Tea Scale

snipped-for-privacy@cinci.rr.com (Parislexi) wrote in news:6eef34c4.0311010658.34e53c96 @posting.google.com:

I like my Tanita 1479V for weighing tea. It is small, inexpensive, and the display is easy to read and stays on for quite a while before switching itself off.

Upton Tea is a good source for black teas, including Assam and Darjeeling. While they also have greens and oolongs, I prefer SpecialTeas for those. Those two are good places to start - large selections and you can buy small samples. I've also enjoyed teas from Rishi Teas, In Pursuit of Tea, and Holy Mountain. Rishi's selection is more limited but very, very good. The same goes for IPoT. Holy Mountain is more eclectic and seems a good place for greens. Like Upton and SpecialTeas, Holy Mountain also has small samples, so you can try many things for not too much money.

If I had to choose only one source to begin exploring tea, I'd start with SpecialTeas. They typically throw in an extra sample (their choice) with your order. I've had some delightful surprises that way (in particular, Ting Tung Oolong and Hairy Crab Oolong).

Debbie

I agree with Debbie's recommendations for online retailers. I drink mostly black and oolong teas and Upton's service (incredibly fast and through USPS which is better for me than UPS) is very good.

I own a basic digital scale (Salter, under $30 I think at discounters) which I did originally buy for tea but which is large enough for other food-related purposes. I have to admit that once I used it several times with different kinds of tea and began to get a feel for the volume/weight relationship of the teas I was drinking, I went back to volume. But it is certainly true that if you are trying to properly replicate someone else's brew instructions, weight is much better than volume.

Warren