TEA! (because coffee is so western european)

[drizzly]

i love loose leaf japanese rice tea (aka burnt rice tea for some).

for tea bags i find mighty leaf tea to be the best

[Faust]

i love loose leaf japanese rice tea (aka burnt rice tea for some).

for tea bags i find mighty leaf tea to be the best

me too.

[thehouseofdis]

Great. Now I'm going to be obsessing over a silver tea kettle.

or silver kettles.

I prefer antique tetsubins for anything aged or roasted (aged sheng, shu, yancha, roasted oolongs, harsh young sheng too) , and silver kettles for anything lighter (dan cong, taiwanese high mountain oolong, good young sheng, some japanese greens).

Some very interesting articles on silver kettles vs iron tetsubins and how they effect water:

http://the-leaf.org/issue4/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/gong-fu-tea-tips-issue-4.pdf
http://the-leaf.org/issue%205/wp-con...etsubin333.pdf

[syed]

I usually purchase teas from Adagio, vanilla green and gunpowder jasmine being my favorite, but I've bought pu'er tea lately on ebay that, while lacking the allure of the greens, is something interesting in its own right.

Would you recommend Adagio? I was looking at their Gyokuro online, thought it might be worth a gamble. As for pu-erh, I bought some of this 1995 for my brother, and it is remarkably good http://theteahouse.co.uk/cgi-bin/htm...70530652471083 I'm not sure how it competes with the pricier pu-erhs out there, but for the price I think it is quite lovely.

[Faust]

Great. Now I'm going to be obsessing over a silver tea kettle.

As an aside, when I go to Japan I am definitely bringing a spare suitcase just for pottery and things of that sort. It's like from another universe...

[drizzly]

As an aside, when I go to Japan I am definitely bringing a spare suitcase just for pottery and things of that sort. It's like from another universe...

outside of tokyo there is a place named "nikko" and there are a lot of hand made items, you may be able to find the pottery there

[trentk]

As an aside, when I go to Japan I am definitely bringing a spare suitcase just for pottery and things of that sort. It's like from another universe...

if you can't wait for japan, here are two good online sources:

http://stores.ebay.com/MAGOKORODO

http://www.zencha.net/pottery.php

prices used to be much cheaper, they've unfortunately gone up along with tea's popularity.

[MoFiya]

A question to those enjoying Matcha.
I have issues regarding getting a proper foam.

What could be the cause for that?
a) Water (just noticed that I bought the wrong... to many minerals)
b) Temperature (too high / low?)
c) Cha-sen (too few 'bristles'?)

[keilani]

The key to brewing a great cup of matcha, is
1. Quality match of course
2. A Matcha Whisk
3. Digital Temp Gauge

My tea collection is huge now, my favourites are my oolongs specifically milk oolong.

[drizzly]

i recently brewed some loose lead ceylon tea (normally have it only at the parents) brought back some fond memories

[BECOMING-INTENSE]

Organic chamomile and a slice of lemon.

[keilani]

Chamomile is wonderful, great for inflammation and great before bed.

[Alseal]

I noticed that the southern Asia bobble tea are getting more and more popular in Europe during the past few years. So many cozy new shops opening

[fncyths]

I love raiding my gf's cupboard. She has quite the tea collection from Mariage Freres. The Rouge Bourbon Red Rooibos has been my fav as of late...

[8bpc]

I love tea! Sencha (煎茶) would be among one of my favorite types. I must admit I've missed much of the ceremony and proper teaware aspects of tea and I need to change that. Any suggestions on where to start with Japanese kettles and pots?

Any suggestions for electric kettles where the water is not exposed to plastic or silicon while it is heated? It seems like so many are made of plastic or contain plastic or silicon for water level windows.

Is anyone concerned about consuming teas coming out of Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster?