Absolute Tea

Tools of the Trade

April is finally here and the spring semester is coming closer to an end. This means that I will be extremely busy with oodles of assignments and large papers to write. Yeah for me. The consequence of these recent events is prompting me to keep this weeks postings short, but as usual I will probably get carried away and end up writing long ones anyway.

So then, what I'd like to focus on in the coming days are the tools used to make tea. Mostly they will be the tools that I use, as other tea enthusiasts will most likely have a different preference with their devices. Onward, with lots of pictures...


A very integral part of the tea making process. Without fresh, clean water your tea won't taste as it should. In fact, it could ruin your tea if your water has high levels of chlorine or other harsh chemicals.










I highly recommend getting yourself one of these boilers. Their benefit is that they shut off the moment your water begins to boil, which is ideal for capturing the highest oxygen content. The oxygen is an essential part of the steeping process because the tea oils create a chemical reaction where oxygen is needed to facilitate this. Another nice feature is that is brings the water temp to exactly the boiling point and not over it.





If you want your tea to last a long time and stay fresh too, then I suggest you get yourself an airtight, porcelain jar. The keys to freshness are keeping sunlight out, keeping air out, and having a jar that won't allow contaminants to seep through or rub off like some plastic and metal ones do. You also want a jar that is going to seal properly and open easily. This is probably the best kind of jar you're going to find, and the latch insures that it will continue to seal for a long time.

posted by Michael at 10:55 PM