tea newbie inquiry

Curt, It is really hard to explain it in one page for tea's production and preparation. Here I collect some material about production and preparation step by step.

Here is Anxi Oolong tea's production procedure for your referrence.

Here is Anxi Oolong tea's preparation FYI.

I will introduce you green tea, black tea production and preparation later.

Hope it is useful to you.

Enjoy tea, Enjoy life.

Oh, Anxi Oolong tea's preparation here.

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Fujian tea ceremony:

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Thanks

Enjoy tea, enjoy life.

Here is about Chinese green tea.

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Hi Curt, a favorite online tea shop is niftea.com at

. They sell their tea in vacuum sealed foil bag for maximum freshness.

Amazon.com has the "tea companion" (forgot the exact title), a good intro to types of tea and how they are processed, a brief history ...

H> I know there are rich histories and complex processes of tea production and

Dear Curt and any other would-be suckers,

"athooya" is a proprietor, or at a marketer, of this website (just google athooya and niftea to see). If s/he is scummy enough to pretend otherwise here, I don't see why I should trust him/her with my money and my health. Plenty of other places to by tea.

I'm just getting tired of being advertised to everywhere I go.

Rick.

scummy enough to pretend otherwise here, athooya wrote:

Curt: there is no quick and easy way to learn everything there is to know about tea. There MIGHT be a Tea for Dummies out there somewhere but it's really not needed. (OK, that's a straight line, someone use it hmm?) If you want information read the FAQ for this list at

Basically you have to read, and if you choose to continue to learn about tea then it's going to be a lifetime(s) process. Read the newsgroup. Look in your local library. Read info pages from some of the major vendors. Drink a lot of tea. Though there are vendors I could recommend to purchase from I'm not gonna right now because I'm kinda fed up with shills and don't want to get into it.

So: short hand. Read lots, drink lots of tea. Have fun!!! This isn't a chemistry exam....yet (apologies to all the chemists out there) Hope SOME of this helped...

Melinda

Hey Melinda thanks. I am not looking for a quick learn. I have been homebrewing beer for 15 years and know how the knowledge comes with experience and time. I figure I have another 20 years or so to know what I want to know with that hobby of connoisseurship. Tea...A life time?....Great! I'll savor every moment! I have recently been getting into collecting fancy pipes and fancy pipe tobacco and from what I've read on those newsgroups good homeroast coffee and good "smokey" teas are good (even supposedly better than homebrew) to go with a bowl of fine tobacco...so I tried it with some Bigelow tea and could see that there might be something to this...so the interest. Also my wife drinks tea every night before bed and was recently inquiring about the finer aspects of teas and how it may be similar in genre to my recent tobacco and long time beer connoisseurship hobbies.

I work allot and have two lovely little children (4g&9b) and live in a wonderfully old historic house (to work on). These culinary-ish hobbies are relatively cheap, have rich histories and involve somewhat technical (read here ...nerdy) processes that make them complex...yet...take relatively little time ...and half the fun is just reading about it all.

FYI: The alt.smokers.pipes newsgroup has recently had it's fair share of marketeers in "sheep's clothing" here recently too.

I'm sure I'll be posting with further questions as soon as I find some good info and some good teas to start to try.

thanks again, Curt E.

Hi Curt,

Excellent, then you know how much fun the journey can be. :) If you're thinking of smokey teas (as in literally smokey) then you should look at a tea called Lapsang Souchong (spelling might be slightly off) which is very smokey as they smoke the leaves over pine branches. You might want to get a sample first, it's pretty astonishing and some don't like it much while others love it. I'm sure someone on here likes it, they can recommend a good brand or place to get a good type. Some is more smooth than others. Also, there is a tea called Russian Caravan that can be smokey too (uses some of the Lapsang in the mix) but some mixes calling themselves Russian Caravan are not smokey so...again, sampling around is a good idea. And you're right, tea is (or can be) a reasonably inexpensive and very pleasant hobby.

My husband brews a pretty stout mead when I'm lucky, :D

Melinda

CE - Curt E.iJm_e.28408$hp.18724@lakeread089/27/05 21: snipped-for-privacy@cox.net

Curt, You are actually quite lucky to have come to us in time. Please do the following: Telephone Silk Road Teas in California -- you might have to try a time or two -- at 415-458-8624, and talk at length with Ned. Explain to him what you explained to us, but assume that it all comes with taste and tasting; that is, the more you drink the more you'll experience and out of that the more you'll know. He'll hook you up with different kinds of tea. (Silk Road sells in quarter pound lots for the most part, and has a $50.00 minimum order, supposedly. Mention my name if you want a smaller order and remind him of the gargantuan order I put in a few days ago. (Actually, on second thought, don't do that.)

I'm serious here. It's a good approach, I think. (You could order from one of the big internet presences, but I guarantee they will not be able to tell you much about the teas they sell, and much of what they do tell you will be hogwash. Ned at SRT will steer you rightly.

No, I don't. I sold my shares before posting this post.

Michael

I am a newbie myself, and may forever be (at least until I retire or have a few more hours in the day) but here are my thoughts. I find that the enjoyment of tea comes in just trying some different things and taking the time to pay attention to it both in preparation and subsequent intake. This can be done with almost any decent quality tea, which can be picked up at many vendors. I've had most fun with loose leaf teas because the tea leaves themselves can be interesting in how they unfurl. I would suggest a cheap kettle and one of those Chinese thermoses on ebay and maybe a sampler pack from somewhere reputable like Upton, SpecialTeas, etc. Follow the instructions on the bag. For greens, maybe go a little cooler. Be careful with Darjeelings because an oversteep can become very bitter (in a bad way) in my experience.

As for the rest, I've found the most rewarding tea experience is one where I just take the opportunity to relax and immerse myself in the experience.

The indexing, classification, experimentation, rating, and accessorizing of tea is all fun too, but its secondary to the tea drinking experience itself.

My 2c Steve

CE - Curt E. wrote:

And that, my dear tea not-so-newbie, is a philosophy that will take you far and provide much enjoyment. The best news is that there is enough tea to occupy one for a lifetime.

cheers.