Gyokuro Asahi

That is probably one of the problems. This one definitely has the jasmine flavor. I think I may have some sort of adverse reaction to jasmine. I also bought a bag of Moli Huacha ("Fanciest Jasmine"), which I cannot tolerate. It makes me feel a little queasy.

Where do you buy your Yin Hao?

It was a Christmas gift from my daughter, bless her heart. She's a good girl.

She gave us a $150 gift certificate to an expensive restaurant. I am now thinking that forgoing three meals at a cheaper restaurant for one at this one might be something to think about. ;-)

All I want answers to my questions from whoever has the time and inclination and without put-downs.

Who's "frantically flailing"? I don't feel at all frantic. I cannot understand why the zen contingent feels the need to put down any other approach. My approach is valid. If it doesn't work for you, I'm OK with that. If you want to offer me your perspective and you can do it without denigration, I will listen.

And I am only marginally interested in all of that. I feel the same way about wine, cheese, etc. Maybe I'm unenlightened or unevolved or concrete or terminally logical or whatever, but that's who I am and I am reasonably happy with it. If you can accept that and still want to talk tea, great. If not, then I think it's as much your loss as mine.

Well, I certainly didn't intend to cause you any pain. Do you think you might be just a tad over-sensitive?

You see, I'm not sure you really do want to help me. It sure doesn't feel helpful. I don't usually put down people I truly want to help. If you truly want to help me, then you would help me in the way that would be most helpful to me, which is not the way you are currently doing it. You probably do want to help me, but I think you want to change me ever more. You probably think that changing me will help me, but that is untilamtely arrogant, because it implies that you know what's good for me better than I do.

Scholars? Name a few.

I accept that that is your way.

Then I guess you would advise the cosmologists to immediately cease all efforts to understand, certainly to quantify or (god forbid) parameterize, the universe. Talk about variables...

So calling me foolish is goodly?

Who says so?

Should we all go back to growing all of our own food on our own plots of land. I don't really feel much "at one" with my oatmeal that comes in a large tin from a farm in Utah.

I had a piano teacher once who hated metronomes. She used to say that I should keep time by the beat of my heart. I tell ya, I had to be very calm if I was ever to have any chance with the Minute Waltz or Flight of the Biumblebee.

Have you ever taught piano in Northern California?

Should?

for you...

There you go again with the name calling. I don't feel "wild" at all.

It sounds like you are really fed up with me and wish I would stop posting these wild, frantically flailing messages and just go read the archives and leave the good folks here alone. Right>?

Not for me

I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

I agree with both you and Stefan that taste is subjective. I'm not sure what I said to suggest otherwise.

Very little in life is 100% predictable. I don't see that we should conclude that we should not measure anything and do everything by the seat of our pants.

Why, thank you. I wasn't sure for awhile there.

I love the advice. I love the personal experiences even more. I could do without the condescencion. ;-)

Actually, I don't agree with your responses at all not even enough to agree that we disagree. I can only hope that you'll see the error in your way and thinking at some point in life regardless of tea. I can assure you that you are attacking those who can be a Buddha to you and you are willfully ignoring history and tradition to prove some point that is pointless.

Continue on your own path, it will lead you somewhere as well.

I'm sorry,

- Dominic

I thought buddhist were supposed to be non-confrontational and accepting of everything.

The hell you are. My god, what an ego.

Im allergic to Jasmine. The Chinese say I have a hot body type.

I buy the Fujian Tian Hu Shan tea factory brand in a Chinese store. It comes in really nice 250/500g green tins.

Im sitting down at an expensive catered dinner the other night wondering what I would get when I ordered tea. I got the proverbial Lipton tea bag but at least the carafe contained steaming hot water. Im at a loss, do I force the bag through the nozzle into the carafe for brewing, or pour over the bag in the cup?

Jim

Square Peg wrote:

Perhaps you should post some photos... ;-)

That's a great idea. We have a lot of Chinese shops in this area. I'll stop by one and see what they have.

...and the answer is...?

Pour over the bag in a cup. Isn't it refreshing to go back to basics (Lipton's) every so often? Toci

"chance" <cinci snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.kr> wrote

Further to the preceding post, what descriptions do you think there are to describe the characteristic tea taste or flavor of a tea-like tea?

One more thing, what significance do the colors of red, green, and yellow used in the marks on the labels of puer teas have?

I apologize. I didn't want to be rude, i merely wanted to show you some aspect that i find important.

This is what i tried to do.

I agree with you on that point. But what i wanted to say is that the very same tea, brewed with the same amount of leaves at the same temperature, may get a different rating from me at different days. For example, if the weather is really cold or wet i would (probably) never rate a green tea as high as i do otherwise. On the other hand i cannot stand any black tea if it is too warm. So the weather clearly has an influence on my tea experience. Furthermore it also strongly depends on what i have eaten/drunk so far and next year you may have to do it all again, because the tea may have changed. Taking all this (and other things i didn't mention or forgot) into account invalidates the rating in my opinion.

OK, and I apologize for over-reacting. I am interested in what you find important. I won't agree with all of it, but I hope I will not suggest that it shouldn't be important to you.

ok

Of course this is true, but it is it true of almost everything, not just tea. Audio speakers, for instance, can be fairly precisely rated (measured) on a variety of characteristics (frequency response, sensitivity, impedance, bass response, etc.), but my personal experience will vary depending on many subjective factors including my mood, what I have listened to recently, and even the weather.

Should we tell all of the audiophiles to junk all of there electronic test gear, stop testing speakers, and just go for the zen experience?

That would be silly. But it is also silly to ignore the subjective. However, just because I want to take measurements does not mean that I am hostile to or even indifferent to the subjective.

I realize that the exact same parameters do not guarantee the exact same experience. That's not my intent. But the parameters do have value. Anyone who dismisses that is probably too narrow-minded and rigid to be able to adequately appreciate the subjective, an irony usually lost on them.

Most of this is not directed at you. Please don't take it personally or even as a criticism.

Ok, I'm done now. I'm off to measure some parameters. ;-)

Weren't you LISTENING?!?! <very big grin>

Alan

Absolutely! I have five tins of tea at my desk right now, but several times a week I'll go into the break area and make a cup of Bigelow English Breakfast from the mass quantities of bags in the break area provided to keep the work force sufficiently caffeinated. Sometimes it's just what I want, and sometimes it's the easiest thing to make before rushing off to a multi-hour meeting.

Alan

Wouldn't one of those little infuser ball thingies be almost as easy as a tea bag?

Yes. In fact, that's what I usually use at work for black tea (the spring-loaded kind, not the screw-top kind). I find that the ball is large enough that the leaves don't get too crowded. I like the tea bags if I'm heading to a meeting and don't want to mess with the spent leaves. It's easier to drop the tea bag into a trash can than to carry the tea ball around with me.

I used to love Earl Grey, but now that I've educated my palate and stopped adding sugar to tea, I find the bergamot overpowering. I have some Earl White that I haven't even tried; the aroma alone is too bergamotty.

Ok, so i misunderstood you there.

At least to some extent. I do not pour boiling water over my Senchas and some of them like lower temperatures than others. And before you ask, from time to time i do measure the temperature with a thermometer;-)

To get a better understanding of what you do, can you tell how accurate you measure your parameters and how strictly you follow your optimum values?

Not all Earl Grey is saturated to the point of being overpowering. There is some very good and subtle bergamot-scented tea out there. But, in a pinch you can take the overscented tea and cut it with keemun black or something.

--scott

I have a scale that is accurate to .1g.

I use the Pino Digital Kettle Pro to heat the water. It claims to be accurate to +/- 3%. If I am going for 170F, I usually take it at anywhere from about 168F to 173F.

I use the IngenuiTEA for brewing, which has no volume markings on the side. My guess is that this is because they don't know how much tea will be in the pot, which would affect the level. I made a few marks on the side for thise times when I make less than the full pot (~800mL). So that could be off by ~5%.

I use the timer on the stove, which I imagine is very accurate, but there may be a delay of a few seconds on either end.

I do not keep track of the room temperature, outside temperature, humidity, phase of the moon, my biorhythms, or anything having to do with crystals or magnets.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. When I want to brew a pot, I check my tea database of past brews and see what it recommends.

Here's an example. I want to make a 500 mL pot (one of my thermos bottles). I choose a tea. The database program recommends 2.4 g/cup for 2:00 minutes at 160F. I enter 500 mL and it tells me I need 6.7g of tea. I decide to brew it slightly stronger so I enter 2.6 g/cup. It then tells me that I need 7.2 g for my 500 mL pot.

I fill the kettle, set it to 160F, and turn it on. While it's heating, I weigh the tea. When I get close to 7.2 g, I tap the container a bit too hard and more tea comes out than I planned. The scale reads 7.5g. I decide to leave it. When I am done, I enter 7.5g and the database tells me that my actual brew strength was 2.7g/cup. I enter my rating (0-100).

Over time, the database recommendations get better and better.