Help me pick a tea brewing apparatus

[kilgoretrout]

I'm not sure of the standard use of the words 'tea pot' on forums like this; I suspect some people may think of it as a container with a spout. I went with 'tea brewing apparatus' for clarity. Maybe someone could clear that up.

Currently I brew my loose leaf brew in a cloth filter which I place in the cup or mug I will be drinking from. The filter is removed after Here are the characteristics of my ideal tea brewing apparatus:

1. I can use it to prepare the tea and then remove the tea after it is done brewing so the liquid can stay in the same container without over-extracting. This rules out putting the tea directly in my kettle. It also rules out devices like IngenuiTEA.

2. This container should be moderately insulating, keeping the liquid warm/hot for a some time. If I drink one serving of tea, I want the remainder to still be warm when I come back for more.

3. It should be useful in preparing a good range in the volume of brewed tea, meaning I want to use the same device to prepare perhaps 8oz - 24oz. The idea is to prepare for the right amount for 1-2 servings in small tea glasses or large mugs. In case this large range eliminate too many brewers, I would prefer to brew twice rather than waste tea by brewing too much.

4. The area where the tea leaves are placed should have enough room to allow for the leaves to expand to the extent that it makes a difference in getting the full flavor of the tea.

5. Easy to clean.

[debunix]

What kind of tea do you drink? Whole leaf tea is easier to maneuver in equipment whose holes would get clogged with fine black teas, chamomile, or fukamushi sencha.

I donated a perfectly lovely glass teapot with glass filtering insert that was just fine for infusing the decorative tea 'flowers' that came with it, and easy to remove and set aside for a while, but the tiny slits in the filter were rapidly clogged by anything but large whole leaves.

[kilgoretrout]

I've really just begun experimenting with tea, so I haven't come across many varieties. Some of the black teas in my samples are small-medium in size. I've made a few cups of rooibos s which has rather fine particles.

Basically, I'm not really sure what kind of tea I will drink in the near future. Ideally, I'd like something that will work well with any drink. I'm not bothered much by some sediment at the bottom of the cup. But a clean cup is nicer, and some of my guests may dislike sediment. I think a device with a removable filter made of cloth or synthetic fiber is optimal in terms of leaving very little sediment and a good enough for ease of cleaning, but I'm open to suggestions here.

[debunix]

There are a lot of solutions for brewing several mugs' worth of tea at once, nice large teapots with removable mesh filters or the type where you press down and isolate the leaves but they stay in the pot and don't keep infusing. I don't like those because the tea steeps still in the tiny bit of water in with the leaves, and you basically lose the option of resteeping.

But haven't seen any of those in an insulated pot.

I just put my brewed tea in a thermos when I need to keep it hot for a while. My Stanley stainless vacuum bottles keep it hot for hours.

[chittychat]

but the tiny slits in the filter were rapidly clogged by anything but large whole leaves.

Can eassily be cleaned with a razor blade. I gave such a glass teapot to my good woman for her breakfast tea when she switched from coffee to tea due to stomach-ache. Cleaning the pot outside one should not hold it on the handle and do it gently. Too much applied pressure might brake-off the handle. I use the pot occasionally for teas needing longer steeping time and up to 3 infusions only taking out the filter in-between.

[kilgoretrout]

I prefer a teapot with a removable mesh filter to one that presses the leaves. And I suppose I could get a separate insulated carafe if I can't find a teapot that is insulated well enough, but having one item to do both jobs makes more sense to me.

My main concern about the issue with brewing small volumes of tea in a large tea pot is this: If you have an extremely large teapot and want to brew a small amount tea, then height of the water above is the base is small. This gives the tea in the built in mesh filter effectively only a small disk of water to brew and won't allow the leaves to fully expand. How will this affect the quality of brew? Will this be a problem in a 24oz tea pot filled to 8oz.

[debunix]

If you have an extremely large teapot and want to brew a small amount tea, then height of the water above is the base is small. This gives the tea in the built in mesh filter effectively only a small disk of water to brew and won't allow the leaves to fully expand.

This is a problem in almost any teapot with a removeable mesh or glass filter. They're usually designed with the bottom of the filter too high for brewing small amounts of tea. I spent a long time looking before I found my pint teapot with the mesh filter that is low enough to permit infusing as little as 6 oz of water with room enough for the leaves.

And soon after I found it (in a small hardware store in San Francisco, haven't seen anything quite like it online), I switched to smaller chinese teapots with strainers in the spouts and doing multiple infusions as needed to fill my stanley thermos.

[kilgoretrout]

I would have bought the IngenuiTea right away if there was a way to prevent over-extraction without emptying the whole thing.What attracted me to the design in the first place was that the tea mixes in the full volume of added water. I figured this would be better for the drink, but I never considered how much of a difference it makes. Is there any consensus on how much mixing between the leaves and the whole volume of water is needed for a decent/good/best cup of tea?

[debunix]

As best as I can understand so far, what matters is that there is room for the leaves to fully unfurl and be loose in the water, not so tightly packed that they don't all hydrate fully and open up to expose their entire surface to the water, to draw out all of their flavor.

[LauraW]

I would have bought the IngenuiTea right away if there was a way to prevent over-extraction without emptying the whole thing.What attracted me to the design in the first place was that the tea mixes in the full volume of added water. I figured this would be better for the drink, but I never considered how much of a difference it makes. Is there any consensus on how much mixing between the leaves and the whole volume of water is needed for a decent/good/best cup of tea?

With the IngenuiTea, you can also just fill as much as you need for one cup - I do this all the time for greens in particular, fill about halfway, let steep, empty, refill so the next cup can steep while I'm drinking the first. It works great for me, but to each his own

[chittychat]

I just checked 2 of my teapots of 350 and 450 ml. In both the mesh filter reaches the bottom of the pot. I use them for my better breakfast black teas infusing one or 2 cups of tea at a time. They are those mass produced pots. Quite pretty and functional. Come even in hideous pink. Bought them from an umbulant vendor for $5 and $7. On my large 1.2 l pot the mesh filter does not reach which I think would not make sense or is not needed. This pot is used for the lesser quality black teas with one single infusion.

[Elle]

These are my daily brew providers. Adagio doesn't sell these but they should.

http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.a ... egoryID=82

The small one fits perfectly in most mugs (so the insulating part is provided by the mug itself), is just the right size for a single serving and doesn't constrain the leaves too much. The larger one is meant to fit teapots; the trick is finding teapots that it will fit; it needs a pretty wide mouth and it needs to reach to the bottom. The lid doubles as a coaster so if you leave it on the counter after you take it out you can resteep easily. The only downside is that after a long time, residue (especaily black tea) will accumulate in the mesh and I never figured a real good way to clean them to be like new.

If you want fancier, there are Korean mugs that come with ceramic strainers in a very similar form but I'm not entirely sure where to find them.

[debunix]

Hankook has korean tea mug sets that are quite functional for brewing (must admit I mostly use mine for drinking, but have brewed in it a few times, works fine for whole-leaf teas).

[Rainy-Day]

One of your questions is easy to answer! To make the best tea, leaves should be free to expand and float in the whole volume of the pot. This means no infuser with only two exceptions I can think of. One is a ~12oz bodum glass infuser mug where the outer surface of infuser is literally a millimiter or two from the mug wall, and fills the whole volume. It was perfect for all chinese greens I tried on and very competent with good chinese blacks but I feel that blacks benefit from a larger pot, i.e. 20-30oz. The second option is a Mono Filio teapots that are unfortunately very expensive, they're glass, have a SS infuser that fills the whole volume and they cost about $110-130 depending on size. I haven't used one but it looks nice on the pictures and seems to be constructed well.

I don't think there's a perfect teapot that will fit all types of tea. You really want a kyusu for senchas and a gong-fu pot for puerh and if you will become a fan of puerhs and fancy oolongs, you'll either need a bunch of gong-fu pots or at least a good gaiwan.

A kyusu also works nicely for long-jing as I found out recently. It might work for many other chinese greens, as well.

The best all-around solutions that works for many types of tea and isn't very expensive is to have two ~25oz+ glass pots, brew in one of them and strain to the 2nd one. This is perfect for all blacks, darjeelings, chinese greens and white teas. It's not very good for sencha but I'll need to experiment more with that. It seems like it should work, but it did not a few times I tried. It's obviously not going to work for good puerhs and oolongs.

Since I'm drinking more and more sencha and long-jing, I find that my main teapot is a kyusu, always have to have it on the counter!

[dbradley]

I have a solution that works but it doesn't involve using a traditional teapot.

Mostly I use a gaiwan but when I want to make more than one serving and let it sit in the pot between cups I use this french press.

http://www.bodumusa.com/shop/line.asp?M ... 9NX1W40HA1

If you put the leaves in the bottom and strain it out you'll run into the problem of having the tea get bitter as it oversteeps. BUT - I put the leaves on top of the mesh press and push it all the way down as the tea steeps. Then when I'm done I remove the press and the leaves from the tea.