Hello, all!
I'm Tess, 23 and from the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin. Can't tell you how much I've enjoyed the messages in this group! I've gone and read through several years of back-messages and have learned so much; such a delight to get the digest every day and to see what is being discussed.
I'm a longtime tea lover who is currently having the opportunity for the first time to spend more time (and money--thank goodness college is over!) learning about and drinking really good tea. So far in life, my favourites have inevitably been greens, although I do enjoy black tea, as well. I don't like anything too heavily scented or flavoured, but I do like a well-balanced jasmine or lychee green or black, and my current favourite is genmaicha. I didn't even know about this wonderful stuff until last month, but at this point my boyfriend claims that if he has to open the fridge door to one more iced pitcher of it or sit down to a meal to one more pot of it, he'll turn into a bit of roasted rice. He's unspeakably thankful, I daresay, that a recent trip to Chicago's Chinatown yielded a fresh influx of variety. (Including some Lapsang Souchung, which I love but he dismisses as "drinking woodsmoke.")
I was particularly thrilled to get my first yixing teapot on the trip, as well, from the Ten Ren store there. I think it'll be a good starter pot; I've been practicing the gongfu cha method with my other pots and gaiwans and I'm absolutely convinced that it makes it possible to squeeze the maximum quality out of the tea brewed that way. I'm very excited about using the pot--I plan to use it for sheng puerh, which I've tried and loved thanks to a helpful Chinese friend. On top of that, my first order of sheng puerh (and a bit of shu, which I haven't tried) just arrived from the Jing Teashop, and I'm going to tear right into it after work.
I'm clearly babbling--my apologies. I'm just awfully excited about all of this and know that you all will be fairly empathetic about that.
The only other thing I wanted to share, just to see what sort of a reaction I get, is this: a bamboo tea serving tray for gongfu cha is definitely on my Christmas list; the one I want is just out of the question before then. So, in the meantime, for practice and practicality's sake, I've come up with a temporary solution. I purchased a new broiler pan--I'm sure you're all familiar with them, they're about an inch and a half deep, 9 x 13 inches, and have a slatted top for fats/grease/etc to drip through in the oven--and am using this for gongfu cha. The recessed slats are a bit of a bother, as I have to put my cups in specific places so they don't lean, but otherwise, this works *perfectly* and is, I think, an excellent "starting out" setup for anyone who wants to work with the tray before they buy a proper one.
Is that appalling? I've given some thought as to how appropriate it is and can't say I have a problem with it myself, but does anyone have any other thoughts?
Again, pleased to meet all of you!
Tess