My first cup...

[Dresden]

Hi there all...

I just brewed my first ever cup of loose tea. After looking through all of my samples I decided to give something fairly simple a go.

Ceylon Sonata. 2 teaspoons steeped for 4.5 minutes in 12oz of spring water. (The IngenuiTea is a wonderful little contraption) I am using a double wall glass which lets me really appreciate the color.

To be honest it is quite good. I find it light with a somewhat crisp finish. Not bitter at all. It seems like it would make a refreshing iced tea with a bit of lemon. I can see enjoying a nice glass after a summer afternoon of yardwork. I will definitely be ordering more of this once my sample runs dry!

Well, it may be basic but I just wanted to share my maiden voyage into loose tea.

Cheers,
Mike

[Chip]

Hi there all...

I just brewed my first ever cup of loose tea. After looking through all of my samples I decided to give something fairly simple a go.

Ceylon Sonata. 2 teaspoons steeped for 4.5 minutes in 12oz of spring water. (The IngenuiTea is a wonderful little contraption) I am using a double wall glass which lets me really appreciate the color.

To be honest it is quite good. I find it light with a somewhat crisp finish. Not bitter at all. It seems like it would make a refreshing iced tea with a bit of lemon. I can see enjoying a nice glass after a summer afternoon of yardwork. I will definitely be ordering more of this once my sample runs dry!

Well, it may be basic but I just wanted to share my maiden voyage into loose tea.

Thanks for sharing your maiden LLT voyage with us!

I have been saying for years, Ceylon is the best base for black iced tea.

Enjoy!

[hooksie]

Glad you enjoyed the first cup. It only get's better from here on out.


And as far as black teas go, give a Yunnan a try some time. Personally, it's one of my favorite types of blacks, hopefully you will enjoy it as well.

[Dresden]

Wow...that was a quick reply!

I think next time I may try it iced with a little freshly crushed mint leaf in the glass.

BTW,

Is resteeping this tea suggested? If so, how much more time to add?

[Dresden]

And as far as black teas go, give a Yunnan a try some time. Personally, it's one of my favorite types of blacks, hopefully you will enjoy it as well.

I have a sample of Yunnan Jig. I may give that one a go next time. (with perhaps a cup of Ceylon on the side for comparative purposes )

[hooksie]

And as far as black teas go, give a Yunnan a try some time. Personally, it's one of my favorite types of blacks, hopefully you will enjoy it as well.

I have a sample of Yunnan Jig. I may give that one a go next time. (with perhaps a cup of Ceylon on the side for comparative purposes )

Ah Yunnan jig. I've only tried the yunnan gold and yunnan noir. Both of which I found quite enjoyable. Let us know how it is.

[Odinsfury]

Ceylon is my favorite black tea. I brew it twice... 7 minutes the second time. It tastes a little sweeter to me on the second infusion.

[sneakers]

hooksie, you mentioned Yunnan as a good runner up to Ceylon. I would describe Ceylon as smooth and mild though I don't know all the technical descriptive words. How would you describe the flavor of Yunnan compared to Ceylon?

[emeraldrobot]

congrads! and welcome to the loose leaf obsession!

What I like to do is get a bunch of samples of different types of tea, and then see what I like. It tends to help when you want to narrow down the types of tea you like too.

[silvermage2000]

Welcome to loose leaf tea and different types to.

[Victoria]

Welcome, glad you joined us!

[Beidao]

Ah, welcome! I've never been a huge fan of Ceylon but the nice thing with Ceylon is you don't have to be fancy, they're quite cheap and the expensive ones are not that much better, in fact a cheap Ceylon is sometimes the best. I quite like Ceylon Kenilworth. Some Keemuns have things in common with a Ceylon but not all Keemuns. Adding fresh mint leaves is always a thing to try. And lemon I guess. Happy future voyage into the universe of LLT!

[yoshter576]

welcome to the tea world glad you enjoyed your first cup. I Would recomend to you irish breakfast really good black tea.

[tjausti]

Welcome!

I love the jig sample... I will be ordering it next time in the "Wow how am I going to drink all that" size

be sure to try the earl grey bravo.... one of my favorites.... earl grey is great on the rocks.....

btw get your self a cheap credit card scale (10-20 bucks).... measure out 5 grams of jig, steep for 2 minutes. fill the ingeniutea to just over the letters. second steep 6:30..... Thats what works for me with the jig and earl grey... more tea less time makes the tea alot smoother, less bitter and less astringent....

once you get in to larger leaf tea (jig would qualify) the teaspoon measurement goes right out the window.... I found out the hard way after wondering why my yeas all tasted flat.... the first time I made jig I was using a full 2 teaspoons and it was still flat, some teas have very low packing efficiency... lol

Irish breakfast is also quite good...

glad to hear you are enjoying the wide world of teas....

[ruparammali]

Glad you enjoyed the first cup. It only get's better from here on out.


And as far as black teas go, give a Yunnan a try some time. Personally, it's one of my favorite types of blacks, hopefully you will enjoy it as well.

Glad you enjoyed the first cup. It only get's better from here on out.


And as far as black teas go, give a Yunnan a try some time. Personally, it's one of my favorite types of blacks, hopefully you will enjoy it as well.