Simplicity of Tea

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Noonie
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Tue Sep 29, 2020 4:07 pm

I had this observation the other day and I wanted to share. I don't have a blog or anything and didn't think it fit into an existing forum, so I'm starting a new one.

Before discovering quality loose leaf tea over 10 years ago, I primarily drank espresso. I'm one of these people who dive into things that greatly interest me, and espresso was a rabbit hole. I recall visiting a newly opened espresso bar by my work, I asked for a double espresso--was blown away. Before then I didn't know what I had been missing when I occasionally had an espresso at a restaurant with dinner at a restaurant, a friend's house, and several other cafe's that I thought brewed up a good shot. So I started reading and learning. That was the fun part! What wasn't fun is trying to re-create that experience at home. Lets start with the coffee - I bought some from that place, freshly grounded by them and took it home. I brewed it up in a stove-top espresso pot ($70) and it tasted about 10% as good. Days later as the freshly ground beans started going stale, despite being stored in an air-tight container ($10), it tasted about 1% as good. Realizing I needed better equipment, I bought a 'budget', used espresso machine that was apparently possible of greatness ($500). That got the experience to about 25% as good. Needed a tamper, better basket to hold the grounds ($100) and that gave me 1-2% better. Then I learned the grinder is the key, more important than the espresso machine, so I bought one ($300...I just couldn't go higher though guidance was to do so!). That did help a lot, as the fresh beans last longer when not ground, so I would grind each time. Phew, this was getting expensive, lot's of driving around and research, and I was now around 50% as good. I thought with the exact same coffee beans, freshly ground, prepared in my semi-professional way after months of practice and learning, that I could get to at least 80%. No, sorry. Not that you have to spend that much to get really good espresso...but the machine they were using was like $10k+ and the the grinder like $2k+. We both had the same $20 pound of beans.

Then I stumble into the world of tea (thankfully!). The other morning I had a great session with some nice shou before leaving home for a bike ride with a friend. He likes espresso and has a nespresso machine (rubbish) and likes Starbucks. We go to one of these nice cafes and he has what he calls the best espresso he's ever had. Now he wants to 'invest' in better equipment. So I said to him "I love the simplicity of tea, I can buy an amazing tea and prepare it with 'equipment' worth $10 and it tastes practically as good as if I had the best equipment (which really doesn't exist at all in the same context as the espresso example, so I'm making that tea taste as good as really anyone with the same water and basic tea brewing skills). It is all about the leaf, and with some experience and skill, anyone can have a tea session on par with anything outside their home.
Ethan Kurland
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:52 am

I thought that I was going to read that your expresso-making equipment went the home of your friend to make your ending even happier.

A lot of young adults who earn fairly high incomes live in my neighborhood. So many of them begin their day buying coffee prepared exactly as they want it; or, should I say, "need" it. Rain, snow, & Covid 19 do not stop them from leaving their abodes to get their coffee (& they don't mind the cost, the large ice coffee at Tatte's across the street from me is priced at $7).

Your post encourages the ?: Do you like espresso? One might argue that you do not like it. You like absolutely perfect espresso. Most espresso is not absolutely perfect.

I am glad you found tea. I hope you can keep it simple. We can make enjoying tea complicated and/or expensive, but enjoying tea can remain fairly simple & affordable. (If I am asked if I like Japanese green tea, I answer that I do not. I have enjoyed it twice but learned that only high quality Japanese green tea prepared very well (which is quite difficult to do) pleases me. To keep life simple, I do not like Japanese green tea.)

Thanks for the thread. It is useful to remember what drinkers of other beverages than tea, go through to enjoy them. Cheers
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LeoFox
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 8:33 am

I think cleaning teapots is much "simpler" than cleaning coffee brewing instruments, especially in terms of dealing with the grinds.
rdl
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:24 am

if you are a big game hunter you won't be satisfied with chicken for dinner.
simplicity is how something is approached, not inherent in the thing itself.
what's hardest to explain is how an average tea can be as satisfying as a great tea. not as "good," according to our physical taste, but in simplified approach and expectations, there is no categorization. drinking tea is drinking tea.
apologies to the big tea hunters. your quest too is humble and admired.
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Bok
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:35 am

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:52 am
(If I am asked if I like Japanese green tea, I answer that I do not. I have enjoyed it twice but learned that only high quality Japanese green tea prepared very well (which is quite difficult to do) pleases me. To keep life simple, I do not like Japanese green tea.)
This is excellent!
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Balthazar
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 11:39 am

Bok wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:35 am
Ethan Kurland wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:52 am
(If I am asked if I like Japanese green tea, I answer that I do not. I have enjoyed it twice but learned that only high quality Japanese green tea prepared very well (which is quite difficult to do) pleases me. To keep life simple, I do not like Japanese green tea.)
This is excellent!
Agreed. I feel the same way about yancha, but mostly for price related reasons :)
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pedant
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 12:05 pm

i feel the same way, but in my case, i started with tea.

though i've been interested in espresso for a while, i haven't tried pursuing it until recently.
almost two years ago, i bought a fancy (expensive!) espresso machine and grinder. and guess what? i don't like most of the espresso i make! i can get OK shots out of it, but i've only made truly good coffee a few times. probably by accident. unfortunately, throwing money at the problem doesn't solve it. i'm starting to think i just suck at making espresso, and i often regret investing in the equipment. :x :lol:

tea is wonderful.
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TeaTotaling
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 1:12 pm

Espresso goals ☕️

I didn't keep tea simple. Some kind of all-or-nothing quirk.

Caffeine withdrawal can be nasty, tea doesn't really take me to that point, so I guess that's a perk of not setting up shop at home.....yet.

Simplicity can be satisfying.

Good write up @Noonie, I enjoyed reading it, and contemplating my own similar dilemma.
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Noonie
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:43 pm

@Ethan Kurland so well said! BTW, I do like espresso, though generally from what I believe is called '3rd wave' cafe's; where they have the quality beans, equipment, and well-trained staff. The place my friend likes to go when we ride charges $2.35 for a double, and it's quite good. I would say I'm good with 7.5 out of 10 and above. With my budget equipment I pulled off a good shot a handful of times...but most were drinkable. So far I've kept tea simple, and perhaps I've not had that 10/10 tea experience so I'm so far very satisfied with what I've been buying (from sheng and shou, to sencha and the occasional oolong's from Taiwan and China).

@LeoFox - no doubt! My family would watch me labour over the equipment to make a shot, drink it pretty quickly (unlike tea), then I would clean up, and they would declare me crazy!

@rdl - hmm, interesting point about simplicity. You have me thinking...

@pedant - sell it and buy more tea or teaware! Or start a TeaForum tea group and send us all tea for free :lol:

@TeaTotaling - is that your equipment (or your goals)? If that's your setup, very nice.

I now reserve the occasional espresso for when I'm out and about, bike ride or a rare visit to a big city, as a treat.
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pedant
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Wed Sep 30, 2020 4:27 pm

i'm not ready to get rid of it just yet :lol:

i get decent shots out of it, but truly good shots are pretty rare for me.

if we're sharing setups:

Home Espresso Bar
Home Espresso Bar
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wave_code
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Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:25 pm

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:52 am
the large ice coffee at Tatte's across the street from me is priced at $7
Is this south end pricing or has Boston gone even further off the rails cost of living wise than I knew? I used to go to Cafe Fixe on weekends and I think an americano was something like 3.50 and was the best I'd had anywhere.

I totally gave coffee up a while ago now, and while I'm a tea addict for sure there was something about coffee culture that kinda rubbed me... I mean we are very obsessive in our own way, but yeah I think the pricing of a lot of this stuff started to seem really off-putting. and how elusive everyone seems to describe getting good espresso shots and all... the vocabulary and chasing is a little heroin-esque for me haha I also tended to like a lot more third wave type coffee with some bitterness... but I feel like the caffeine content on some stuff was so high, a lot of coffee didn't even wake me up just made me unpleasantly jittery and messed with my stomach. I only did pour over at home, but over time there seemed to be more and more grounds going in to the filter every morning to the point where maybe just licking a really big battery each morning would have been cheaper and just as effective. always seeking out good coffee while traveling also seems like a hassle now in retrospect. if I can get halfway good tea while out and about great- but I find poor quality tea infinitely more drinkable than a bad cup of coffee.
faj
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Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:39 pm

wave_code wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:25 pm
if I can get halfway good tea while out and about great- but I find poor quality tea infinitely more drinkable than a bad cup of coffee.
Back when traveling was a thing, I brought my own tea in small plastic pill bottles, along with a travel stainless steel infuser that stores into a plastic case. The whole kit fit in my computer bag easily. Any place I had hot water and a cup (basically any restaurant or business meeting), I could make tea.
Ethan Kurland
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Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:28 pm

wave_code wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:25 pm

Is this south end pricing or has Boston gone even further off the rails cost of living wise than I knew? I used to go to Cafe Fixe on weekends and I think an americano was something like 3.50 and was the best I'd had anywhere.
Charlestown has places such as Dunkin Donuts or places that sell $15 hamburgers. (There seems to be no place in the middle range of quality or prices where one can sit to enjoy a snack or beverage.) In the greater Boston area there are at least several Tattes, all in pricey neighborhoods. One can buy a simple, small coffee for $2.50 there, as one could in Cafe Fixe a few years back; however, almost all of their clientele order beverages that require individualized preparation. An Americano cost around $4 at most places according to my sister.

On Netflix I watched lots of episodes of a show by Jerry Seinfeld that has him drive in unusual cars with comedians to go drink coffee. I note that Seinfeld is able to enjoy drinking copious amounts of ordinary coffee at diners & doughnut shops & also able to fully appreciate coffee that was prepared in the newest, "best" ways at top coffee cafes. Obviously some people can enjoy coffee of almost any quality.

I agree that there is simplicity in the enjoyment of tea, especially when tea is compared to other habits & hobbies.

Coffee gives many people problems, even just a sip of it. I drank a lot of it for a while, then needed to cut down... I cannot drink any now. I missed it for 2 years. Now I don't.

I mastered cigar smoking in my early 50s. (I won't give the history of all my attempts to find the vice enjoyable from when I stole some from my father as a teenager....) Anyway, I had not easily learned how to find good cigars that I could afford, keep them in humidors at ideal humidification & temperature, & improve those that can be improved by aging. The time & money expended, led to a couple of thousand good smokes. About 500 times that no matter where I was or what was going on in my life overall, 20 - 90 minutes of smoking made me so happy to be alive that I could face anything. I guess there were about 100 times I was ecstatic or blissful while smoking a cigar in a unique, truly wonderful way. I can't smoke anymore. I no longer miss tobacco but crave a feeling of well-being, a smoke gave sometimes. I've had a similar feeling from tea only several times.

Tea leaves don't take up much space. We can carry them in a pocket. They don't stink up a room or make our clothes or ourselves malodorous. If we don't drink tea that is too hot or too much of it on an empty stomach, most of us will not be hurt by tea.
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