Coffee was always my preferred hot beverage, but this past year I've switched to drinking mostly tea. When I drink it Gong Fu style it reminds me very much of smoking a pipe - an informal ritual of preparation and enjoying. The way the tea changes with each steeping much like how some blends change through the bowl. Sometimes I brew it this way, and sometimes I just brew Western style, larger mugs and only 2-3 steepings. This summer I started doing iced teas with the Taiwanese teas, and when I go to drink some I pour the tea in a cocktail shaker with ice first and give it a vigorous thirty-second shake - this gives the tea a nice foamy head like you'd get on a good mug of beer.
I mostly order from Eco-Cha, a Taiwanese tea company run by an expat American. Their oolongs are delicious, their BiLuoChun Green Tea is tasty, but their black teas I prefer to make iced. Also - Crimson Lotus makes some delicious puerh tea - and some of those teas have a good age on them. I used to think the term "tea drunk" was absurd but long Gong Fu sessions with some of their teas have definitely changed my mind.
Anyone else here into tea like this?
I mostly order from Eco-Cha, a Taiwanese tea company run by an expat American. Their oolongs are delicious, their BiLuoChun Green Tea is tasty, but their black teas I prefer to make iced. Also - Crimson Lotus makes some delicious puerh tea - and some of those teas have a good age on them. I used to think the term "tea drunk" was absurd but long Gong Fu sessions with some of their teas have definitely changed my mind.
Anyone else here into tea like this?