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Dave
 
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"Sally P." > wrote in message
om...
> Hi,
>
> I can't attest to the health benefits, but I do enjoy green tea. My
> advice is to avoid the tea-bag varieties and stick with loose tea. If
> you have any Asian markets in your vicinity, you can find decent green
> tea at reasonable prices. You can also find green teas by online mail
> order (I'd recommend www.specialteas.com and www.uptontea.com, in that
> order.)
>
> Some suggestions:
>
> Gen-mai cha (brown rice tea): Japanese green tea mixed with roasted
> rice, which gives a nice flavor. It's also one I recommend to friends
> who find that other green teas don't have quite enough flavor for
> them...
>
> Lung-ching (or Longjing): A Chinese green, which some people find a
> bit less "grassy" tasting than some of the Japanese green teas.
> Special teas has a basic Lung-ching tea that sells for $4.65 for 1/4
> lb. (catalog #533). It's quite good, and 1/4 lb makes a lot of tea.
>
>
> One key is preparation -- don't use water that's boiling, just heat
> the water up to the point at which it seems about to boil (that is,
> watch the surface to see when it's steaming but not bubbling). It
> tastes a lot better that way... I use a small tea pot with a strainer,
> or just one of the paper tea filters you can order in packs from
> vendors like specialteas or upton. Very easy to do...
>
> Sally


Now this is interesting to me. I have found a jasmine tea that I like, but
my water temp doesn't appear to affect the way it tastes. IE boiling water
and a 3-minute steep is just fine. Little astringency (sp?) and only the
slightest bitterness (which actually reminds me of the way life is most
times, sorry to digress) but fairly full body (which is what I find most
pleasing). I tried steeping for 5 minutes with water that had boiled and
then sat to cool for five minutes, and it was quite bitter and very
astringent. 3 minutes would probably not have been so astringent or bitter,
but I already have that with *boiling* water, so what's the diff? Am I
doing something wrong? Also, someone said that green teas run the gamut
from bad-tasting to delicious, and while I enjoy this tea (Chung Feng
Jasmine Tea) or Foojoy Yin-Hao, I would not call either of them delicious by
any stretch of the imagination. How can any (unsweetened) tea be
"delicious"? I can only imagine "pleasant" and "satisfying." Thanks for
any help.

Ignorantly yours,

Dave