Tea perfectionist ?

[TeamanRS125]

Just to give you an idea about myself, I am not at all a perfectionist. When it comes to tea I find myself being a perfectionist. Temperature of water has to be just right for which ever tea I'm brewing at the moment, the time has to be exact, and even the tea can not have any artificial ingredients in it! Does anyone else find them selfs being this way when it come to tea?

[daidokorocha]

Nah, I generally try a lot of random things with my teas in order to try to get different tastes out of them. I don't do the thermometer thing. I have a consistent set up in order to cool water, though.

[miig]

Hi,
hmm I'm with you as far as artificial ingredients are concerned - I'm trying to restrict myself to Organic tea as far as possible in oder to help with that.

So you use scale, thermometer and stopwatch? What the perfect timing, temperature etc is concerned, I can't help but get a bit philosophical - how often do you think the perfect time or temperature really exists? I'd say that with many types of tea of a good quality, different approaches will be possible to extract different flavours. Limiting myself to exact parameters seems to bear the risk of missing a different face of my beloved tea.

Also if I were to add some spiritual thoughts, I could ask whether the, lets say, right, temperature for a said tea is the same today as it will be tomorrow - maybe I didn't sleep so well, my stomachs a bit upset and it would be better to brew the tea more lightly than yesterday when I was able to handle it brewed in a more intensive fashion?

Still, I believe our approaches might still not be as different as they might appear - for me, brewing tea is not least an exercise in mindfulness - so I try to take some minutes to calm down before brewing and then to exercise every motion in a relaxed, focused manner. Also I try not to measure, but to try and guess what will be the right amount, temperature etc... some trial and error is involved here, too, of course. But thats not as difficult as it may sound, and I get it right quite often now.
And, I really make an effort to get there as often as possible, so why I might not use a scale or the concept of perfection, we might both be perfectionists in the sense that we really do our best to get it as 'right' as possible

[Chip]

... oh boy ... this is always a hot (tea) topic ...

Tea, check
good water, check
nice teawares, check
scale, check
thermometer, check
timer ... count-up stop watch to avoid beeps, check

... ok, now I am ready.

I have used these for years in prep of Japanese greens ... but lately even I have swayed ... but never too far from my techy roots.

[debunix]

I have used thermometer, scale and timer, and keep them available now for occasional use, such as for writing a tasting up more accurately, but the thermometer is no longer necessary because I use electronic teapots that provide water to a sufficiently accurate temperature; the scale is rarely used because my eyes are now pretty well calibrated for most teas--it comes out for formal tastings or if I've had a run of not-so-good brewings; and intend to count out my timings, and worry less about over brewing because I know I can dilute back to tasty brew as necessary.

[daidokorocha]

I will add that the only thing I do use frequently is the timer on my microwave/computer/whatever. Sometimes I'll just stare at a clock that counts seconds. This certainly isn't an always thing, though. It also depends on how I'm brewing. Leaf amount and temperature are things I've gotten a good feel for.

[Bef]

I use the same "setup" at home and at work:
- Bonavita variable temperature kettle
- Scale (I got used to use that for all my teas)
- For teas with multiple short infusions, I use my analogic watch to have an idea of infusion duration, while I use a timer for teas with a single, long infusion (and do the same for japanese greens as well)

[TeamanRS125]

I use a tea spoon per 8oz of water. When I first get a new tea I usually mess with the time, temp, and tsp to oz. once I find what I like then I stick to it to the T. No thermometer got a variable temp kettle. I just wanted to see what everyone else does!

[MIKE_B]

I buy good tea, I use decent teaware, I use a bonavita to control temp, I very rarely use a scale and I've never used a real timer.
I feel my way along through a session of tea and adjust times and temps as I go usually.
I like my tea time to be stripped down and simple.

[Alex]

My teapot has a temp reading on it to the 1c but I don't use scales or timers. I feel I like different amounts and strengths at difference moments so I let intuition do the rest and I always get the perfect cuppa for what I need in the moment. If I didnt I'd have no qualms about using other aids though.

[thirst]

How do you guys keep track of time without a timer?

This isn’t about slavishly adhering to a specific number because you read about it or once decided it was a good number in a set of other parameters. Even if you say, because of condition x or y, I’m going to steep this a bit longer than I usually do, how do you keep track of time? I’ve tried counting in my head before and checked with a stopwatch; I’m really bad at it.

[BW85]

How do you guys keep track of time without a timer?

This isn’t about slavishly adhering to a specific number because you read about it or once decided it was a good number in a set of other parameters. Even if you say, because of condition x or y, I’m going to steep this a bit longer than I usually do, how do you keep track of time? I’ve tried counting in my head before and checked with a stopwatch; I’m really bad at it.

The bonavita kettles have a built in up-counting timer, which I use occasionally. At some point i started counting in my head, then slowly stopped that as I felt I started to get a good feel for how long a certain length of time felt like. In the end, just "feeling it out" is more enjoyable for me. You get better at it after awhile

[debunix]

I find most timers pretty awkward for timing tea, because unless it's a direct entry type with a full number keypad, you end up fussing a lot with the buttons to get exactly the time you want (overshooting/undershooting the time entry is the kind of frustration I don't want in my tea session), especially because the time changes with nearly every infusion. Practicing my counting is easier. Again, the timer is mostly for times when I want to record exactly what I did to share with others.

[Pig Hog]

How do you guys keep track of time without a timer?

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[yalokinh]

I find that if I am not familiar enough with a certain tea, I'll use a scale to see how much I'm weighing. Some teas are deceivingly light/heavy depending on the tea. If I've been drinking it for a while I just eye it out.
In terms of water temp, I pretty much know where the temp should be by the steam/bubbles/movement. I'm trying to be as natural as possible (no electronics or special aid).