Comments on: Tea tips: 15 easy steps to brew better tea

by: Jo

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:04:31 +0000

Hey Bamboo Forest,
you’ll have to wait til the sun rises again, I guess.
I usually stay away from late night tea consumption, but it’s 8 p.m. now and I’m still drinking my pu-erh (I guess, it should be o.k. since I’m on something like my 8th infusion now).

by: Bamboo Forest

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:28:43 +0000

This is a great overview of tea. Well done! You really hit on the making of tea — oh so well. You got me in the mood for tea — but it’s too late now!

by: Jo

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:45:31 +0000

hmbnancy,
thanks for stopping by. I am trying to share my enthusiasm for tea with like-minded people like you and hope to be able to pass on some of my knowledge.

by: Jo

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:41:37 +0000

Michael,
your comments are very much to the point. For gong fu tea, I usually go with my intuitions about leaf amount, rather than a scale (it takes a bit of experience, though).
With large leaf teas, I usually fill my gaiwan/yixing pot 1/2 to 3/4 with leaf. With tightly rolled oolongs, 1/4 to 1/3 is enough (the leaves will completely fill the pot when unfurled at the end of the session).
As to brewing Darjeeling gong fu: although it is traditionally not done this way, I have also found it to produce very good results with some fine Darjeelings. The change of flavours is quite remarkable and as you mentioned: a little bit of tea can go a looong way.

And I guess, I SHOULD write something about Office gong fu tea with the practical Easypot. Thanks for the idea :)

by: hmbnancy

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:41:32 +0000

Great site for enjoying the tea experience. Thank you, from a beginner.

by: Michael

Thu, 22 May 2008 21:24:22 +0000

Just a note about Gong Fu. One important bit is to use disproportionately more leaves. So the 2gm to 200ml doesn’t apply. I’d use about 3gm to 100ml (or whatever the easypot* size is).

I’m quite keen on gong fu-ing now. I’ve found that I get tremendous value out of the leaves and can, with some teas, use one set of leaves all day while at work. For me, this is particularly pleasant with darjeelings. Can it still be called gong fu when you’re using a darjeeling!?

The overhead of steeping the leaves like this is remarkably small if you have the right gear. You need a jug to pour boiling water into and an easypot. You can cool the water by pouring the water between the jug and the easypot. Then use the easypot to steep the leaves. The hot water can sit for a while in the jug - on hand for extra steepings.

Hey Jo why don’t you put a photo and write up about the Easypot on your website? OK, the shameless plug is over now.

* Easypot, get it now where-ever all great tea is sold**

** Great tea in Christchurch is only sold at Ya-Ya.

by: Jo

Thu, 22 May 2008 07:49:12 +0000

Hi Nikki,
thanks for stopping by again. I hope there was something new for an enthusiastic tea drinker like you.
Learning in tea never stops and personal brewing styles tend to constantly evolve. I personally regard point 11 (experimentation) as the most important tip, but it requires some previous experience - like you have, for example - to gauge your progress.

by: Tea Escapade

Thu, 22 May 2008 01:27:42 +0000

What a great post! I will certainly use some of these tips in my own brewing experience.

by: Tea tips: 15 easy steps to brew better tea

Wed, 21 May 2008 21:13:17 +0000

[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhile all tips are relatively easy to implement, I’ve broken the list up into beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of tea appreciation. This should help to indicate the potential target group and level of improvement. … […]