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When I hear about pottery making water sweeter, my first concern is lead. It’s known to make things sweet and was the world’s first low calorie sweetener.

faj , you are correct. It is chloramine. Letting tap rest helps it off gas. My experience with Brita filters has not been so good but I didn’t let the water from them rest overnight. The water tasted good most of the time but out of nowhere I would get a strange chemical aroma. I used it once and t...

Part of it is also of course for cultural reasons -- a popular artistic shape is the bundle of sticks, I imagine to show that there is strength through solidarity, but a bundle of sticks has a slang meaning in America that would be immediately picked up by their friends. :) What does Milo Yiannopou...

Jeanbb , you should re-read what I wrote. My comment was is not about Mei Leaf but about “...the harm in drinking mediocre or bad teas.” Yes, a friend of mine died of stomach cancer at too young an age and it did prompt me to consider if it was from tasting teas over decades that were improperly pr...

The first part is what interests me. I apprecitate your Zen Buddhist perspective because your description of it matches my own sensibilies. But what intrigues me is the possiblility that somewhere, sometime there was or is a community of people for whom tea drinking was or is so important that they...

Speaking of which, just saw this one the other day. "If the tea becomes real, we become real. When we are able to truly meet the tea, at that very moment we are truly alive." - Thich Nhat Hanh https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3598040063556832&id=319228401438031 But it’s not just te...

Speaking of which, just saw this one the other day. "If the tea becomes real, we become real. When we are able to truly meet the tea, at that very moment we are truly alive." - Thich Nhat Hanh https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3598040063556832&id=319228401438031 But it’s not just te...

"Maybe it is as simple as the ancient Japanese proverb that someone without tea in them is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. To chajin, this is the way (and the why) of tea There are two parts to the proverb. The first part asserts that “ someone without tea in them is incapable of under...

I was an absentheur in the 90s and would noodle on the aromas of illicitly made absinthes trying to determine what aromatics had been used in each batch of absinthe I tried. I did a similar thing with gins. It was my passion and the passion of others in a similar online group of friendly enthusiasts...

Body feel is consistent for me per tea, and each tea is unique. For example, while I may expect every hong shui to have a gently relaxing feeling, each hong shui will have a unique complex of sensations. I don't know why and I don't know why some people don't feel tea this way, but I can guess. In r...

Good stuff as usual. And this had me chucking!

S_B , I’m not obsessive about the temperature of water for Japanese teas, especially matcha, except to note that most react poorly to water that’s too hot. I usually have my kettle going at around 85° then remove from heat. I pour some of that water in to my chawan to warm it, pour it out. By this ...

twno1 To answer your question, at least partially, I notice a difference in texture immediately after transferring water from one vessel to the next. For example, water boiled in an Ichikawa kettle will taste different after being poured into and out of a shudei yuzamashi compared to being poured i...

twno1 I might be wrong, but isn't Japanese tea in general meant to be poured very slowly anyways? Fast pour is useful for Oolong in my experience. Yes. Slowly, otherwise you’ll clog the filter. Wet sencha and gyokuro leaves are thin and can clog the filter easily. With a kyusu, tip so that the tea ...

Although Shudei is not very absorbing, personally I’d not mix them. Over time the high mountain might overpower the Japanese teas. I second this. The teas are very different with the high mountain oolong being much stronger in floral character. Hon shudei or not, using these teas in the same clay v...