Ah, try waiting a minute or two after your flash rinse with boiling water, that is what I usually do, gives the tea time to wake up and get ready! Fill the time with sniffing and poking at the leaves, tasting the rinse water, checking the calcium deposits in your pot and examining the chinese characters on the packaging pretending to read them.Chip wrote:Tenuki, maybe I am just a cooler brewer for now anyway. But I will give your way a shot.
Later steeps are boiling water...I just slowly build up the heat.
Apr 18th, '08, 03:08
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tenuki
Apr 18th, '08, 03:37
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tenuki wrote:Ah, try waiting a minute or two after your flash rinse with boiling water, that is what I usually do, gives the tea time to wake up and get ready! Fill the time with sniffing and poking at the leaves, tasting the rinse water, checking the calcium deposits in your pot and examining the chinese characters on the packaging pretending to read them.Chip wrote:Tenuki, maybe I am just a cooler brewer for now anyway. But I will give your way a shot.
Later steeps are boiling water...I just slowly build up the heat.
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!
Thanks for the encouragement! I don't do anything complicated at all with my (Chinese) greens, which may horrify some of the more dedicated around here. Still, I think I'll wait a bit on the TKY. I have plenty of other great teas to explore first. I'll keep you posted, though!Victoria wrote:Oh my gosh, just ignore them!
TKY is great, order it up and enjoy!
It is very easy and much less complicated than greens.
Apr 18th, '08, 09:42
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ThinkingOutLoud, light oolongs are just about the most flexible and forgiving teas there are, that's one of the reasons I like the light oolongs -- and why I like fast women too. It seems no matter how I mess things up, it's still pretty darn good.ThinkingOutLoud wrote:Thanks for the encouragement! I don't do anything complicated at all with my (Chinese) greens, which may horrify some of the more dedicated around here. Still, I think I'll wait a bit on the TKY. I have plenty of other great teas to explore first. I'll keep you posted, though!
But they are also subtle and changeable (mmm, also like fast women), so if you want to play there are additional rewards hidden in those leaves. I'm a pretty typical guy, however, so I just want to get my reward quick and don't take the time for play. Tenuki and Chip on the other hand are true students of this stuff, and I always enjoy learning about the nuances they urge out of their tea. I'll never have their coaxing and playful manners, but when they share I always learn something and we are fortunate to have them here to teach us. They just play differently from the way we play.
Chip and Tenuki, within the rather severe limits of white boys in the USA, you are appreciated tea masters and teachers. Thanks so much.
I love it when MarshalN says that people don't realize it but brewing tea is the simplest thing you can do. Then he will write thousands of words on the relative merits of different waters or the pros and cons of this or that amount of leaf. These guys take tea brewing to whole new levels of simple. It's like zen or meditation or love: after struggling for years to get it right, suddenly it's simple.
Apr 18th, '08, 10:19
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Who started this whole sorted mess...wasn't it Sal who started it yesterday by asking very complicated questions???ThinkingOutLoud wrote:Thanks for the encouragement! I don't do anything complicated at all with my (Chinese) greens, which may horrify some of the more dedicated around here. Still, I think I'll wait a bit on the TKY. I have plenty of other great teas to explore first. I'll keep you posted, though!Victoria wrote:Oh my gosh, just ignore them!
TKY is great, order it up and enjoy!
It is very easy and much less complicated than greens.
Anyway, you should try TKY, and I hope we did not sway you from at least trying it.
I drink mainly greens, but have oolong at least every other day. It is a great diversion from regular greens...and there are greener TKY!!!!
Salsero: Without resorting to quoting all, or simply my fave parts of (read all), your above post, let me simply say thanks for it. Perhaps I'll give that oolong a try after all, with your and Victoria's strong encouragement. I'll post when (and indeed if) I do.
I lived in Korea for a time and learned that cooking rice is not simply cooking rice if one truly pays attention. Perhaps tea will teach me the same lessons. Thanks.
I lived in Korea for a time and learned that cooking rice is not simply cooking rice if one truly pays attention. Perhaps tea will teach me the same lessons. Thanks.
Apr 18th, '08, 23:21
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Wow, TOL, you are way ahead of us in wisdom already. I love what you said about rice and I will try to remember it about tea.ThinkingOutLoud wrote:I lived in Korea for a time and learned that cooking rice is not simply cooking rice if one truly pays attention. Perhaps tea will teach me the same lessons. Thanks.