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Amount of tea for this thermos?

Hello All,

I recently came across, and bought, the tea thermos from this page:

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I bought it largely based on remembering that an old office-mate of mine had a similar thermos that she used throughout the day. I liked the idea.

My question is: how much (green) tea would you advise to put in something like this for a day's brewings. I normally brew tea in a teapot or, more recently, a gaiwan for green tea. In those cases I've always brewed the tea to the "correct" strength and strained away the leaves. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of keeping the leaves in the tea in this way.

It seems obvious that the tea will get stronger as you drink it, so unless you drink the whole lot very quickly I imagine you have to start with it slightly "under-brewed" and drink it while it goes through "normal" to "a bit too strong". I'm just wondering what the optimum amount to put in would be.

Of course I'll experiment, but any advice to save me the heartbreak of too much wasted tea would be appreciated!

Joss

Reply to
Joss Wright
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Chinese in general put a generous amount of tea in these things. I'd imagine something like.... 5-10g? What they do is they put it in, pour water in, and then drink.... and as the water level gets a little lower (and the strength a bit too much) they add hot water, diluting the tea, and repeat. Usually by the second half of the day the tea starts getting a little thin and tasteless. If you wish, you can add more leaves to strengthen it again, or just drink tea-water.

MarshalN

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Reply to
MarshalN

I have been using one of these to take tea to work for several years now. I agree with MarshalN about the 5-10g range. I use 5ish for young green puerhs and 10ish for black puerhs. While I seldom drink aged greens this way, while at a tea tasting marathon with a group of friends, we discovered that large quantities of seemingly spent aged puerh leaves yielded quite a tasty brew when allowed to steep overnight in a large thermos.

One trick I use that helps level out the taste curve throughout the day is too use slightly colder than normal water for the first brew and then increase the water temp with each successive brew. I know this is not how they do it in China, they use boiling water for almost everything, but it works well for my American pallet. This works particularly good for puerh, since good puerhs tend to allow for more steeps than most greens.

-- Mike Petro

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Reply to
Mike Petro

Thank you for the two suggestions.

I've always been feeling my way with tea, as I'm pretty much the only person I know that looks beyond PG Tips teabags. 5g of green tea seems like a huge amount of tea to put in this thing, but I'll take your word for it and give it a try!

I assume that you have to drink it quite quickly once you add the water? For this amount of water, I'd generally be looking to add maybe a generous pinch of tea and letting it brew for a few minutes.

Still, it's something to try out. Thanks for the help.

Joss

Reply to
Joss Wright

Hiya, Joss. I work in a teashop part time in Snohomish WA. where we carry these same tea bottles. I have found from experience that they seem to work best with a very generous portion of leaf if you are using cold/room temperature water. If you use boiling/hot water the leaf will tend to overinfuse pretty quickly, but with priming the leaves for twenty-thirty minutes the cold/room temperature water will provide a delicious brew that can be reinfused several times. I personally like a Bao Zhong (aka Pouchong) type oolong (I know this is kind of in-between green and oolong, but you have to give it some kind of label) which I use three teaspoons of leaf at a minimum. I have also enjoyed larger leaf Darjeelings and Tai Ping Hou Kui greens. Again, I strongly recommend using cold/room temperature water and letting the first infusion go for at least twenty minutes before drinking, after that your leaves are ready to go with fresh water for at least three more infusions. Also be sure to clean the seals and the bottle well each day to avoid mildew deposits. Hope this helps you out, happy quaffing! Bill

Reply to
tea junkie

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