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Devoyniche posted:Is there a good cheap gaiwan set that anyone knows of? What do you mean by "gaiwan set"?
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 08:15 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:52 |
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I assume you mean a "gong fu tea set", which typically consists of a gaiwan, fairness cup or decanter (cha hai), and tasting cups. It differs from set to set, but some may also include aroma cups, tongs, or a box. Try this seller on eBay, Devoyniche: Dragon Tea House @ Ebay. In addition to that, at the end of my post about gaiwan earlier in this very thread I discussed places where you can buy gaiwan towards the bottom of the post located on page 4 or here. Edit: If you want a travel one on the cheap if you live in the US I can get one from my local store and see about getting it shipped to you, since it has tongs, cha hai, gaiwan (like a 4-5oz one), and 6 tasting cups for like 7 bucks. aldantefax fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Dec 13, 2011 |
# ? Dec 13, 2011 15:28 |
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Finagle posted:A friend gave me this red box (my camera is broken or I would take a picture) of some old tea. Does anyone know anything about this? It's called "Brooke Bond Red Label". It confuses me a little, just because the tea are these very tiny little balls, very very small. That form of tea is loosely called gunpowder in the west, more commonly it's Chinese green tea but a check on google shows that brand is an average commercial Indian black tea.
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 16:19 |
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Also, if you want just a gaiwan, I bought this one recently and it's great. Super cheap too. Just takes a pretty long time to ship, I paid the extra three bucks for air mail and it still took about 4-5 weeks.
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 19:09 |
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Niemat posted:Also wondering this... Yeah I'm dumb, I was thinking rooibos was the "drink me and you can see forever and smell color!" caffeinated one. What do I have... Sour Cherry black tea they no longer make apparently Haute Chocolate, a Rooibos Spice Nut..Mate, I think Darjeeling Makaibari and Azteca Fire which I really like. And I'm not a fan of coffee at all, it all tastes gross to me. Tea is awesome. I'm sure I can find that Guayaki stuff at my work, I know we sell the pre-made bottles for sure. That Samurai Chai sounds good too, I like peppery tea.
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 20:42 |
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Just wanted to report back that I've had a very positive experience with UptonTea. I emailed Upton about not receiving my package and they responded promptly with a friendly email containing some tips on finding it. Turns out USPS misplaced it (time of year I guess). Also for the price, everything I received seems to be very nice quality (though, admittedly, I'm a complete noob). And they threw in a sample (is that typical?) Anyways, it's great support like that along with fair prices that make me want to advertise a company. Now on to the big question: my wife is also really into tea and I'm thinking about getting her a fancy tea pot for Christmas as we want to buy each other stuff we can use around the place. Neither of us (currently) drink much besides green and will be trying white next (avoiding higher caffeine). What type of tea pot would you recommend? Please nothing over 50
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# ? Dec 14, 2011 15:24 |
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Personally I like teapots with infuser baskets because they're really simple and clean to use (and don't seem to affect flavor negatively if the pot is filled), but it might be blasphemy to suggest something that's not loose-brewing. However if that's something that interests you, this is pretty cheap, although it may not be fancy enough. The rest of Adagio's teapots are pretty cheap as well although not all of them come with infuser baskets.
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# ? Dec 14, 2011 17:47 |
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Manuel Calavera posted:I'm sure I can find that Guayaki stuff at my work, I know we sell the pre-made bottles for sure. That Samurai Chai sounds good too, I like peppery tea. Excellent! I hope you find a mate that works for you! As a side note, if you're thinking about the Samurai Chai Mate, but you're unsure if you'd like the taste, that's one of the two blends Teavana has standard to sample at the door. Granted, it's blended with their White Ayurvedic Chair, but you can still get an idea of what it tastes like (in my experience, the Samurai Chai overpowers the other one). Two ounces can be quite a bit of tea if you hate it, you know?
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# ? Dec 14, 2011 21:50 |
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oh no, that chai sounds delicious. And I already have one of those perfect tea maker thingies. It fits perfectly on the travel mug they gave us at work, it holds about 14oz of tea. So I can make two cups worth of tea and brew it a little stronger like I like it~
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# ? Dec 15, 2011 03:15 |
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Hummingbirds posted:infuser baskets That's probably the easiest way of doing it. Brewing loose usually tends to have a messier cleanup with traditional teapots, and for strong-flavored teas, a good quality filter basket will do you right for a long time (just make sure to clean it). When I'm brewing in a traditional teapot and not a gaiwan or a yixing pot or something I will use a Bodum Yoyo infuser (I got it and a desk mug but no lid or other accompanying things for 1.50 at a goodwill). The one I'd probably recommend for use is probably Finum's brewing baskets, though: link here. They come in a variety of sizes and they are actually much finer than the Bodum infuser (earlier), which is great for teas that have a tendency to expand and stick in the filter holes (this happens to me a lot with certain black teas that have stems). Also, if you want an all in one solution, you can look at basically any teapot that comes with an infuser. FORLIFE makes a few, and there are plenty if you go to a store like Bed Bath & Beyond, IKEA, Cost Plus World Market, even certain grocery stores, and of course, tea places. I've seen coffee joints starting to sell tea filters as well, but more often than not you'll find those open fill teabags (usually T-SAC or Finum brand).
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# ? Dec 15, 2011 16:05 |
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I like infuser baskets. As long as it's open/wide enough, I don't think it 'restricts' the leaves enough that the flavor is impacted. (Tea balls are another story.) They're really convenient if you like to brew up a big pot and drink out of it over a period of time but don't want your tea to oversteep and get nasty. I've been to a few tea cafes/houses before that left the leaves loose in the pot, and by the time I'd had my food and chatted the last cup or so is just astringently awful. I know some people dig that crazy tannic bitterness, but if you don't, get an infuser basket.
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# ? Dec 15, 2011 19:19 |
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I just bought some Maharaja Chai Oolong and it's pretty drat good. I think my favorite is still the White Ayurvedic & Samurai Chai Mate. The whites are extremely rewarding if you get the brew, seep time, etc just right. I'm not, however, getting the flavor (looking for spicey) I want from the Oolong. I would have thought it would be an easier tea to brew. KarmaticStylee posted:Anyways, real reason I'm posting right now is to say SCREW Teavana. They have the most aggressive, harassing, in-your-face sales people I've dealt with. Definitely their corporate culture. I can't count how many times they've tried to sell me on a "better" teapot to bring out the flavor, or a new tin can for freshness (even though I forgot my empty one at home). They seem to stop after you tell them you're not interested. But always an upsell for something else.
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# ? Dec 16, 2011 04:41 |
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KarmaticStylee posted:
Glass tea sets are beautiful for Green teas, white teas, maofeng, etc. They're surprisingly durable since they're made from cooking glass. I have a glass pitcher for my green teas that cost about 3 dollars at a tea shop. It's 200ml. The gift set style presentation sets will have a very tall glass for steeping the tea, then you pour through a strainer into a glass pitcher for serving. Then you have the glass cups to carry on the look of the set. It's pretty classy looking and a clean set to use. Higher quality green teas will stand up like blades of grass during the steeping process so part of the enjoyment is watching the tea stand up as it steeps.
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# ? Dec 16, 2011 16:22 |
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I still haven't seasoned my yixing pot from a few posts ago for fear of ruining it. HOWEVER, I found a promising alternative seasoning method yesterday (as opposed to the "boil a bunch in a large pot" method) that seems more "large yixing"-friendly... Does the second method listed (the alternating the hot/cool water bit) on the Tea Masters blog seem like a solid plan to people with yixing experience...?
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# ? Dec 17, 2011 00:41 |
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Has anyone played with the Korean traditional teas? From what I have seen they are ridiculously expensive even in Seoul. $25 for 15g?
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# ? Dec 17, 2011 12:59 |
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DontAskKant posted:Has anyone played with the Korean traditional teas? From what I have seen they are ridiculously expensive even in Seoul. $25 for 15g? Are you talking about Korean traditional teas as in the numerous tisanes they drink, or actual tea? If the latter, Dao Tea is a good source.
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# ? Dec 17, 2011 15:36 |
My name is Wafflehound, and I am a tea addict. I love Pu-Erhs and greens, but I'm having a hard time finding good pu-erhs in the area. Does anyone have some suggestions for pu-erhs? Also, I can just tell that I'll love white teas once I adapt myself to the subtle taste more, but it's so hard to do that because I keep jumping to the stronger teas when I decide to drink tea. Does anyone have any advice in general for enjoying white teas?
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# ? Dec 19, 2011 06:08 |
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Mmm. I finally made the jump to Upton after ordering from Adagio for forever. Got a bunch of samplers to test out their teas. I'm going through their winter tea sampler and I love the spiced teas. The cranberry flavored stuff smells like cough syrup though, ick.
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# ? Dec 19, 2011 06:17 |
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Niemat posted:I still haven't seasoned my yixing pot from a few posts ago for fear of ruining it. HOWEVER, I found a promising alternative seasoning method yesterday (as opposed to the "boil a bunch in a large pot" method) that seems more "large yixing"-friendly... Does the second method listed (the alternating the hot/cool water bit) on the Tea Masters blog seem like a solid plan to people with yixing experience...? Whatever method you use will be just fine. Seasoning is an ongoing process and takes a very long time. That's one of the reasons antique pots are very sought after. Besides artistic value, they will produce a very unique taste. What they're doing on most blogs is glorifying the initial cleaning process. That's fine. Gong Fu Cha can be as ritualized as you want it to be but, I live in China, and people are more impressed by your tea knowledge, skill, and tea quality than by what condition your pot is in. Get your pot clean however you want. you can run boiling water through the set a few times or be more elaborate. Either way you will not ruin the pot. The real seasoning begins when you actually start using your set to make tea. I recommend just buying every tea brand you can for whatever type you want to use. Grocery store bought cheap stuff all the way to the most expensive you can afford. Figure out which ones you like the most. Which brews taste the best? How many brews can you get? Make notes about them. Keep your equipment clean. If your tea starts getting more bitter or inconsistent flavor on the first three brews, it's time to clean it out. Pour boiling water in, let it set, pour it out and repeat a few times. Reset your palette by using a gaiwan for your tea brewing. That'll help you determine if you're steeping too long, your water is too hot, or if it was just the pot had gotten dirty.
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# ? Dec 19, 2011 07:29 |
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:I love Pu-Erhs and greens, but I'm having a hard time finding good pu-erhs in the area. Does anyone have some suggestions for pu-erhs? I think white teas like Shou Mei and maybe even Bai Mu Dan are made of older and larger leaves and so are considered "bad quality" by some, and are pretty cheap but I think they also have a bolder flavor. I haven't tried Bai Mu Dan but I remember Upton's Shou Mei having a sort of spicy, wild flavor that they describe as herbaceous. I followed their recommendation and brewed it 2 tsp for 4 minutes with 180 water, I think, but it has been a while, maybe I had done it wrong? I've read a lot of conflicting things about white teas in regards to how to steep them, although I know it varies.
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# ? Dec 19, 2011 19:44 |
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ZombieParts posted:Whatever method you use will be just fine. Seasoning is an ongoing process and takes a very long time. That's one of the reasons antique pots are very sought after. Besides artistic value, they will produce a very unique taste. What they're doing on most blogs is glorifying the initial cleaning process. That's fine. Gong Fu Cha can be as ritualized as you want it to be but, I live in China, and people are more impressed by your tea knowledge, skill, and tea quality than by what condition your pot is in. Sounds like solid advice! Thank you!
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# ? Dec 20, 2011 01:03 |
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Can anyone here give some advice/info on resteeping. I just skimmed the thread and did a quick google search and the general advice was "experiment". The closest I got to actual quantified info was just add 30~ seconds to each additional steeping.
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# ? Dec 23, 2011 23:20 |
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My rule of thumb is add on 50% of my previous steep time. So it might go something like 4 minutes, 6 minutes, 9 minutes. But yeah, that's just a rough ballpark to get me started. I usually fine-tune it from there.
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# ? Dec 23, 2011 23:30 |
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Thoht's advice is pretty good. Personally I find that the more leaves I use the less I need to increase the steeping items. If brewing in some pseudo-gong-fu style with a gaiwan stuffed full of oolong or puerh I'll start at 15 seconds and add 5 seconds each time for the first several steepings. On the other hand with sencha, which I use a relatively small amount of and which extracts very quickly, I do the second steep for less time than the first, especially with the really pulverized heavily steamed ones.
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# ? Dec 24, 2011 00:17 |
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http://www.teavana.com/the-teas/white-teas/p/queen-of-babylon-white-tea I love this tea, but can only find it at Teavana, which greatly upsets me. Anyone know of another place to find this blend, or one that is similar? I can't find a pineapple anywhere, or at least where I look. Also, what happened to specialteas? It is really sad to see them get bought out by Teavana.
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# ? Dec 24, 2011 04:36 |
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PhazonLink posted:Can anyone here give some advice/info on resteeping. It depends on your palate and the overall strength of the tea that you're drinking. Most teas that are intended for resteeping (mostly oolongs and puerh) will tend to have some general guidelines for it. Black tea can be resteeped as well. Experimentation is key to finding out what best suits your palate - leaving the leaves steeping for an hour after three very fast steeps may work just fine for you, while others may find the liquor undrinkable at that point. If you're looking for general rules, try steeping at least as long as you steeped the leaves originally. Do a taste test to see if it's necessary to let the leaves continue steeping; again, personal preference. From there, you can begin increasing time by anywhere from thirty seconds to double the original brewing time until you're satisfied or the leaves are spent.
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# ? Dec 24, 2011 07:39 |
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Colt Cannon posted:http://www.teavana.com/the-teas/white-teas/p/queen-of-babylon-white-tea Your best chance might be to blend it yourself. You could try heading to a local fancy/health food store and see if they have the various fruits in dried form, then get a white tea you could blend them with. If you can't find the fruits already dried, it's not that hard to buy them fresh and dry them yourself. That blend does look pretty delicious, though.
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# ? Dec 25, 2011 01:32 |
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So this Christmas I was gifted this out of nowhere: http://www.teavana.com/tea-products/tea-gifts/p/teavana-tea-gift-set The closest I've ever been to drinking tea is supermarket sweet iced tea, which I think barely counts. I tried the Fruta Bomba green tea and tasted mostly of water after following the instructions I've found. I don't know if it's my philistine taste buds, maybe the instructions need tweaking or perhaps that tea is just no good. Whats the protocol for sugar,honey adding. I'm entering a brave new world here and any tips could of use. Also I just ordered an electric kettle to do this proper rather than my microwaving water.
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# ? Dec 29, 2011 12:43 |
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Quixotic1 posted:So this Christmas I was gifted this out of nowhere: How much water are you using to tea? Usually the ration is around 1-2 tsp per 6-8 oz of water. The Fruta Bomba calls for water at 175 and green teas will turn bitter with water that's too hot so investing in even a cheap thermometer will help you get better tea. You may be steeping it at too low a temp if it tastes so watery. Sugar, honey, milk, etc are all added to taste. Add liquid after the tea has steeped so you don't lower the temperature of the water as it's steeping. Depending on your steeping set up you'll probably want to add sweeteners after steeping as well. I have a similar thing to the PerfecTea Maker in that set and what I do is put any honey I want in my cup before releasing the tea into it so that it gets incorporated right away.
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# ? Dec 29, 2011 18:07 |
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Try three things (altogether or separate as needed): - use more leaves - use fresh-boiled water that's been let cool for about five to seven minutes (or 175F if you have a kettle that can heat to-temperature) - steep leaves for longer I'd caution against using a microwave unless you want to use a thermometer. For something that tastes too watery (I actually have tried that Fruta Bomba stuff) it's probably that the water was not hot enough or not enough of the mix was used. With respect to additives, try the tea plain first after you make some adjustments. Many people tend to find those fruit-infused green teas a little on the sour side, so a small amount of sugar will punch it up to where it should be in whatever cup you're drinking from (not where you're brewing).
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# ? Dec 29, 2011 18:51 |
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Anyone have any experiences with http://www.espemporium.com/ ? There's an amazon local deal for them.
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# ? Dec 30, 2011 01:26 |
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Adahn the nameless posted:Anyone have any experiences with http://www.espemporium.com/ ? I have read a lot of good things about them, but they seem really expensive to me, but perhaps I am not looking at the big picture. Does anyone from here have some custom blends on Adagio?
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# ? Dec 30, 2011 08:56 |
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This Hiroshima-area company just opened a tiny shop here in Seattle (at University Village): http://www.yuitea.com/ I tripped over the store-let by accident, had samples pressed on me, and ended up coming away with a small packet of their Matcha and Rice Aroma green tea because it is so good. It's reminiscent of genmaicha, but lighter. And really delicious. They claim that their online store will be open in early 2012!
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# ? Dec 30, 2011 11:06 |
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Thanks to this thread I just ordered $60 worth of tea from T2 in Australia. I'm excited about trying the genmaicha and gunpowder and I got some lapsang souchong (which I love) and orange pekoe too. My wife picked up some French earl grey which should be nice.
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# ? Dec 30, 2011 14:57 |
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I've been using a Rival Hot Pot to heat water for tea and until a few minutes ago I thought it was fine. I decided to check the temp with a thermometer. I'm making genmaicha so I wanted 180 degrees. Was concerned when it didn't read 180 until the water was at a rolling boil. But I've been known to terribly misjudge things. I poured the water in my mug and took the temperature again. Over 200. Let it cool down to 180 and I'm now drinking the only good cup of hot genmaicha I've ever made. Now I'm looking for an electric kettle that will heat water to specific temperatures. I don't need or want one of the $100+ tea makers. I've only found one or two models so far that let you choose the temperature you want the water heated to. Does anyone use an electric kettle like that? Any recommendations? I can't justify spending more than $50 on this when I could just use more water in the Hot Pot but I'm impatient and would like something that can do this on it's own.
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# ? Jan 3, 2012 04:48 |
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I have this one from Upton and it works well for me, though the actual temps at specific places on the dial were different from what the manual says. Just had to figure out what temperature was where with a thermometer. I've seen others recommend this Pino digital kettle, though it's a little over your budget. Supposedly fairly accurate though.
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# ? Jan 3, 2012 05:30 |
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Just use a cheap electric water-boiler. I'd recommend buying it in person so you can open it up and make sure there aren't any plastic surfaces for the boiling water to touch. Where I live (asia), something like a simple boiler with a plug and using all-steel surfaces can be had for $5. Try thrift stores in different parts of your town maybe. Boil the water, switch it off, and set an egg timer. Assuming the ambient temperature in your home doesn't fluctuate wildly, you can probably just get used to waiting however-many seconds after full boil it hits ~180 at. When you brew tea a lot don't you get used to timing stuff, like steeping different teas for different amounts of time with water of different temperature? (I stole this technique from Alton Brown when he explained how to brew coffee at the right temp "easily" on Good Eats) I used to "burn" green tea when I was little - it does no justice to the tea's real flavor! Fortunately I almost always drink oolong, which can safely be blasted with freshly-boiling water (directly no less, whereas more fragile teas like green tea must have the water hit them incidentally, you pour onto the cup's wall instead.)
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# ? Jan 3, 2012 05:37 |
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This also is a bit over your budget but I just got it and really like it so far. It is accurate to +/- 2 degrees by my measurements.
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# ? Jan 3, 2012 05:54 |
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After a cup of tea I realized I was being lazy *and* dumb. Putting more water in the Hot Pot didn't increase the heating time that much but it did make getting an accurate temperature reading possible. Thanks for the recs (and things to put on my wishlist) but since I can gauge the temperature properly with what I have and I don't make a lot of tea at one time, I'm going to stick with the Hot Pot. More money for tea now. To make up for my oops, I'll recommend something. I just got a small tea pot (a New Amsterdam teapot in sea foam) and it doesn't come with a basket. Took it into my friendly neighborhood tea shop and was bummed that the less expensive baskets didn't fit. But of course the most expensive one did. I looked up reviews online hoping to find bad ones but they were all sterling. Ended up paying $20 for a HuesNBrews Universal Infuser. It's a stainless steel infuser with small holes, the handle has a silicone cover, and there's a silicone lid that doubles as a coaster. It fits perfectly in a mug and even fits in my travel mugs. I haven't used it in the teapot yet but I haven't used my Dream Steeper since getting the Universal Infuser. Since it goes right in my cup, I don't have to guess at how much water to use and it keeps me from overfilling my cup. Clean up is easier than with the Dream Steeper. So far it's worth the price.
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# ? Jan 3, 2012 06:20 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:52 |
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Don't you live in Chicago? There has to be some Asian supermarkets around there that will sell cut-rate Zojirushi (and other brands of) water dispensers. They're typically found in 3L, 4L, and 5L versions, but they do not heat "to temperature" - they will heat to a boil, then cool down to the temperature of choice. They are plenty enough useful though, I have two, and one I got for 39 bucks from Newegg... Rosewill Electric Water Boiler/Dispenser It says it's 50 now though, but that hits your budget, I guess! I can tell you that it is quite effective at its job, and the only temperature it doesn't do is oolong, which, whatever, it's half the price of my other one.
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# ? Jan 3, 2012 07:56 |