Recently decided i didn't like the plastic in teabags so i got a small spherical metal strainer. I use loose leaf Yorkshire tea from tesco, add three quarters of a teaspoon into the strainer, pour boiling water through the strainer into the mug, swish it around for a minute. Many, many times a day :-) i'm gonna start a mini-compost bin for the used leaves :-)
By volume, I drink most tea by just throwing in cheap green or black tea bags into a pitcher of water as my general hydration.
Actually drinking and enjoying tea, it's probably filter basket in cup and grandpa style, depending on the tea. Gongfu is also fun and needed for a few teas, but I only do that when I really feel like it.
Right now, I most often drink Irish Breakfast loose leaf from Adagio. Boiling hot water in a giant mug for 5 minutes. A tiny spot of half & half, no sugar.
My favorite used to be Darjeeling, but I feel that it needs a little sugar or honey and I'm trying to do less sugar.
Also lapsang suchong has become a favorite of mine lately. I went through a whole pound of it in the last 6 months or so.
This was a fairly aged cooked (about 10 years, IIRC?) so it was very earthy and almost mushroomy in the aftertaste. One of the more mellow ones.
Personally I prefer raws, though. The cooked, however, are more forgiving and more suited to off-the-cuff brews like the one there: the raws require very precise timing to avoid that flood of bitters; I'd use a full-on tea set most times.
I do the classic net cup most of the time. I tried to do a makeshift gong fu with pu erh and later with yunnan high grown. I really like the method, it's meditative despite my unconventional setup. Pu erh tastes weird, it's either because of the kind of it so maybe I'll try a different variety one day. The yunnan was awesome.
I drink cold brew coffee for the slightly lower acidity, but I actually bought a commercial cold brew maker a couple months back. You load in as much ground coffee beans as desired, top off with water (usually a 4:1 water to coffee ratio, by volume), and leave to soak in the fridge for 12-24 hours. I usually make 2ish gallons each time, which last me a couple weeks.
Edit: It’s expensive, I know, but it: is dish washer safe, holds a tons of coffee, and is quite sturdy. There are other similar kits on Amazon but I brew for myself and a flatmate, so we go through a decent amount of coffee.
Right there with you. I almost exclusively use bags. Maybe loose leaf once in a blue moon if it looks really nice, but that's also with the metal ball thing which is basically a reusable bag. 😆 Not to mention, my usual black tea is Lipton and water at 84c.
Depends xd
I like to gong-fu brew all kinds of oolongs, pu'erh and black teas, either in gaiwan or small teapots.
Special teapot for Japanese green tea and porcelain teapot for Chinese green/yellow teas.
Never tried cold brew yet, was thinking for some time to give it a go, but I always forget.
PS. Thank you for creating this community, really missed the reddit sub here.
Huh. None of the comments seem to do it like I do.
Recently I came to conclusion that shorter steeping times get out more taste variances (I mean like between Pai Mu Tan and White Peony for example)
1 teaspoon per 400ml mug into a strainer. 1.5 if the tea is very loose like some white teas with big leaves or needles. 3/4 for oolongs rolled into balls
temperature depending on the tea
70°C - green tea, raw pu-erh
80°C - oolong, some white teas
90°C - some white teas, black teas, cooked pu-erhs, rooibos
infusion times depend on the tea but the general rule I have is
brew - 30sec
brew - depends. Some teas 30sec, some teas 35sec. Depends on the tea itself, not the kind of tea
brew - 35sec
brew - 45sec
brew - 60sec
some teas will be spent after 5. If not, 60sec again. Sometimes you can squeeze the last bits of flavor with 3mins of brewing
With 400ml mug I don't always manage to go through all the brews in one day. Tea started yesterday is ok, leaves from the day before yesterday I discard
Gong fu style in gaiwan. I put some leaves into the gaiwan and steep them multiple times throughout the day.
I like trying different kinds of teas. But darker teas, for example oolongs, are most convenient because they can be brewed many times and they are easier to brew as you don’t need to be so accurate with water temperature and steeping time.