Saturday TeaRoom 1/17/09 Teaware budget?

[Drax]

Ahh, good to know, thanks Beidao.

Not that we don't love to answer your questions, but if you have a Chinese language emergency or we are not around, there is always Babelcarp (just in case you didn't know).

I didn't! Thanks so much!

That saves me the time of trying to locate the Chinese characters, too, which are a lot easier to understand. . .

[Chip]

How much I will spend on teaware is a harder question by far. I can pretty well figure my tea needs within 100 USD, but teaware is not so easy. Fortunately I am far from spontaneous, and as mentioned yesterday, I will spend weeks or months contemplating a single purchase. For the sake of argument, I will somewhat arbitrarily say 500 USD, plus or minus 10,000.

Began the TeaDay with Fukamushi Supreme from O-Cha, which was also enjoyed by SweeTea, but Gandalf, Wulong, and TEAh just don't understand what all the fuss is about tea.

Golden Monkey from Adagio warmed me up, and now some Organic Tenho Fukamushi from JGTS, I upped the leaf from yesterday, and still think I need more. SweeTea got a bonus serving of tea ...

[TaiPing Hou Kui]

Good afternoon everyone! Currently I have nothing in my cup but I am in the process of ice brewing some Karigane (Kukicha) in my Hagi Kyusu. I am documenting all the steps on film and I will post them in the green tea section after it is all done in a few hours! Anyway, this little guy below is my new tea buddy. I adopted him from the local animal shelter a few days ago....he is 7 months old and was abused by his previous owners. When the shelter got him he had 3 broken ribs, and his ears had holes in them as if someone tried to pierce them....he is very sweet and he sits in my lap as I enjoy tea in the evenings...I even give him a little sip every now and again I named him Hatteras like the lighthouse in North Carolina since he has black and white patterning all over him.

-Nick

[olivierco]

Sencha "Ujibashi San no Ma" in a few minutes.

My first impression: very nice asamushi sencha.
Same quality as Ippodo Kaboku sencha.
40$ per 100gr for the Ujibashi San no Ma, 34$ for the Kaboku shipping costs included. I think that the price difference is due to the fact that Tsuen doesn't sell its teas directly out of Japan.

I need some more sessions to fully assess the Ujibashi San no Ma and maybe a comparison tasting with the Kaboku.

Lu an gua pian to end the day.

Edit: Otsuusan sencha to end the day.

[cherylopal]

Good afternoon!

I just joined and posted over in the introducion thread. I voted under $500 because I am in great need of some teaware but that is all I think I can budget. I am going to drop some serious hints for Valentines Day and my anniversary and birthday and ... We'll see at the end of the year!

I am currently drinking Golden Yunnan- I had some Jade Cloud this morning.

[Salsero]

That saves me the time of trying to locate the Chinese characters, too, which are a lot easier to understand. . .

Yikes, am I the only one left who doesn't read Chinese!

[brianlavelle]

Anyway, this little guy below is my new tea buddy. I adopted him from the local animal shelter a few days ago....he is 7 months old and was abused by his previous owners. When the shelter got him he had 3 broken ribs, and his ears had holes in them as if someone tried to pierce them....he is very sweet and he sits in my lap as I enjoy tea in the evenings...I even give him a little sip every now and again I named him Hatteras like the lighthouse in North Carolina since he has black and white patterning all over him.

Wonderful Nick! Well done you on adopting a TeaCat. He is a handsome fellow, that's for sure, and I'm sure you'll give him more love and attention than he's ever had before.

My experience of our two cats, Bob & Hamish, is that they don't necessarily want to partake of the tea experience, but they also don't disrupt the tea ceremony either!

[TaiPing Hou Kui]

Yeah...he is usually pretty good about not running around while I am sitting haveing a tea session, but is always curious as to what is in my cup...I will usually dip my finger in and let him lick it off and then he settles down and lays in my lap.

-Nick

[Drax]

That saves me the time of trying to locate the Chinese characters, too, which are a lot easier to understand. . .

Yikes, am I the only one left who doesn't read Chinese!

I don't have too much of a clue about Chinese. But I'm sort of an intermediate Japanese person. So it's much easier for me to recognize 白毫 as 'white fine fur' than "bai hao." It turns out 白毫 in Japanese is "byakugou", and apparently is a term used for a white whirl of hair on the forehead of Buddha, and also apparently called an urna. I guess I can chalk up learning my new thing for the day...!

[murrius]

My experience of our two cats, Bob & Hamish, is that they don't necessarily want to partake of the tea experience, but they also don't disrupt the tea ceremony either!

My cat's contribution to my enjoyment of tea is to rub her chin hard on my cup as I'm taking a sip causing scalding hot tea to pour down my chin. I think she does this to let me know that I am negligent in paying attention to the tea vs paying attention to her.

[Victoria]

Started my morning with Yunnan Gold, currently
FLT AliShan in my cup.

[brianlavelle]

My cat's contribution to my enjoyment of tea is to rub her chin hard on my cup as I'm taking a sip causing scalding hot tea to pour down my chin. I think she does this to let me know that I am negligent in paying attention to the tea vs paying attention to her.

Maybe she doesn't approve of the particular tea you're drinking, murrius...

Chip, I think we need a TeaChat TeaCat page...

[bcos]

Hopefully I'm set with Teaware until at least the summer. I just got a Gaiwan and a Kyusu so I'm pretty much covered until I decide to look into Yixing pots. At least I say this now >.<

[Cinnamon Kitty]

Nick, your new TeaCat is adorable! Great job getting him to pose so well with the kyusu and cup!

Ending today with some Vanilla Rooibos.

[treazure]

I picked under 500 but if there is a flood of rare figural teapots on the auction sites going for next to nothing, I'll be begging my husband to up the amount in the bank marked :Teapots, Coffee and Tea

If I end up with more than one more teapot, I'll need another cabinet and that will take a huge chunk of my teapot fund. Hopefully not so much that I'd have to go back to Lipton.

Ah well, the last pot of the day is done and my ambien is in, so I have to get away - far away - from eBay.