I got the DigiWeigh DW-250BS. It is literally pocket-sized and I take
it with me everywhere. It's kind of crappy though - you always have to
tare twice, because after about two seconds at 0.0 it always goes to
-0.1 for some reason. I also got a little digital thermometer for
Japanese green teas, but I hardly ever use it, because I hardly ever
drink Japanese green teas.

Dominic I agree that yixing is more forgiving, but I think gaiwans are
fine if you watch the clock and make sure that the water is the right
temp. It's also really useful to have a totally neutral way to
evaluate what you are drinking, and they give you the flexibility to
try anything. Anything, including Liu An basket tea - what the hell is
that stuff? Does anyone know how you make it taste good?


xDustinx wrote:
> Alex wrote:
> > xDustinx wrote:
> > > I just received a celadon gaiwan from The Imperial Tea Court in San
> > > Francisco and I'm pretty excited about it. So far I've brewed some Pi
> > > Lo Chun and Tung Ting Jade Oolong in it. Both times I put enough tea
> > > leaves in to uniformly cover the bottom in a relatively thin layer.
> > > Probably about two teaspoons worth. The first infusion was a minute
> > > long with both teas. I noticed that the first infusion tasted slightly
> > > bitter, which is not something I'm used to with the other way I brew
> > > tea (infuser basket in a mug for whatever time the instructions say).
> > > The next couple infusions after the first however, are not bitter, but
> > > not quite as flavorful as my normal brewing method. Should I adjust
> > > the amount of tea leaves, the infusion time, or is this normal? I'm
> > > completely new to gaiwans so any general advice would be helpful as
> > > well.
> >
> > It takes some fine-tuning, and the answer is that you should adjust
> > both the amount of leaves and the infusion time for every different tea
> > you make. I got a little digital scale from Amazon and have been
> > adhering to a strict one-gram-per-ounce-of-water rule, and that's
> > really helped me focus on the timing. One other resource that has been
> > very useful has been blogs such as Chadao and Teamasters that discuss
> > technique and timing. Chadao members are particularly good about
> > posting the steep times. I never liked pu'er, but that was because I
> > was steeping like eight grams of it in a small yixing for two minutes,
> > and now that my technique is improved I am getting dangerously obsessed
> > with it.
>
> Thanks for the quick response. I have been reading the Teamasters
> blog, which has already helped me considerably. I'm going to check out
> the Chadao one. Which scale did you get from Amazon? Picking up a
> scale seems like a good idea.