Sometimes a tea will surprise you. Not that this is necessarily a good thing. For me, at least, there have been good tea surprises and there have been bad ones. Obviously, I'd prefer the former but sometimes in this life we have to take the hand (or tea) we're dealt. I've learned to like Keemun …
Tag: preparing tea
3 Tips for Getting That Matcha Just Right
Lumps, no froth (or too much froth), bitterness, and being too thick or two thin are just some of the issues plaguing matcha lovers. Yes, getting that matcha just right can be rather tricky. So, here are three sure-fire tips to help: 1 Matcha Mesh Matters Buy 1000 mesh or greater grade. The 1,000 mesh …
Tea by the Numbers
You don’t have to know much about tea in order to drink it, although it wouldn't hurt to know how to select it and prepare it properly. But if you're interested in a few facts on the topic, read on. 1 There is only one plant from which tea is derived. It's called Camellia sinensis. …
ComplexiTEA
Life gets more complex every day and so, it seems, does tea! No need to panic, though, it’s easy to sort out those complexiTEAs. Dad used to fix TVs and radios on the kitchen table. Then, they got too complicated. Tubes were replaced by transistors and complex circuit boards. He also used to work on …
6 Things I’ve Learned About Tea
It's taken a while but I've come to a point where I've been writing about tea just about long enough to realize how little I know about tea. In spite of all that I've managed to pick up a few nuggets of something like wisdom along the way. Here they are: 1 Some Teas Are …
When Your Tea Kettle Fools You
Accurate water temperature can make the difference in the taste of your tea, but your tea kettle can fool you. Then, you end up with understeeped black tea that needed boiling water or oversteeped green tea that needed water heated to around 180° F. A tea lover’s nightmare! I discovered this foolery when my Asta …
Interview with a Tea Dabbler
While some of us immerse ourselves in tea all day, every day, others merely dabble. So what do those who like tea but don't love it (yes, this is apparently possible) think about the wonderful world of tea? This is by no means a comprehensive, or representative take on the views of those who only …
5 Reasons Not to Overfill Your Teapot
You have a 2-cupper, 4-cupper, or even a 6-cupper teapot. You know from past experience that these teapots hold a bit more than that. (At some point, we all tend to steep a bit extra, trying to get a little more out of those pricey tea leaves.) But is overfilling your teapot a wise thing …
Intuitive Tea
Way back a number of years ago when I first started getting serious about high-end teas, I bought every tool, gizmo, and gadget in order to prepare the tea “properly.” My collection included several kinds of measuring spoons, a gram scale for metric weights, a small postal scale for avoirdupois weights, and an instant-read water …
Skimping on the Tea Leaves
The economy is down, but you don’t want to miss out on that special tea you love so much. So, you skimp a bit on the amount of tea leaves you use when steeping. Very understandable. Your tea purchase goes further. There’s one catch: you’re also skimping on tea flavor and therefore short-changing yourself. Steeping …
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