The easist/most awesome teapot in the world (so far)

Friday marked the delivery of my latest tea related purchase in my ongoing pursuit of a great cuppa tea. In honor of keeping on top of my finances, I have budgeted a little bit each week to start building not only my collection of teas, but also some of the things needed to brew it well.

I ordered the IngenuiTEA Starter Set from Adagio Teas. It comes with a nice little book on tea as well as a four-tea sampler set (I chose the green tea sampler). I also ordered their 16oz glass mug which is nice, because you can see how good your infusion looks!

I originally ordered it so that I could have something to use at work, but it is so great that I am thinking I will be lugging it back and forth from work so I can use it at home too. Here it is during the infusion:



Basically you heat up your water and fill up the pot. I have found that putting the tea leaves in before the water helps open them up better, otherwise they kind of just hang out at the top of the pot. Anyway, the main reason this thing is so great is because unlike my little wal-mart teapot, which has a tiny infuser, this one allows you to just throw the leaves in as they are. The problem with a tiny infuser is that it doesn't allow the leaves to fully expand, thereby preventing the flavor from reaching its full potential (thats what she said). After the brewing time is up, all you have to do is set the pot on top of a normal sized mug and it will open up a seal on the bottom, allowing only the tea to come out. There is a removable filter at the bottom of the pot which prevents the leaves from draining out with the tea. After you have done that, it looks like this:




And finally here is just the tea itself being held up to the light:



This particular tea was a black tea flavored with coconut. I have normally found it to be very good, however tonight I brewed it too long. Most black teas should be steeped for about 5 minutes, but for some reason the flavored teas from SpecialTeas should only be steeped around 3 minutes. I forgot this, so it came out a little bit on the bitter side. Nothing a few rock sugar crystals couldn't fix though!

I am really enjoying the green teas I have been trying. I am actually surprised the grassiness of some of them isn't too much for me. I will probably write about some of them soon. Or not. You never know :-p

And finally, I tried my first Oolong the other night at the Bean Haus. I wasn't sure what to expect, as the name of it was 'Hairy Crab.' I loved it though. Oolongs are sort of in between a green and black tea, and this one really tasted quite good. It was part grassy, part something I can't remember lol. All I know is that since then it is all I can think about. I can't wait to order some different ones to try here at home!