Tuo Cha Minis?

There are lots of ways of keeping the leaves out of your mouth, but I wouldn't steep the wrapper with the leaves if I were you. I don't think they make any representation about it being food-grade paper.

/Lew

Thanks.I think unwrapped and in a tea bag will be the strategy from here on.

Get a "UtiliTEA" from Adagio or a "Perfect Tea Maker" from Teavana (both basically the same device). It's especially nice for teas that you want to infuse multiple times.

Oh, and take the paper off before you brew.

stePH

I would recommend crumbling the Mini-Touchas before infusion. Rinse once with fresh boiled water, then infuse 2 or 3 times.

Adrian

snipped-for-privacy@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com1/3/06

Adrian,

I dunnoh. I sort of like the dynamic deterioration of the lump as it takes on water and disintegrates before my eyes. Might take a steep or two to bring them to complete destruction, but that's part of the pleasure. Just a thought.

The tea sleeve somebody mentioned previously would on the one hand save cleaning time and trouble, but on the other hand you'd miss half the show.

Michael

By "tea sleeve" do you mean the IngenuiTEA or Perfect Tea Maker? I believe both are transparent -- my IngenuiTEA certainly is; I can watch leaves of gunpowder or oolong slowly unfurl as they steep. Or chunks of raw puer brick for that "dynamic deterioration" of which you speak.

stePH

-- in cup: Ahmad Earl Grey later: 2003 sheng brick pu-er (from Tao of Tea) Yes, I know I'm drinking it young but it's so damn tasty.

snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com1/4/06

I'm talking about those ong paper rectangles that form a pouch for the tea and are long enough to drape over the side of the mug. You can put in any amount of tea and leave the sleeve in the mug as long as you like. When finished, you can disgard the wet and expanded sleeve. (Sounds a bit like a do-it-yourself you-know-what, right?)

Young sheng Pu'erhs can be damned tastey IMHO, and are a class of their own, quite different from aged ones. They present fruits and flowers and mustiness that the aged ones don't. It's all a matter of taste, is it not?

For me there are two big issues: First, making good sheng choices since most are not to my liking, and second avoiding their awkward adolescences since they take a lot of time to soften into mint and plum and camphor and before they lose that cigary smokiness, when that's present.

Michael

I use something like that, mini minit one cup filters. They have a hole in the top and a little swizzle stick, and you put the stick across the top of the cup and hang the bag from it. Works like a charm.

I'm only starting to discover pu'erhs. I was kind of surprised when the stuff I got from Upton was exactly what I had already had from the Co-op. That said, I really like it, and wish the sample had been more than 4 cakes. I'll have to get some different samples next time I order.

Never seen those. I have some small cloth you-know-whats that I bought before I got my first teapot; I don't use them any more.

I've only tried three or four shengs, all from Tao of Tea -- a couple in brick form, plus the "mini tuocha" and the loose-leaf. At worst they put me in mind of the gunpowder that I'm drinking as I type this, but the 2003 brick has that "cigary smokiness" that you mention. (the smaller "Jing Mai" brick is marked 2004, but came sealed in plastic so it's technically 2005 as I consider it) I thought the "smokiness" was a feature of its aging; when I first tried this brick I was pleased that unlike the other raw puers it had some of the "earthiness" that I tasted in the cooked types. So this attribute goes away with time, does it?

stePH

-- in cup: pinhead gunpowder from Wild Oats (aka Natures)