Thursday TeaDay 1/15/09 Obsessed and/or compulsive?

[Chip]

Welcome TeaFriends to TeaDay. Please share what is in your cup today.

Yesterday, responders voted overwhelmingly in favor of giving back to TeaChat in various forms. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. Is there a particular aspect about your tea leaf, brewing, enjoyment (non teaware!!!) that you are obsessed and/or compulsive about? Please share, share, share.

I am looking forward to sharing TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up.

[Victoria]

Hummm no, I don't think so. At least nothing is coming to me.
I'm pretty flexible in what it will take to brew a cup. I have made do
with what was on hand and in different ways than preferred if it meant getting
a cup.

[Salsero]

Oh, yes. I measure obsessively: time, temp, ml, oz ... whatever there is to measure, I do it! But sometimes it pays off in repeatable results, especially in the daring arena of sencha brewing. By knowing tonight's parameters, I am hoping I will be able to repeat the results I got from Shuppin-Sencha next time I sit down with it.

At least with tonight's parameters, it is some sencha! Another hit from Ed’s sencha of the week service. Starts out thick with umami but with a clean taste, even a bit minty, and evolves into a fruity floral pleasure.

The flowers in the photo are Tea Olive, aka Osmanthus fragrans. Wish the forum had smello-vision so you all could get a whiff.



Chip and Pentox were recently explaining that asamushi looks like little logs whereas fukamushi is smaller, rounder pieces that glide against each other and flow almost like liquid. Shuppin-Sencha seems to be logs:


(You may click for larger view)

[Pentox]

That's a gorgeous polish on those leaves Sal. Since you mentioned it was shuppin, I'm guessing Maiko Shuppin Sencha?

I almost wish the needles were a bit more formed, it would be an absolutely gorgeous tea if it were. Still it's quite pretty.

As for me nothing I really obsess about. I drink tea in all manners from the ultra casual to my formalized tastings. I roll with it anyway it goes. Like tea pouring from a spout, I go where the winds blow.

[Salsero]

That's a gorgeous polish on those leaves Sal. Since you mentioned it was shuppin, I'm guessing Maiko Shuppin Sencha?

Yes, Maiko. I hadn't thought about it, but they are very polished looking leaves. Why? And more entire little needles than most other sencha I can remember.

[omegapd]

Yeah, I guess I can say I'm obsessed with organization. I have about 3 cabinets full of tea and can go directly to whatever tea I want without having to stop and think.

EW

[Geekgirl]

Not very obsessive about tea, although I am generally pretty careful about temperature. I weigh and measure about 1/4 of the time, and I usually guesstimate the time.

The only thing I'm obsessive about is if I cannot sift my matcha I will just opt for something else. I'm the same way about my cocoa. I HATE powdery lumps, bleeeeech!

[Selaphiel]

I'm quite obsessive about weighing leaf, exact amount of water, temperature and time for the same reasons as Salsero, I do notes on new teas until I find the best way to brew it for my taste.

No tea just yet, just rolled out of bed :s

[danibob]

Apparently I'm obsessive about how I store my teas. It needs to be both practical and aesthetic. Here are my japanese greens as an example:



Those are actually teavana tins that I decorated with scrapbooking paper. I also did that with some of my herbal teas. And even wrote on them with the proper brewing instructions for each one.

I used to be obsessed with having at least one cup of green tea a day (store bought teabags), but since I ordered greens from o-cha, that obsession increased tenfold. I crave it now. Sometimes I sniff the tins throughout the day.

And in pursuit of perfect brewing, I'm bugging my mom to help me buy a zojirushi water heater for my teas.

Chiran sencha in my cup right now. At 3am.

[TaiPing Hou Kui]

I am pretty anal about exact temp, time, grams of leaf, etc, the first few sessions, or until I get it right....with my daily brews such as karigane and awacha I pretty much know what the right amount is by the way it looks on my tea scoop from back when I measured out the precise amount with a scale and then placed it in my spoon.....I also know where to fill the water up to in my yuzamashi....I suppose it is measuring but not with a direct number.....anyway, in my cup at the moment is some ice-brewed sencha that was brewed in the usual hagi kyusu and now displayed in the hagi cup. Short, simple, and sweet!

-Nick

[Beidao]

Some advertising: here's two posts in English on my tea blog. Enjoy!

Starting the day with yerba mate. Think I will have a day when I go through some of the teas I don't drink that often, to see if I should get rid of 'em or keep 'em. And I think I will have some gyokuro made in gaiwan, thanks to olivierco. And maybe some matcha too.

Great teaday, everyone!

[Drax]

Oh, one man's obsession is another man's joi de vivre.

Then again, I do seem to have gone a bit overboard in buying tea. I think I have about 5 years worth of tea right now. I could calculate it out, but I'm frightened at the answer (and worse, that the answer might be "get more tea").

I'm enjoying Seven Cup's "monkey picked" An Xi oolong this morning. Everything is better with monkeys.

[chad]

I don't think I'm OCD regarding tea! However, I think any time I start down the path of a new interest or hobby I do show symptoms!

Lover's Leap Estate Pekoe this morning.

[toastedtoads]

I don't think I'm OCD about anything really. I'm pretty easygoing as a rule, and that seems to transfer over to my tea drinking as well.

Drinking Adagio's Keemun Rhapsody this morning. Gong fu style this time as western style with this tea was a little disappointing. Much better this way.

[hop_goblin]

Yeah, like Sal, I haven't gotten away from my scale.