Here's my suggestion, and final word:

Try it Lew's way, try it my way, if you haven't already. It isn't better or
worse. It's just different. You might be surprised. Put the tea through it's
paces. Make it do all the tricks it's capable of. That's my policy.

BTW, what tea exactly are we talkiing about here. Is it RRGT from teabags
ripped? In that case, maybe just ignore me.

Michael

/15/04

> While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Lewis Perin rolled
> initiative and posted the following:
>
>> Derek > writes:
>>
>>> While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Michael Plant
>>> rolled initiative and posted the following:
>>>> [...6-7 minutes to steep greens..]
>>>> Derek, I steep greens seldom more than 2 minutes, even at
>>>> temperatures as low as 130 degrees (in the case of best Long
>>>> Jins and Gyokuros). Once the leaves open, even less time is
>>>> required. Perhaps I'm putting in far more leaf than you. My
>>>> formula is simple enough and usually works: Half the number
>>>> of grams of dry tea as there will be ounces of wet water.
>>>> More often I brew at between 160 and 175. Most good green
>>>> teas seem happy at this range. Six or seven minutes sounds
>>>> like a pretty long steep to me.
>>>
>>> You're using much more green tea than I am. I use about 1/3 or
>>> even 1/4 as much as you do.
>>
>> I'm with Michael.
>
> I'm with they guy at my local tea shop. He hasn't steered me wrong
> yet.
>
>>> I could be doing it "wrong", but it's always worked for me and
>>> produced quite tasty results.
>>
>> If you're steeping a small amount of leaf for a long time, then
>> maybe you're brewing a cup akin to the average of the multiple
>> shorter steeps some of us get from green leaves.
>
> Probably. It's still tasty and since I don't normally go for
> multiple steeps of green in the same evening, it's a better use of
> my tea than using a lot that I only steep once.
>
> Is this a versatile beverage or what?