Whole leaf loose tea lovers: quality English blends, sencha, oolong, puerh etc.

cshermen2000

No I love my milk and sugar too much

I gave up cola and i don't touch alcohol so the teas and coffee are my luxuries/treats.

terra_ferma

cshermen2000 wrote: »

No I love my milk and sugar too much

I gave up cola and i don't touch alcohol so the teas and coffee are my luxuries/treats.

In that case maybe you want to save up a few calories for your milk and sugar, for a special cup of your best tea, once a day? And drink the rest with skimmed milk and sweetener? Or you could try giving up on one and keep the other, depending on what is most important to you, sugar or whole milk?

At the end diets are already bad enough without giving up every little pleasure in our life, maybe you can compromise.:)

cshermen2000

The special mug once a day is already there. My one mug of coffee in the day.

Swan_2

terra_ferma wrote: »

right now I'm after a clear glass mug, because I tend to brew my tea in a mug, and I'd like to be able to watch the leaves unfold (gunpowder is particularly good for this, and for flowering teas witch I find just a pretty gimmick, not proper tea, though)
I found a couple but haven't decided which size I want, 250 or 260m

I'd like to be able to do that too, if I'm not doing the whole teapot-on-a-tray thing I use my lidded Chinese mug & infuser & it'd be nice to see what's going on

little_busy_bee wrote: »

got a very similiar clear glass mug with glass strainer and glass lid from muji, i love it, and from memory i think it was about £7.

oh thanks for that, I've just had a look, they've got some great stuff

terra_ferma

little_busy_bee wrote: »

got a very similiar clear glass mug with glass strainer and glass lid from muji, i love it, and from memory i think it was about £7.

Swan wrote: »

I'd like to be able to do that too, if I'm not doing the whole teapot-on-a-tray thing I use my lidded Chinese mug & infuser & it'd be nice to see what's going on


oh thanks for that, I've just had a look, they've got some great stuff

Interesting shop! :T
Now I'm after some discount codes...

PS no codes, pity.
There is also a strainer that goes with the mug!
http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=11&Sub=45&PID=3163

Swan_2

terra_ferma wrote: »

Interesting shop! :T
Now I'm after some discount codes...

PS no codes, pity.
There is also a strainer that goes with the mug!
http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=11&Sub=45&PID=3163

I've got a metal infuser/strainer that goes in my mug, but I want that one in your link that goes with the see-through mugs, & they've got lids too I like a lid on a mug

must try not to look at anything else on that site

I've tried those little ball-shaped infusers, but they're not much use, the tea just ends up in big clump, it never seems to get properly wetted

terra_ferma

I was tempted to place an order, but I notice that they have an illegal refund policy, not compliant with DSR. This really puts me off buying from a company

http://www.muji.eu/pages/faq_new.asp?PT=385

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
A refund of the delivery charge will be given in the instance of incorrect, damaged or faulty goods, but not when a product is simply unwanted.
[/FONT]

PS I used a larger ball strainer for a while, it was big enough for the leaves to unfold, but it wasn't tight enough, bits of leaves were ending up in the mug.
ahhh... so much effort goes into making that elusive perfect cup of tea

terra_ferma

Just wanted to give a quick update on my purchases.
Found a set of lovely clear glass mugs at TK Maxx, for £2 each :j
I must say they make a big difference when drinking tea, as you fully appreciate the colour from amber (for black teas, dark oolongs or blends), to a pale green (green, white and light oolongs).

they are great for steeping green tea, you can see the leaves slowly sink to the bottom (it's ready to drink once all the leaves have sunk).

Also I've found the most sublime tea I've ever tasted, so grassy, but also very floral, almost smells of jasmine, it's a oolong:
http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea-shop-aljtgya.cfm
(looks expensive, but a little goes a long way as it can be steeped several time, actually it must as the leaves need to unfold completely to give out it's true flavour, the first steep is the less interesting).

Finally Wilkinsons (http://www.wilkinsonsofnorwich.com/Default.aspx) have been really good, although not as fantastic as the first purchase, they took a few days to post, and don't reply to emails (while Jing from China were very good when I contacted them recently).
But I still buy from these sites, they are all OK.

kookai9

Great thread terra_ferma,read it all with interest.
Do you still buy the Gunpowder tea,I seen some the other day an meant to research it after noticing ur discussion here.It was green gunpowder ,l think like a £5 for 500g .l have been buying Lidl 27p for 80 ;im sure a tea lovers nightmare but have been wanting to try some of the asian teas that l see big bags of black leaves also but not sure if theyd be atruly disgusting & for the bin & money loss,do have Tetleys too ,but want to broaden horizons
Is gunpowder tea ;like sencha, oolong, OR puerh or ,Is it just tea ??

terra_ferma

kookai9 wrote: »

Great thread terra_ferma,read it all with interest.
Do you still buy the Gunpowder tea,I seen some the other day an meant to research it after noticing ur discussion here.It was green gunpowder ,l think like a £5 for 500g .l have been buying Lidl 27p for 80 ;im sure a tea lovers nightmare but have been wanting to try some of the asian teas that l see big bags of black leaves also but not sure if theyd be atruly disgusting & for the bin & money loss,do have Tetleys too ,but want to broaden horizons
Is gunpowder tea ;like sencha, oolong, OR puerh or ,Is it just tea ??

I still have the gunpowder tea, and it's great with mint (I just add a few fresh leave from a plant, I normally use it for cooking). I don't drink it by itself because I now have teas that are much more interesting to drink.

In asian store I believe the best brands are Sea Dyke for chinese teas, and Yamamotoyama for Japanese sencha etc.

If you want to try a high quality Chinese tea that is very good value, I would recommend these teas:
a black tea: http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea-shop-red-tea-yxhc.cfm
oolong: http://www.dragonteahouse.biz/on-sale/da-hong-pao-yancha-big-red-robe-wuyi-oolong-100g-3-5-oz.html
They both can be steeped more than once. I've shopped from these stores and the quality and service were very good.

I don't understand your last question, sorry. Gunpowder is a loose leaf green tea, rolled tight. Sencha is a green tea from Japan, oolongs are in between green and black teas (based on oxidation) and puer is tea compressed in cakes or bricks, raw or cooked, and often aged.