Thread: Loose leaf tea or tea bags?

I am getting pretty good at brewing. I am finding that different sencha can be brewed differently which makes it hard to always get it right.Too long usually means too bitter.At first I didn't care too much for sencha but now I love it. Go figure.

loose leaf FTW.
teabags=epic fail.


teabags are never fresh, and are never as good as loose leaf tea. I have no idea why anyone would make tea with teabags.

I use this without the mesh screen.Rishi-Tea :: Teaware :: Tokoname :: Seiyu Shiboridashi It works perfectly.

That is another thing I get into. Tokoname ware. Some of it is quite nice.

When I make tea, I always brew it specifically how I want it. I really hate tea that has too much tannin and bitterness to it, but trying to explain to somebody how to make me a cup of tea just makes me look like a ****!
Apart from tea bags, what is the biggest tea making sin? For me it has to be squeezing the leaves or bag - it ruins the tea.

I don't recycle my leaves but I do try to get three infusions out of them.

Yeah - my mum does that. It's pretty disgusting.

You can't just use them once. Thats a waste. Tea costs too much to just throw it out after one use. I have paid $24 a 100g bag and that is a lot.I wouldn't reuse a teabag though.

I generally only go for one infusion with Earl Grey, but I can get at least two nice ones out of most of my others. There's a natural green tea purchased last year from a highly regarded chinese source that is truly remarkable for the sweet floral taste is has for multiple infusions. I wish I would have bought more when it was available.

Wayne

Loose Leaf is definitely the way to go; most mornings start with a cup of some kind of Black tea, lunch calls for an Oolong or full flavored Green, White tea and sometimes herbal tea at night.

We have a purveyor in town that has an impressive selection and at modest prices, too, so I usually have a few different selections of each catagory.