Hi all,
I don't want to open yet another debate on tea. Please, if you feel the
need to flame, select another topic. I just need answers to a couple of
questions.

As a long time black tea / tisane drinker, tea to me meant boiling some
water, pouring it over tea leaves / herbs and decanting after some time.
Only within the last 5 years have I been introduced to other kinds of tea
and other methods of preparation. And even though I've done it for some
time now, I don't feel that I've mastered those techniques either. I still
use a thermometer and I often start over. I have several questions about
this:

1. What happens to tea if the water isn't hot enough? I understand that if
the water is too hot, it 'burns off' some of the compounds so they evaporate
quickly and the taste changes. So, by this logic, wouldn't a longer brew
time in cooler water result in similar brew? I tried this with some greens
that I have, and it was about the same. I've really not got any expensive
greens yet (waiting for my order) so I can't tell whether it's like that
with them too. What is your view?
2. Several of the greens that I've tried have a sort of a spinach taste to
them. Is this a desirable taste in greens? If not, what am I doing wrong
to produce this kind of a taste?
3. Do you prefer to heat the water to the desired temperature or to boil it
and let it cool to that temperature? If you have a preference, why?
4. Do you like your tea strong or weak? I seem to prefer weak, I usually
disagree with amounts of tea recommended. This has also changed once I
started to get some better quality leaves - they don't brew the same way
that grocery store loose leaf tea brews. With those I used to brew only
about 1/4 of recommended amount but with whole leaves I tend to brew about
1/2 amt recommended. I've also heard of people using a scale to weight the
leaves so they get an exact amount. Where does one find such a scale?
(It'd have to be able to weigh grams accurately, right?)

Thanks for all your help,

~sara