How about if you paid 100 smackaroos for that teabag? I say dunk dunk dunk. I'll bet your grandmother used the three dunk rule for the first steep of the teabag's journey to its second job teaing stains. The really important question is, did your grandmother squeeze the teabag -- I just mistyped and produced the word "teabog," but that's a story for another day -- or did she gingerly place the dripping teabag on the saucer beside the cup? The answer to this question will help us help you resolve your second steep issue.
My Mom did the same thing. It was the prosperous 50's. But, she had lived through the depression, which left its mark. Melinda, your prejudice against the lowly teabag is showing. Could this be a deep seated anger directed at the working classes out of which I proudly hail, possibly but not probably explaining why I can't spell.
LOL - yes, the teabag was always dunked, again and again and again. And yes, squeezed... the teabag was put in a spoon, and the string wrapped around the spoon and bag. The bag was never sloshing around on a plate!
What? Remember, I'm still learning and new to this. You are saying that the subsequent infusions should be shorter than the first? If anything, I've been doing just the opposite usually exending subsequent steep times slightly. Am I doing this wrong? Will I get better results by shortening my subsequent infusions.
BTW: I have been testing for bitterness and learned the breaking point for my teas. I don't have a problem with bitterness on multiple infusions - or if I do, I don't use that tea for multiple infusions.
Michael, your upper class intelligencia prejudice is showing...you can't spell because you're lower class? Is that only because you're a member of the people? Remember our Cuban comrads used to read books to each other in the factories....;)
Nah...I liked Lipton decaf (I assume that's what it was...it was in the green box, which then came to mean green tea, which is what I always called it...but I'm not sure that it was green tea, I think it might have been decaf) with plenty of milk and sugar when I was young. And when I wasn't drinking coffee. (I used to get some good coffee when I was little...which is probably why I'm so blasted short...). I don't think I was drinking the tea at that point for the tea, if you get my drift...I'm sure the sugar content probably had something to do with it.
I'm just mad that I didn't realize that there was better tea out there for so long...::sob:: so many years wasted...:P
Melinda, nuking a leftover cup of Bargang for morning tea...STILL lightyears ahead of an American cardboard box teabag
We really do need to spread the word. Last week, through an email exchange with a former neighbor, I mentioned converting another neighbor from teabags to loose tea and the response I got back was:
"So you have to tell me about the tea. I didn't know you could even make it w/o a bag"
I know what you mean Bluesea, but I'm getting funny looks from people when I go on and on about tea....my nurse at the clinic the other day asked about green tea and I gave her a couple of web pages and recomendations on how to steep...but it almost felt like it was too much to even tell her that. I got a Teeli filter and a few random samples for my neighbor for Christmas and haven't heard a thing. I gave a sample of teas to a friend in another city and haven't heard a thing back. And I gave some flavored rooibos (not for everyone I know...I take it in small doses) to another aquaintence and never heard anything about it every again. Part of me is wondering if people are either just too spoiled with getting lattes made for them or coffee made for them in a pot, or if they're just too busy to care.
My husband is calling me a "Tea-vangelist", lol. I do try to preach it...
Melinda
P.S. I guess one really irritating thing for me is that so many people are going for green tea now because it's "healthy" and totally missing the "tea" part. It makes me feel like their "using" green tea and then they're gonna turn it out of the house the next morning....ya know?
Could you brew her a cup? My recently converted-from-teabags neighbor thought it was going to be all complicated and that she'd have to buy a bunch of equipment, but I gave her an instant-read thermometer and an Ekco strainer from Wal-Mart along with samples of what I have on hand and told her to use any clean pot for boiling water and her Pyrex measuring cup to steep and she was off and running when she realized it wasn't going to be a major project. Maybe your nurse is similarily intimidated by the mystique of loose tea and only needs a convincer like watching how easy it is to make and tasting the great results.
Are these already tea people? I've tried to convert only one who wasn't already into supermarket teabags and I never heard back from him about the samples I sent.
OTOH, I gave an avowed green tea-drinker a bunch of green tea samples as well as a tin of white and a Chatsford mug for Christmas and to date, none of it has been commented on, either.
Yes, it's like they're following some sort of diet fad that they'll abandon when the fad-food wind changes. Some will stick because they'll have discovered the nuances of taste. As for the others, I've decided that they're the Ordinary People that certain teas are Too Good For (TGFOP). I suspect that my avowed green tea-drinker friend falls into this category because she's into really healthy stuff anyway and said that she doesn't drink black tea because it doesn't have as many health benefits.
Let's say this: The first steep for however long, the second somewhat faster, and then the next steeps progressively add time. The exact timings differ according to the tea quality, age, delicacy, not to mention your personal taste. I find that a slightly understeeped green is more pleasant than one slightly oversteeped. A two or three minute first steep of a green would nearly always be a problem, IMHO.
Some bitterness, in my opinion again, provides a foil for other qualities such as sweetness. The danger is a lack of integration and balance. You learn as you go. In spring, when the Long Jings (Lung Jin, Dragon Wells) hit our shores, you might get a couple to experiment with and to develop brewing parameters.
Here is what I think I notice with green teas, the first sign of oversteeping is a grassy flavor. The next sign of oversteeping is increasing bitterness. Do you find that the grassiness precedes the bitterness?
I like the slight flavor of grass in my green tea - but not too much.
BTW: I am still drinking my Adagio samples, even learning to appreciate the genmai chai pop - though it's not the tea for me. Soon, I will have to look for a good Dragon Well (based on other posters, not Adagio).
Maybe the most effective advocacy method is going to turn out to be "My this is nice tea, care for a cup?"
It's pretty easy to make bad tea from good leaves, maybe they tried it and it turned out badly and they figure it's their fault and don't want to talk about it.
I doubt that giving gifts is a good way to go about it. Everybody has their own preference. I could send you samples of what i think is great tea and you'd probably loathe them 'cause they're really, really malty assams.
I considered sending some tea to my brother, who I know is a tea drinker, who's wife is from india and who makes chai in an open pot on the stove with whole spices. And then i realized, I have no idea what kind of tea these people are drinking. Maybe they *like lipton yellow label. There must be some reason they sell that stuff in the indian markets.
I've met more than one person who grimaces through cups of awful green tea for the 'health benefits'. fits right into my theory of food flagellation. Take for example carob - it's scorched locust bean gum. It's got nothing to recommend it unless you're sensitive to alkaloids. It was literally invented by a bluenose who was concerned about the effects of chocolate on human morality.
Why do i know so many vegans who eat carob?! You would think that, having denied yourself so many tasty things in the world, that chocolate would be your one pure indulgence. A nice, dark chocolate, just cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar. Why carob?! Flagellation, only possibility that makes sense.
If she's making gourmet Chai she is using Mamri Assam CTC blend which is a commercial tea. Any Assam will do. Send her some Indian Assam found in the Arabic markets.
How about indian assam (is there another kind of assam?!) sold to me by a guy from india who runs a business selling mainly assam teas?
Dunno if 'gourmet' is the correct term. She's making it the way her parents made it when she was growing up in india. Just because I make mac & cheese the way mom did doesn't make it gourmet mac & cheese.
one hard thing for me is a party with friend's. most the hosts provide soft drinks or beers, sometimes wine. sometimes, cofee but rarely tea, even if they do, it is ususally teabags from lipton or stash.
since i don't drink cold, sugary, bubbly drink, nor beer, (i do drink a little wine), my new solution is making "green oolong" (my favorite) ahead of time & carry the thermos to the friend's.
eating out is also a problem. i have noticed that most restaurants, even fine ones, don't have decent tea. the quality of food seems nothing to do with tea they serve. & strange, some cheap (Asian) eateries actually have decent albeit not great tea. once i even brought my own tea thermos to Il Fornaio. LOL.
irritating indeed.
regards,
Pam @ Home
Cort Furniture Rental and Honesty are two exclusive concepts.
In article , Eric Jorgensen wrote: [snip] > I've met more than one person who grimaces through cups of awful green
green tea can be harsh & grassy if it is not made right. (esp. cheap ones like most grocery brands).
interesting. sounds like early spanish missionaries in south America.
i don't think they eat for pleasure. i have met few vegetarians friends for ethical reason, are like that (although they're not vegan). i wish i only ate drank for pleasure, cause i enjoy food too much.
regards,
Pam @ Home
Cort Furniture Rental and Honesty are two exclusive concepts.
I give samples in those little zippy snack bags and always put amount, temp, and time.
That's why I give a variety of black, green, white, and herbal except for that non-black tea drinker. I figured black teas would be wasted so didn't give her any blacks.
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