November 17, 2013

Whoops!

I've made a huge mistake.

I kind of like how this blog is just turning into a catalog of my recent tea-making mistakes.  This is one I make periodically with rolled oolong (usually roasted ones, since, unlike with green gaoshan teas, you need more than just a bare covering of the bottom of the pot for an ideal brew--much harder to estimate).

Here's how it goes:  I put some tea in the pot.  I look in and decide, "That's definitely not enough," then add some: "Ok, maybe that's better," then, "Just a couple more to make sure."  Then, when the the leaves are already crawling out of the pot after the first infusion, I realize the folly of my decision.

From there, it's a matter of either a) Sucking it up and drinking a really strong pot of tea and incurring a massive buzz, b) Trying to take a few leaves out (which means wasting them), which usually still ends up a lot like a), or c) Doing a), then pulling the leaves out of the pot later in the day and re-steeping them in a huge mug because they were so cramped in the 100 ml pot that there's invariably plenty of juice left in there.

What?  Me measure?  You'd think I'd be getting better at this by now...