"magnulus" wrote in message t...
I use a tea infuser (made from nylon, I let it sit in a glass of water in
the fridge overneight to "diffuse" the tea that had built up on it) and made
a cup of gunpowder green tea. I brewed for about three minutes. The
resulting brew tastes a bit rank and musty like mold. Is this normal? Does
gunpowder green just taste terrible? Maybe it's because it only cost a
dollar an ounce. You buy what you pay for...


Well, once in a while a nice quick cup of Temple-of-Heaven gunpowder
(incredibly cheap at local asia stores) is quite good, in my opinion.
Just use less of tea, about 10 to 11 gr. per litre not to hot water an
steep for max. two minutes. But you will get a strong brew, litely
bitter and a touch of "smokey", which not everybody likes. You can
have a milder version: steep for a minute or so and pour the tea away,
then make a second infusion, let's steep about one and a half minutes
then. But nevertheless, it is gunpowder. Do not compare with delicate
green teas like sencha or those others from china or darjeeling, that
would be like comparing tea from sumatra with a first flush
darjeeling.


Dieter