RSSGREEN TEA SOLVED
April 15, 2008
I have given up hope of finding a drinkable green tea in a bag. The flavor variations are “Wet Straw Juice” right on down to “The Shivers” and “I Can No Longer Suppress My Gag Reflex”. Back in the article Matcha Tea, I was struggling with the same problems.
Need an answer? Ask a woman.
My good friend Gina provided me with bag of loose leaf Gyokuro Tea. Hope resurrected.
Loose leaf Gyokuro tea
The loose leaf version is better at extracting the cancer-fighting catechins anyhow. I really think bagged tea is what’s left after the good stuff is sorted; they just vacuum it up into little bags.
Gina brewed a pot and it was just fine. The prospect of drinking two cups a day did not fill me with dread as it once did. I could even learn to like it.
In the beginning, I just let 1/3 teaspoon of loose leaves float in the water. The odd leaf escaped from the group at the bottom of the cup, which was distracting from the calming tea experience. I was always on the lookout for a leaf getting between my teeth.
Need restraint? Ask a vet.
This renegade leaf problem necessitated some form of mechanical restraint. You’re not supposed to use tea bells because it prevents water from swirling around the leaves and getting out all the good stuff and we do not want that.
Gina has a spanky little teapot that incorporates a central glass cylinder with perforations that allow the water in and out but keeps the tea leaves separate. It works extremely well.
I’d have to go out of town to avail myself of one of these puppies. My fellow cancer-fighter and colleague, Louise, suggested the use of a coffee press and it has proven itself to be fully up to the task. I raced out to WalMart and picked up the non-name-brand version for $20.
It’s pretty. It’s easy to clean. You can push down the plunger and pull it back up to whirl the leaves around in the water a few extra times to get an extra shot of goodness. The leaves can stay in it to make a second infusion later.
What’s not to like?
Where to buy
Sadly, Gina lives far from me. Louise and I found The Tea Haus, an excellent site from which we buy our tea. They have a great selection of teas and tea accessories. The learning pages are interesting and complete, like this page on Gyokuro Tea. These people know their tea!
Comments
3 Responses to “GREEN TEA SOLVED”
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A Greener Tea
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Just testing your avatars installation, Christine.
Feel free to delete or leave this comment at your discretion.
And I will leave it there forever to celebrate the first avatar.
Haha: Celebrating the first avatar on a blog aimed at women 35 and older… Hmm, I’m afraid my avatar is 10 years too young *and* the wrong gender for that celebration. lol
Good that it’s working, though. I hope to start writing tonight about some customization ideas for avatars. You might also make a small post encouraging your users to sign up at Gravatar; comments are so much more exciting when users can be visually identified — even if it isn’t their face, an image of any kind is quite a bit better than so much text, in my opinion.