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Originally Posted by bjones6416
And this thread makes me realize how much you guys are probably snickering at me, sitting here enjoying my Celestial Seasonings conglomerations.  |
I have to admit to snickering and eye rolling. When you are ready to dive into loose leaf you will. And as soon as you do you will understand why we were snickering and rolling our eyes.
Seriously, I had no clue what I was missing out on with bagged tea until I tried loose leaf on a whim. Just using loose leaf Twinnings showed me how much better loose leaf was. Then I went looking for better tea and have been enjoying exploring the world of tea ever since.
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I got 6 teas from him.
Keemun
GunPowder (the one I have is too old, why not start anew, I like green tea anyhow, it is the tea that I have been drinking lately: he wrote Verde = Green on the bag)
Lapsang (That is what he wrote. I had it once at the house of old diplomats that had served in China, and I remember that I liked it very much and how it surprised me, and then lately green bony chicken mentioned it and Am also so I put it in my list)
Sencha (I asked for a large leaf green chinese, he said Japan and gave me that, and that's it)
White tea (he was pleased, I have Olong already)
Ceylon (He wanted me to have a medium tea good in the morning and afternoon. I asked him about Assam that I have already and he told me that it is the strongest and than advised me with the Ceylon. I did not tell him of the Tanzania that I have, that is quite strong and that I will compare with the Assam that I bought the other day).
He told me that with loose leafs teas I am much better off, but by a wide margin better off than from confectioned packages. So, that's the way I am starting this exploration. Now I will slowly and gently go through these teas and make notes, and try to build a sensitivity and a taste.
I got the info from wikipedia about temperatures, steeping times, multiple steeping and all that. I will see about other details on the way if I develop interest and enjoyment.
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Yeah! Enjoy. Sencha is one of my favorite teas. The key is using the right temperature water and steeping times. So many times people have had bad tea because it was made with boiling water for five minutes and way over cook their tea.
Please post your experiences. There will be some good and some bad and some disastrous (one friend I know tried a tea she could only describe as foot tea in the end) but that is half the fun.