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2019 Da Xue Shan from Yunnan that I purchased from The Steeping Room: https://www.thesteepingroom.com/collections/black-tea Strong berry flavors and it’s mildly energizing and isn’t too malty. I’ve gone through half a jin this summer. I’ve also been drinking a Taiwanese hong cha from the early 90s. ...

I suggest tossing it and not replacing it. With the possible exception of pu, the need for a strainer comes from poor technique and it affects the taste of tea (either by aeration or tea on metal, I don’t know which). I used one for several years until discovered it was doing me no favors. But if yo...

Never but with one exception: some small semisweet item like a fruit & date bar or wagashi with matcha.

Otherwise, I don’t want food to mess with my palate. For example, I like Takis and tea but I want to taste tea when I am drinking tea, and Takis when I am eating Takis.

it’s easy to make them not dribble with a wee bit of technique. Most of the time, I can get a messy teapot to behave somewhat and only drip a bit, but I am not good enough that it would not dribble at all. I have developed a simple trick to compensate for that. I usually have a cloth laid flat whic...

My experience with 1 Jozan II and multiple Jozan IIIs with various spout styles (bizarre even) has been that they are not dribble proof but it’s easy to make them not dribble with a wee bit of technique. It takes almost no time to adjust to them. IMHO they are easier to adjust to than my other non-Y...

To second/third/fourth everyone above – Lovely pot! How is the handling when it's full? As the handle and shape is high I am wondering if it impedes a smooth pouring without too much stress on the wrist? To answer indirectly: I have a tall kyusu by Taisuke Shiraiwa and it pours well. I don't feel a...

Got a Jozan IV pot, I’m calling it the Avocado Pot. I was in a hurry earlier so I didn’t get to spend too much time with it, but it brewed up some fantastic sencha. ./download/file.php?id=6088 To second/third/fourth everyone above – Lovely pot! How is the handling when it's full? As the handle and ...

Darbotek wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 02, 2020 5:53 pm

Got a Jozan IV pot, I’m calling it the Avocado Pot. I was in a hurry earlier so I didn’t get to spend too much time with it, but it brewed up some fantastic sencha.

Really lovely kyusu you have there.

One gadget exception is using an aroma cup at first. An aroma cup can tell you a lot. Smell the scent even as it cools down. Follow those changes, how the aromas change steep to steep. Sometimes they appear in different orders, sometimes they are merged, and other times more separated. I was lookin...

I was fortunate to have a Taiwanese teacher when I was starting out. She taught me how the tea should taste and be appreciated. Just academically knowing how to make tea is not enough as subtle things can keep you from reaching the target. Even something as abstract as your intention can affect the ...

Those people are definitely out there! There is a third group, the ones who don’t care either way, clean, lovely worked up patina or just plain dirty, all the same to them :) I know the ones you are talking about. One of my Taiwanese friends is is like that. As for patina on kyusu, I wouldn’t mind ...

Noonie , Most of my kyusu are around 200ml and I make about 70-100ml of tea each steep. I wouldn’t want to go larger than 200ml with that volume of tea as it would just seem strange and you lose some of the handling advantages of a small pot. I’ve been using a 100ml kyusu this week for gyokuro and ...

Interesting. I have purchased 4 Ito Gafu kyusu over the last 4 years. They are all very Japanese in style ... no resemblance to Yixing. Each are very finely crafted. I'll likely continue collecting his work. I became interested in his work due to his indirect albeit connection to Yamada Jozan III. ...

TeaTotaling - I hear ya regarding safety. I’ve been meaning to try the epsom salt and bicarbonate concentrate recommenced on the water page but it turned out the Berkey worked just fine with our local water. I should still give it a shot. Another thing about resting water, in a way, is that some te...

faj , they were using lead acetate in wine and it was used until historically recent times as a sweetener, commonly called “sugar of lead”. Regarding powdered turmeric, lead chromate is added to increase the weight of the bulk item and to make the color look more vibrant and eye catching to wholesa...