Green tea

Little balls? You might be talking about Buddha's Tears.

I like this tea a great deal, although I might have just been lucky to get some of reasonable quality. It might be heresy, but I find the flavour so delicate that I just leave the tea in there, and it doesn't seem to oversteep. The unfurling also indicates when the tea is ready. :)

Cheers,

- Joel

I love them. I have tried hundred sorts at least. Some are very spectacular with a collar of jasmin flowers. Others have leaves that stay vertically and flowers floating under, so it looks like lawn reflecting in a pond.

But you said there were all "jasmin" ? There exist balls that don't contain jasmin but green or white tea + litchi juice, or rose, or lotus, or chamomille, or mint, etc.

US$ ? That's not cheap.

Most Chinese tea shops have some. Flower teas are served in Chinese tea-rooms with Asian desserts or if it's not meal time with dry fruits. For a nicer effect, they brew them in large glasses (ice-cream cups or wine degustation cups), but...the water is too hot, so that damages the cups, they rarely break the first time, usually after 6 to 10 times. Now, I brew in a nice pirex carafe.

It lasts...but natural flavors of fruit and flower go away quickly. If the ball dries, the colors also fade and the leaves become breakable. I use keep them in a metal canister and use them in the month after buying.

Kuri

Joel snipped-for-privacy@cindy.panacea.null.org4/16/04

Not only is it *not* heresy, according to my understanding, but its SOP among those Chinese guys who run around all day with their gaiwans adding water as they go. (Nowadays, I'm given to understand, it's a glass or plastic cylindrical contraption with a screen thingy that contains the leaves, separating them from your mouth.) Leaves stay in the water. I've tried this and have amassed a great collection of broken gaiwan lids to prove it.