making the switch from coffee to green tea

[paul wheaton]

So for the last week or two I've been drinking less coffee and more green tea.

I remember a few years ago working next to a guy that did the green tea thing. He had some sort of ceramic thing and loose tea. He made a medium sized cup of tea.

It seemed like a much smarter way to do green tea.

Anybody else use interesting tea contraptions?

How might I find this sort of thing on the web?

[paul wheaton]

This didn't take too long: http://www.worldconsortium.com/store/html/ceramic_lotus_teacup.html

Interesting.

[Stuart Ash]

You must also acquire some Moroccan glassware -- nothing of the sophistication this site describes, but making tea, especially mint tea like I had once mentioned in an earlier thread, with a typically Moroccan tea-pot and drinking it in a colorful Moroccan cup is quite a pleasure.

[paul wheaton]

One thing I've discovered that is really cool is whole rolled leaves.

[Paul Clapham]

I gave up drinking coffee several years ago, but I'm afraid I just use the tea (green or otherwise) that comes in teabags.

[Bear Bibeault]

I love green tea, but I could never give up my java (the liquid kind) for it. I use a classic small teapot when brewing tea (loose only). Messy but good. The ceramic cup thing-y looks like it would be a great compromise.

[John Dunn]

I was all set to debunk the idea of loose tea as a major-league pain-in-the-butt, but that tea cup/pot with the internal strainer is awesome. I have tons of bins of loose tea in my cupboards. (===> spells wife from Britain) I only did the loose thing once, out of curiosity, and that was all it took. I've NEVER done it again. I know exactly why some genius invented the ol' tea bag. Alas, I will search for one of those tea pot- one hitters.

Thanks.

[paul wheaton]

I bought a one cup ceramic cup/strainer/dish combo thing. Damn cool.

[Ben Souther]

Why would you ever want to give up coffee?

[paul wheaton]

Coffee is bad for you and green tea is good for you.

Coffee is harder to make.

There are more flavors of tea.

I'll still have coffee once in a while, but I'm making an effort to have less.

[Jessica Sant]

We have this cool Tea-Zer Brewing mug at EMS. You can brew loose tea right in your mug.

[paul wheaton]

This looks like what I have.

[John Dunn]

Thanks JS.

Since I'm walking to work these days, (NYC strike), I'll be stopping by the ol' EMS store on Houston/Brdwy to pick one up. :-)

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

This tea pot looks remarkably like the one I have, but mine has a wire mesh infuser that looks like a screen and no "tea press".

[Ellen Zhao]

I drink green tea made of loose tea leaves everyday but when I do want some strong, short flavour, I drink coffee too.

I guess this is what Mr. Wheaton meant by "whole rolled leaves", it's called "Zhu1 Cha2" in Chinese and literally means pearl-shaped tea leaves. All loose green tea leaves are roasted. The species of the tea trees, the location where the tea trees grow and the process of the roasting make the differences of tea.

Traditionally the most classy tea containers called Zi3 Sha1 tea pot...I don't know what's Zi3 Sha1 in English, but it looks like this:

Some Zi3 Sha1 tea pot can cost thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars. Here is a website dedicated for Zi 3 Sha1 tea pot. All the text are in Chinese but the images are interesting too see. This google query also brings a variety of interesting images.

Besides Zi3 Sha1 tea pot there are also Zhu1 Sha1 tea pot. (Zi3 means purple and Zhu1 means red, no idea what Sha1 is in English, the material "sha1" can make SiO2....). This is an example of Zhu1 Sha1 tea pot:

They can be very expensive too.

Both Zi3 Sha1 tea pot and Zhu1 Sha1 tea pot are said to be able to improve the nuanced aroma of the tea and they both have some good physical characteristics to keep the water temperature right for the tea leaves....

Yes tea is very healthy, especially good for who want to keep fit, for it contains no fat and some OH- substance "scrubs" fat away from the surface of other materials. But one has to be careful about the source of the tea leaves. Because in a few locations, people use chemical materials to keep bugs away from the tea trees....My tea leaves are said to be from high mountains where "no environmental pollution is detected."


Regards,
Ellen
[ December 21, 2005: Message edited by: Marilyn de Queiroz ]

[Ellen Zhao]

I edited my last post to get the URL link right, but it didn't work....could anyone please help?

[Bert Bates]

We made the switch to green tea about nine months ago - as advertised, I lost about 7 pounds! (Of course I still have 15 to go )
[ December 21, 2005: Message edited by: Bert Bates ]