TeaForum.org

My name is Braden I am 26 and live in Texas. I am brand new to tea and would like some advice on what equipment I need and what teas to buy and maybe some websites on how to prepare tea. I do not doubt that this will become a slippery slope. I started on espresso 2 years ago and I have found myself with a 2500$ espresso machine and 1500$ grinder. I imagine tea is similar and that temperature, steep time, etc matter and that there is a myriad amount of equipment to buy to provide the best tea experience. I am looking for the best bang for your buck at this point as I would like to just get into tea. I drink one coffee a day but wouldn't mind having a lunch or night time tea. I am into the whole health scene and I know that tea has a lot of benefits. I already have a Stagg EKG kettle for coffee that is variable temp. What tea pots, teas, and other equipment would you all recommend for a beginner?


Thanks,

Braden

When you are getting started I think what you really would need is a 100-120ml gaiwan, strainer, fairness pitcher, a few cups, digital scale and a kettle that you can adjust temp to 195-212f. This can make any kind of tea and will get you started on gungfu tea making. I would go this route and really learn tea before you get deeper into clay pots.

I use about 1 gram=14ml of water.
for most teas, like most oolongs I like my water at 195-200f.
Then it goes like this:
1. Pour water into gaiwan at temp
2. Pour that water into pitcher then pour from there into cups
3. get rid of that water
4. put tea in gaiwan.
5. pour water in gaiwan and then instantly pour into pitcher then from there to cups.
6. throw that infusion out.
7. Pour water into gaiwan, let it sit for a few seconds, pour into pitcher then from there into cups and drink.
8. Repeat with adding a few more seconds to each infusion until tea loses its charm.

Thats pretty much it. It takes time to learn it. How to pour and how to push certain teas.

You can explore a lot of tea with a very simple setup--a way to heat water, and a gaiwan to both infuse and drink from.

But from your introduction, I'd recommend something just a touch more elaborate:

-an electric kettle that allows you to set the temperature: this will be very helpful when you want to explore teas where temperature makes a huge difference (hotter brings out more nuances faster than cooler water, but also brings out bitterness rapidly, and going straight to boiling water makes most greens undrinkable for me).

This Bonavita is a good example. I like that this one has presets that enable you to quickly move through the desired temperature range, but also you can set the temperature yourself between those presets. There is a long discussion about similar options here [and FYI, the Gourmia kettle we discuss at one point is no longer available at Amazon and reviews suggest a lot of quality issues with it, so I can't recommend that anymore.]

There are many tea aficionados who will decry the use of this sort of technology as intefering with the art of tea appreciation, and describe learning to determine the right temperature by listening to the water in your kettle or watching the bubbles, but without a guide to teach you, you're likely to make a lot of errors along the way before you really are expert, and with the kettle, you can bypass that part of the learning curve until or unless you decide you want to do that.

-an inexpensive brewing vesssel: a cheap (but functional) porcelain gaiwan or glass teapot, with a capacity of 6-8 ounces; here in Los Angeles, I'd direct you to a chinese grocery for a basic version that would cost less than $10. A pot with a simple built-in filter is easiest to start, and is a little easier to use than a gaiwan at first. Getting such a cheap and simple gaiwan or pot is difficult online, because they're too cheap to be profitable to mail out one at a time, so you're likely to have to spend more like 15-25$ plus shipping.

Use this first to explore different teas, and see what you like, before getting caught up in discussions about clays and their impact on tea, or the technical and artistic skills of various potters.


($8.99 at my local chinatown tea shop)

Add a cup, and you're all set to start with loose-leaf tea.

I'd strongly recommend avoiding infuser balls/wands, infuser cups/insulated infuser bottles, or kettles with infuser inserts,

I have used a timer when I wanted to be precise about brewing times, but now I'd rather count off the time to myself, because I'm confident I can dilute an overlong infusion back to drinkability and I don't mind the occasional dilute under-infused cup either.

Then you need some tea.

[slipped with some similar advice]

hey Braden,

welcome to the forum!

tea and coffee have many parallels. i would say that 'gongfu'-style brewing (high leaf to water ratio, several short infusions) is sort of analogous to espresso, and the good news is that the equipment is significantly cheaper. i would recommend a simple porcelain gaiwan in the 80-150mL range for 1-2 person brewing. this simple tool is used even by people with huge collections of hundreds of teapots. you won't outgrow it, and it can be had for like 10usd or so.

the only teas i have not had stellar results with in a gaiwan are japanese greens.

i was actually helping a friend in a similar situation shop for a gaiwan the other day.
here are some notes from an email i sent him:

personally, i would get a simple gaiwan made of porcelain (i prefer thin) with minimal adornment.

shipping is ~$5:
https://oldwaystea.com/products/da-hong-pao-gaiwan
https://oldwaystea.com/products/da-hong ... iwan-combo

shipping is ~$7:
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/g ... -ascending

if you don't mind waiting for economy shipping from china, gaiwan sets can be had inexpensively from aliexpress.
you could also check ebay.

i am a fan of gaiwans from mudandleaves just because they are nicely made (does not necessarily make for better tea):
https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/c16/Gaiwan_.html
if i broke all my gaiwans and needed a new one, i'd be tempted to get:
https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p381 ... iwan_.html

of course you will also need a cup. if you want to buy a cup specifically for tea and have no idea what size, i think at least ~83% of the pot/gaiwan volume is a good rule of thumb if you're making tea just for yourself. bigger is fine.

the stagg kettle you have looks really nice. i've heard only good things about it.
i mostly use the variable temp for green teas and brew everything else at or just under boiling.

get a digital scale (you probably already have one for dosing coffee)

i suggest using good water. not everyone's tap water is good, sadly. your choice of water has a pretty big impact on how good beverages taste, but you are probably already aware because it sounds like you're pretty into coffee.

as for tea, it may take you a while to get familiar with the different styles out there.
many people have an exploration phase that can last a year (or many years in my case) where you jump from style to style and have a new favorite kind of tea every few months.

i think that for beginners, these styles are very agreeable (no particular order):

• japanese green teas (sencha, gyokuro, etc) -- check out https://www.o-cha.com/
• taiwanese oolong teas -- https://tillermantea.net/ , https://taiwanoolongs.com/ , https://mountainstreamteas.com/
  • high mountain oolongs aka 'gaoshan' (from mountains like alishan, lishan, etc)
  • roasted oolongs like dongding -- https://leafygreentea.com/
• darjeeling black tea -- https://www.yatrateacompany.com/ (have not personally tried), https://www.thunderbolttea.com/
• wuyi yancha oolong tea -- https://www.lazycattea.com/ , https://oldwaystea.com/ , https://www.wuyiorigin.com/

if you're facing decision paralysis, here's a few teas i've tried and know for sure are good:
https://www.o-cha.com/uji-asamushi-senc ... gory_id=50
https://tillermantea.net/product/lishan ... nter-2018/
https://leafygreentea.com/shopall/dongdingheavy

there are many more vendors, you can post here if you have questions: viewforum.php?f=17

fyi, we have a few free tea giveaways going right now found at the end of this topic: viewtopic.php?t=730
all you have to do is reply.

enjoy your journey!

I

plamarca000 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:09 pm

digital scale

Seconding this too. Something as simple as this works great for tea.


Why a scale?


Why I prefer a scale by debunix, on Flickr

Until you practice enough to be able to tell how much is enough by eye, it's easy to be confused by brewing suggestions describing a certain volume of dried leaf (teaspoons, tablespoons): teas vary hugely in their weight per volume, and the key to getting infusions you like is the ratio of leaf to water gram per gram (or gram per mL).

debunix wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:37 pm

that's so cool, great image

I appreciate the swift replies and the depth of the responses. That helps a lot. It is interesting to see the parallels between coffee and tea. I know the coffee forum gets pretty intense when a bunch of engineers, chemists, and mathematicians are talking about TDS, extraction yield, particle distribution etc. My personality doesn't really fit that type of mold. I was a history major in school and am currently a medical services officer in the Army but I enjoy the experience and I am not searching for the best of the best although having those experiences every now and then is fun as well. I recently have been trying to buy higher quality lots of coffee as I roast my own and have been for a few years it just gets a little dangerous when buying 20-30$ a lb for some greens and then you mess up the roast and waste your money. I have always wanted to get into tea so I can have the best of both worlds. I took a lot of Chinese history and took Mandarin in college (I remember nothing) but my professors were obsessed with tea. I will start digging in and maybe post a pic of my set up next to my coffee set up once it gets going.

Braden

np. i hope you enjoy tea. i think you'll find that the experience is very chill. at a minimum, all you really need is some hot water, good leaf, and a glass (possible to just dump everything in, wait for the leaves to sink, and sip).

sorry for being offtopic, but what machine and grinder do you have?
i just got a sette 270Wi, and i have a DE1PRO on the way.

Welcome to the forum

Great advice, enjoy your Tea Journey and keep us posted.

I cannot overstate the importance of water on the brew. If you use tap water and the water is of decent quality to start with, a good filtration system, or even a Brita, will likely pay of. For a beginning try various bottled waters (some brands were discussed here viewtopic.php?f=36&t=759). Also a water great for coffee might not work well with tea.

On a side note, please, dont drink tea for the health benefits but for the joy only Lower quality teas are often full of pesticides that will do you no good, and things like matcha powder can be detrimental to your stomach if overconsumed, etc... In the end the way to get any health benefit is to drink good quality teas in first place, that is teas that taste good and make you feel good. Cheers!

Very nice! I found a used Strietman CT1 somehow which was a steal. I actually got it from Wouter's brother. I also have a HG-1 and then recently bought a motor as I have been hand grinding for 2 years and I just wanted something new. I have been thinking of the OE Apex for brew as I have been enjoying pour overs but I haven't had the desire to drop 500$. My wife isn't all that into coffee although she does reap the benefits. She finally saw the light and drinks everything black with an occasional milk drink. Decent Espresso is amazing. What he is doing is incredible and has changed the espresso game as now pressure/flow profiling can be done at a fraction of the cost of higher end machines.

Tea has always been on my mind as my desire although one that is most likely very fantasized and naive is to open a coffee shop but have incredible tea as well. I would love to have the knowledge of both. This dream may never come to reality but at least along the way I will experience good coffee and tea. Recently I bought some Colombian XO from Crown Jewel and it tasted exactly like bourbon and it was phenenomal. I picked up some Yemen as well and it was like a Strawberry Jam / a dry wine. I am no coffee aficionado (though my friends might think) but these were extremely profound notes.

My goal is to have a similar experience with tea. I just enjoy the preparation and I will probably find myself follow the same path as I did for coffee. I haven't added a pressure kit for my Strietman and I don't fuss much with temperature as much although I will brew higher for lighter roasts and lower for darker. I am finding it hard initially with all of these terms and the fact they aren't in English I keep googling stuff but I shall get ahold of everything here soon. I have realized the best way to buy anything is go to a forum and grab some information from hobbyists or look at the buy/sell/trade to get a step ahead in terms of quality for a great price.


Braden

For coffee I use distilled water with .04grams of Potassium Bicarbonate. It was a recipe from a Chemist over at a coffee forum. I am not sure this is appropriate for tea. My wife and I got a Berkey Water filter for Christmas. Would this be suitable? Or even the Distilled with Potassium Bicarb?

Thanks,

Braden

bradenl123 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:33 pm

For coffee I use distilled water with .04grams of Potassium Bicarbonate. It was a recipe from a Chemist over at a coffee forum. I am not sure this is appropriate for tea. My wife and I got a Berkey Water filter for Christmas. Would this be suitable? Or even the Distilled with Potassium Bicarb?
Thanks,
Braden

Nice I've been using a Berkey filter (and a Doulton Superstarasyl) for several years now and use filtered water both for tea and cooking. How well it will work with tea depends on your water source. You can also mix it with some bottled waters in order to change the mineral content. While a distilled water can be remineralized, you'd likely need more than one ingredient to make a good tea, so i wouldnt go that way. But i shoud try this potassium bicarbonate recipe with tea anyways.

My apologies. It is .4grams of potassium bicarbonate not .04 grams.



is this gaiwan enough for 2 people? I was thinking of getting this https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p381 ... iwan_.html

and then these two cups
https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p208 ... _Cup_.html

I have a scale and a stagg kettle which goes 212 easy...anything else I would need aside from tea?

Braden

that would work well for two people, yes.

if you're brewing just for yourself though, i think one 56mL cup is a little undersized for that size gaiwan, and you'd need to use a bigger one or an intermediate vessel like a pitcher (gaiwan -> pitcher -> cup) to hold the tea liquor so it doesn't oversteep. people call these fair cups, fairness cups, or cha hai.
btw, they're so called because they ensure that everyone gets consistent tea in their cup (because the concentration is not the same throughout the pour from the gaiwan/teapot).
you don't need a faircup even for multiple people though. you can just pour back and forth a bit at a time into each cup.

for a 100mL gaiwan, i'd dose 4-6g of tea.
the model i use daily from @mudandleaves is discontinued. it looks a lot like that one but is 80mL (i usually put ~4g).
if it's as thin as mine, be careful with it. i personally prefer thin, but even knocking it over can crack it.
i use it mostly for personal brewing, but i don't find it too small for two people.

i also have this 150mL one: https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p382 ... aiwan.html
it's thicker than my 80mL one and seems sturdier. i use it when i drink tea with my mom (she seems offended at being offered only a couple sips at a time ) or when i have more than one guest.