gaiwans that are glazed on the inside. This gives you the heat retention properties without the need to commit the vessel to a particular type of tea.

I think that a glazed yixing gaiwan is actually probably be the best way to go in the beginning. SensationalTeas.com has some ~5oz ones that are reasonably priced at $9.50, and Dragon Tea House has some smaller ones (3-3.5 oz, which I actually end up using more) for $5.

I think that if you actually got a very thin porcelain gaiwan, something thicker (like the blue dragon one, but smaller), and a yixing gaiwan, then you would actually have a great set for experimenting and seeing how the different vessels affect teas differently. Believe me, you will continue to use all three as you get more into tea This will also help guide your future purchases as you find what teas you like the most.

That blue dragon one you linked is really too large. It's going to be very difficult to get good results from something that large without using a LOT of leaf, not to mention being difficult to handle. You can get a very similar one in a smaller size from redblossomtea.com. You really don't want to go much above 5-6 oz. (You'll see the same size gaiwans labeled as both; I think it depends on whether they measure up to the lid or the rim.)

Red Blossom, Sensational Teas, and Dragon Tea House also have the much thinner porcelain gaiwans (look for the plain white ones). Red Blossom's is about 5oz and Sensational Teas' is 3.5 oz. Dragon Tea House has a variety of sizes, with the 3.5 oz being very inexpensive (around $4). You'd probably be best getting three that are approximately the same size.

[ABx]

Damn, I missed that you already ordered the big blue one. Well, it is still worth getting the 3 smaller ones, if you can; I'm sure you'll use all of them It's also pretty certain that you'll want the smaller sized ones as you get more into teas and learn to brew better. During the transition you'll likely use both smaller and larger size vessels at different times, too.

[Victoria]

Damn, I missed that you already ordered the big blue one. Well, it is still worth getting the 3 smaller ones, if you can; I'm sure you'll use all of them It's also pretty certain that you'll want the smaller sized ones as you get more into teas and learn to brew better. During the transition you'll likely use both smaller and larger size vessels at different times, too.

I agree, I started out with big, now I prefer small.
It's all a learning process.

[Vulture]

Thanks, If anything I have a friend who comes over a lot during the week. I can use the larger pots for sharing

I used some of my Bday money for this so I can afford to pick up some smaller ones next week after I play with the ones I ordered.

[odarwin]

ive seen those yi xing gaiwans, and in the beginning, was also really tempted to buy one for use.... but in the end i just sticked with yixing pots or a ceramic gaiwan, as its a bit weird but i just have the feeling that cups and gaiwans should be porcelain or something that can be washed and soaped down. i do have some yi xing cups some are small and some big, and i ended up not using them at all.... and the clay used in those gaiwans and cups is most probably of not good quality anyway.. plus, put in the factor of having to hold a very hot gaiwan!, some people already have a hard time holding the ceramic one, imagine a hotter gaiwan...

-darwin

[eanglin]

I have an unlined soft red clay gaiwan that came as part of an unfortunate purchase- a 'yixing-esque' tea set that turned out to be of such poor quality that I gave most of it to my three year old as his tea set.

The exception was the gaiwan, which while of a very soft, porous clay seemed quite serviceable.

It has become my favorite for White and yellow tea- it holds the heat beautifully yet doesn't (Probably because it is such a light and airy clay) conduct heat into the knob on the lid or the rim where I grip it- My fingers are safe!

It may not be the 'ideal' vessel for my inexpensive white and yellow tea, but it seems to be making a far tastier (and less painful) cup than any of the other brewing methods I have tried.