I have the Utilitea and love it. I have one at home and one in my cubicle at work, much to my coworkers chagrin. The thermostat on it isn't the most accurate, but I find that a little bit into the green works for me.
Recently I moved from sea level to Mile High City, Denver, and my tea started breweing differently. When I was in Florida the leaves would sort of cloud about the pot, well when I got here I noticed they floated along the surface.
This afternoon I used the pot to bowl water for some soba noodles, and I put the dial back down and on the new brew the leaves were cloudy again. When I looked at the dial I noticed it was closer to the center of the green.
My question is, should the leaves float or should they sort of hang suspended through out my pot? Am I reading too much into this?
Thanks,
David
I live along the Front Range too. I mainly brew in a gaiwan and after the leaves finish their "dance through the falling water" (one of my favorite parts of tea brewing) they tend to float along the surface of the water for the first steep. Subsequent steeps they are more suspended in the water. But it does depend somewhat on the type of leaf being brewed. I lean more toward the Chinese greens. I think senchas tend to absorb water quicker and thus sink faster but this is just a guess.
I have noticed that there is not the 'cloudiness' that you spoke of here in Colo. When I was at my brother's in Minneapolis last Fall, I noticed this clouding effect quite a bit. At first I thought it was from the water but I even noticed it using spring water. Then I thought it might be from the microwave as my brother didn't own a tea kettle and I had to nuke my tea water. I did try heating water on the stove and still got the cloudiness so I don't know what really was the cause of it.
I have noticed that there is not the 'cloudiness' that you spoke of here in Colo. When I was at my brother's in Minneapolis last Fall, I noticed this clouding effect quite a bit. At first I thought it was from the water but I even noticed it using spring water. Then I thought it might be from the microwave as my brother didn't own a tea kettle and I had to nuke my tea water. I did try heating water on the stove and still got the cloudiness so I don't know what really was the cause of it.