Greetings.
I recently discovered this news group in my search for the perfect cup
of tea. I am finding it quite difficult to gather much information
though. Like many special interests, there seems to be a "language" one
must learn to really understnad all the nuances of the subject. I am just
beginning to learn. Until 3 months ago, I though Bigelow's Darjeeling
blend was the best available. (Sad, I know.) I have spent considerable
time on the internet trying to find more information about Darjeeling
tea. So far, I have mostly discovered that I have probably never really
had Darjeeling tea.
My biggest obstacle right now is that I live in the north woods of
Wisconsin, and if it weren't for the internet I'd probably only be
drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lienenkugel's. (2 regionally popular beers
of no particular value except that they dull your senses sufficiently to
last through a Wisconsin winter. ) But there are no good sources of
good tea. I am not knowledgeable enough to properly evaluate an on-line
seller of tea. I have read that about 40,000 lbs of Darjeeling tea is
sold annualy - but that only 10,000 lbs are produced. So how can I be
assured that I am buying "the real thing"?

Luckily, my Christmas this year brought me several indispensible tea
accessories. I now have a nice Chef's Choice kettle for heating the water
- no more microwave. I also have a nice stainless steel tea canister to
keep my loose tea fresh and dry. One nice thing about Wisconsin is the
water. And we had an under sink water filter installed a couple years ago
so that the tap water water here is pretty darn good. Reading the posts
on this news group, I have also learned the importance of the length of
brewing time (I also got a timer for Christmas since at my age it takes
less that 2 minutes to forget what I was doing. ) Right now I am using
an in cup infuser for brewing my tea. From further reading, I have added
a tea pot, a scale, and possibly a better tea cup to my list of "must
haves". Oh, and I also received a sample pack of Darjeeling 1st blush
2007 tea from 4 different estates ordered from Upton Tea Imports. (I
haven't had a chance to try any yet, since I have had the flu for the last
week and I want my taste to return to normal first.)

So I am hoping to get some good advice for a "beginner". Where do I buy
my tea? Recommendations for a tea pot. Any other good recommendations?

Thanks,
Scott
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

On Dec 28, 6:59*pm, "Scott Raasch" wrote:
Greetings.
* *I recently discovered this news group in my search for the perfect cup *
of tea. *I am finding it quite difficult to gather much information *
though. *Like many special interests, there seems to be a "language" one *
must learn to really understnad all the nuances of the subject. *I am just *
beginning to learn. *Until 3 months ago, I though Bigelow's Darjeeling *
blend was the best available. *(Sad, I know.) *I have spent considerable *
time on the internet trying to find more information about Darjeeling *
tea. *So far, I have mostly discovered that I have probably never really *
had Darjeeling tea.
* *My biggest obstacle right now is that I live in the north woods of *
Wisconsin, and if it weren't for the internet I'd probably only be *
drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lienenkugel's. (2 regionally popular beers *
of no particular value except that they dull your senses sufficiently to *
last through a Wisconsin winter. ) *But there are no good sources of *
good tea. *I am not knowledgeable enough to properly evaluate an on-line *
seller of tea. *I have read that about 40,000 lbs of Darjeeling tea is *
sold annualy - but that only 10,000 lbs are produced. *So how can I be *
assured that I am buying "the real thing"?

* *Luckily, my Christmas this year brought me several indispensible tea *
accessories. *I now have a nice Chef's Choice kettle for heating the water *
- no more microwave. *I also have a nice stainless steel tea canister to *
keep my loose tea fresh and dry. *One nice thing about Wisconsin is the *
water. *And we had an under sink water filter installed a couple years ago *
so that the tap water water here is pretty darn good. *Reading the posts *
on this news group, I have also learned the importance of the length of *
brewing time (I also got a timer for Christmas since at my age it takes *
less that 2 minutes to forget what I was doing. ) *Right now I am using *
an in cup infuser for brewing my tea. *From further reading, I have added *
a tea pot, a scale, and possibly a better tea cup to my list of "must *
haves". *Oh, and I also received a sample pack of Darjeeling 1st blush *
2007 tea from 4 different estates ordered from Upton Tea Imports. *(I *
haven't had a chance to try any yet, since I have had the flu for the last *
week and I want my taste to return to normal first.)

* *So I am hoping to get some good advice for a "beginner". *Where do I buy *
my tea? *Recommendations for a tea pot. *Any other good recommendations?

Thanks,
Scott
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:http://www.opera.com/mail/

You've found Upton. I'd stay with it until your tea tasting gets more
nuanced. Read all the reviews at Upton from other people to get some
idea of what you should be looking for. Toci

On Dec 28, 6:59*pm, "Scott Raasch" wrote:
Greetings.
* *I recently discovered this news group in my search for the perfect cup *
of tea. *I am finding it quite difficult to gather much information *
though. *Like many special interests, there seems to be a "language" one *
must learn to really understnad all the nuances of the subject. *I am just *
beginning to learn. *Until 3 months ago, I though Bigelow's Darjeeling *
blend was the best available. *(Sad, I know.) *I have spent considerable *
time on the internet trying to find more information about Darjeeling *
tea. *So far, I have mostly discovered that I have probably never really *
had Darjeeling tea.
* *My biggest obstacle right now is that I live in the north woods of *
Wisconsin, and if it weren't for the internet I'd probably only be *
drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lienenkugel's. (2 regionally popular beers *
of no particular value except that they dull your senses sufficiently to *
last through a Wisconsin winter. ) *But there are no good sources of *
good tea. *I am not knowledgeable enough to properly evaluate an on-line *
seller of tea. *I have read that about 40,000 lbs of Darjeeling tea is *
sold annualy - but that only 10,000 lbs are produced. *So how can I be *
assured that I am buying "the real thing"?

* *Luckily, my Christmas this year brought me several indispensible tea *
accessories. *I now have a nice Chef's Choice kettle for heating the water *
- no more microwave. *I also have a nice stainless steel tea canister to *
keep my loose tea fresh and dry. *One nice thing about Wisconsin is the *
water. *And we had an under sink water filter installed a couple years ago *
so that the tap water water here is pretty darn good. *Reading the posts *
on this news group, I have also learned the importance of the length of *
brewing time (I also got a timer for Christmas since at my age it takes *
less that 2 minutes to forget what I was doing. ) *Right now I am using *
an in cup infuser for brewing my tea. *From further reading, I have added *
a tea pot, a scale, and possibly a better tea cup to my list of "must *
haves". *Oh, and I also received a sample pack of Darjeeling 1st blush *
2007 tea from 4 different estates ordered from Upton Tea Imports. *(I *
haven't had a chance to try any yet, since I have had the flu for the last *
week and I want my taste to return to normal first.)

* *So I am hoping to get some good advice for a "beginner". *Where do I buy *
my tea? *Recommendations for a tea pot. *Any other good recommendations?

Thanks,
Scott
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:http://www.opera.com/mail/

And, for tea while you have a cold, try one of the breakfast teas or
Java tea. They're all strong, all good; none are "excellent" from my
point of view. For excellence, try the organic teas first. I prefer
not to have lead in my tea. And for Darjeelings, I'd go with samples
of estate teas. Toci

On Dec 28, 7:59*pm, "Scott Raasch" wrote:
Greetings.
* *I recently discovered this news group in my search
for the perfect cup * of tea. *I am finding it quite
difficult to gather much information * though. *Like
many special interests, there seems to be a "language"
one * must learn to really understnad all the nuances of
the subject. *I am just * beginning to learn. *Until 3
months ago, I though Bigelow's Darjeeling * blend was
the best available. *(Sad, I know.) *I have spent
considerable * time on the internet trying to find more
information about Darjeeling * tea. *So far, I have
mostly discovered that I have probably never really *
had Darjeeling tea. * *My biggest obstacle right now
is that I live in the north woods of * Wisconsin, and if
it weren't for the internet I'd probably only be *
drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lienenkugel's. (2
regionally popular beers * of no particular value except
that they dull your senses sufficiently to * last
through a Wisconsin winter. ) *But there are no good
sources of * good tea. *I am not knowledgeable enough to
properly evaluate an on-line * seller of tea. *I have
read that about 40,000 lbs of Darjeeling tea is * sold
annualy - but that only 10,000 lbs are produced. *So how
can I be * assured that I am buying "the real thing"?

Not sure if this is true, but I've heard on this group
that even when Darjeeling is not really 'real', it may
actually be better than real Darj at the same price point,
because they use tea from neighbouring areas that have the
same climate, same tea plants, use the same people to pick
and process the tea.. and since real darjeeling is so much
more expensive, it makes sense to only take the highest
grades of tea to pass it off as Darj. Sooo.. a company
that does not care about quality of the tea at all might
take a low grade tea from Brazil or elsewhere and sell it
as Darjeeling but online vendors usually sell to people
who know what Darjeeling should taste like so even if it's
not perfect Darjeeling it may even be better or at least
as good.

As for me, I like darjeeling I got from
inpursuitoftea.com, it's more or less cheap as far as
these teas go, and has a very fresh, playful taste.
However I like white, green and some oolong teas better
than Darjeelings.


* *Luckily, my Christmas this year brought me several
indispensible tea * accessories. *I now have a nice
Chef's Choice kettle for heating the water * - no more
microwave. *I also have a nice stainless steel tea
canister to * keep my loose tea fresh and dry. *One nice
thing about Wisconsin is the * water. *And we had an
under sink water filter installed a couple years ago *
so that the tap water water here is pretty darn good.

I don't like tea made with water from Pur filter, I bulk
order Poland Spring and use that to make tea. You might
want to try it a few times (from clear bottles) to see if
you like it better than filter water.

*Reading the posts * on this news group, I have also
learned the importance of the length of * brewing time
(I also got a timer for Christmas since at my age it
takes * less that 2 minutes to forget what I was doing.
) *Right now I am using * an in cup infuser for

That's good but don't forget to preheat the cup well
before brewing. Especially if it's a ceramic thick mug. My
favorite brewing method now is a bodum infuser mug which
has a glass infuser so there's no chance of getting
metallic taste in tea.

brewing my tea. *From further reading, I have added * a
tea pot, a scale, and possibly a better tea cup to my

Scale may not be so crucial, I have a scale but it's
inconvenient so I never really use it and I just learned
to guess the right amount of leaf. It's not difficult to
do, in a couple of weeks of practice you'll just know.

list of "must * haves". *Oh, and I also received a
sample pack of Darjeeling 1st blush * 2007 tea from 4
different estates ordered from Upton Tea Imports. *(I *
haven't had a chance to try any yet, since I have had
the flu for the last * week and I want my taste to
return to normal first.)

Don't forget that Darjeelings should be brewed no longer
than about 1:30 - 2:00 minutes. Sometimes it may work out
best if you stop infusion after just one minute..


* *So I am hoping to get some good advice for a
"beginner". *Where do I buy * my tea? *Recommendations
for a tea pot. *Any other good recommendations?

I've had really good experience with in pursuit of tea.
Upton can be very good but they have so many teas that all
can't be excellent, same goes to some extent for Special
Teas, I had a good inexpensive oolong from adagio teas
once, but didn't like their blacks, also I bought a bunch
of samples from Imperial Tea Court but didn't like it too
much.

For tea pot, I think the two most important considerations
are that it should have non-metallic infuser, and that
infuser should fit the whole volume of the pot (or as
close as possible). The only brewing vessels that match
this that I know of are bodum brewing mug, one of bodum
teapots that IPOT has (bodum makes a huge variety of pots
but only one of them with infuser as big as pot), and mono
filio pots. All of them have their shortcomings - the mug
is rather small, about 9oz, the pot is also fairly small,
16oz and infuser isn't full size of pot, but very close;
and mono filio's infuser is full size but it's metallic,
but I think at this price point they used a very good
grade of steel and thick strands to decrease surface
area.. I have a metallic infuser with very thin strands of
steel and it does give a noticeable metallic taste to the
tea, but I think it's also made of low grade steel. The
filio costs over $100 (too much for me), so my guess would
be that somehow they made sure that steel infuser does not
cause a problem.

However many people use ceramic, clay and porcelain pots
and like them well enough. Many people also like to use
gaiwans and gong-fu pots, I find that gaiwans and gong-fu
pots only work well with pu-erh teas, most oolongs and
some blacks. Glass pots are universally good for anything,
although pu-erhs and some oolongs will come out quite a
bit better in a gaiwan or gong-fu pot.

Happy tea'ing.. enjoy

-ak


Thanks,
Scott
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:http://www.opera.com/mail/

Hey, thanks for the responses!

I'm glad Upton is considered good - I like their selection. Although they
have a large number of teas, it will give me an opportunity to try a few.
I'll also check out inpursuitoftea.com.

OK, I'm also going to have to try some bottled spring water. I remember
back in the 60's my grandfather had a cabin and we would bring home
natural spring water for coffee. I don't think natural spring water is
all that safe anymore though.

I also appreciate the recommendation and information for a tea pot. I'll
check out the bodum tea pots.

Also, tried my first Darjeeling today from the sample pack. A very
excellent experience! I'm going to enjoy this quest for the perfect cup
of tea.

Thanks again for the advice!

On Dec 29, 11:57 am, "Scott Raasch" wrote:
Hey, thanks for the responses!

I'm glad Upton is considered good - I like their selection. Although they
have a large number of teas, it will give me an opportunity to try a few.
I'll also check out inpursuitoftea.com.

OK, I'm also going to have to try some bottled spring water. I remember
back in the 60's my grandfather had a cabin and we would bring home
natural spring water for coffee. I don't think natural spring water is
all that safe anymore though.

I also appreciate the recommendation and information for a tea pot. I'll
check out the bodum tea pots.

Also, tried my first Darjeeling today from the sample pack. A very
excellent experience! I'm going to enjoy this quest for the perfect cup
of tea.

Thanks again for the advice!

All of the advice so far is spot on, and it seems like you are on the
right track in doing your homework. Upton's was probably one of your
better choices for your first foray. Forget the scale and just about
everything else right now, you've got plenty to begin enjoying tea.
You will learn in time what you like and dislike, and it's best to
keep as many things constant in the beginning to eliminate variables.
You'll better learn the effects of time/temp/amount that way. Then
when you have it down pretty well, you can begin to experiment.

Also, bottled spring water may be the same or slightly better than
your tap, but I'd be surprised if you didn't have natural springs
nearby where you can get crisp, clean, cold spring water for free that
will eclipse any bottled water sold. Again it is about experimenting,
try tap water for a few days, then try bottled for a few, then fresh
spring, and go with what tastes best to *you*. That's all that matters
in tea.

If you can brew a great cup (to you) from a coffee mug, a microwave,
and a fairly low grade DJ then do it. In time you will naturally
branch out, don't rush it because you think you have to be at some
arbitrary level of sophistication. Many of us have been at this for
10-20+ years, there's no prize for coming in first.

Enjoy the tea, and this newsgroup. Welcome!
- Dominic