Joshua Smith

Joshua Smith drank Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea

Over that past week and a half, this has become my standard morning tea. It’s been an interesting experience drinking it at work, mostly because the preparation is a bit different and the water is cleaner (We have machines that do crazyubermega filtering, and the result is hard to argue with.). I use a about 6-8 grams of tea, and put it in the bottom of an 8 oz. ceramic mug I got a while back, but just dug up in a cupboard. I let the leaves sit in there all day, and when I start to get low, I add more hot water. The result is a milder tea, where the linen taste is less prominent than when I brew it at home with my tea ball. It is also a bit sweeter, which kinda makes me wonder what is wrong with my tap water…

Anyway, I get a good 4-5 cups of tea this way, it tastes pretty good, and it lasts me for most of the work day. What more can I ask of it?

2012-05-31 20:05:59 -0400

I Like This

10 likes

4 comments

People who liked this

Comments

Jim Marks 2012-06-01 10:32:42 -0400

Houston’s tap water is heinous. We have a huge under sink filtration system to deal with arsenic and other fairly serious problems. Sadly, I don’t think the filtration system gets the trace radioactive particles out of it ’0_o !

Joshua Smith 2012-06-01 23:10:33 -0400

Oh dear, that could be a problem. When living with my parents during the summer, the water we get comes out of the Potomac River, and is, in fact, the last town that can get it’s water from the river due to federal regulations. I always find that a kind of scary thought. Luckily, the refrigerator in the kitchen has a very good filtration system. As to radioactive particles…now that I think about it, you are probably fine. Radioactive stuff is almost always large on the atomic scale, and your system probably catches it along with the other chemicals just by virtue of it being bigger than the chemicals that the filter targets.

Bonnie 2012-06-01 23:21:52 -0400

I have really great water but even with wonderful water I buy spring water for fine tea tasting. Delicate tea’s, etc.

Jim Marks 2012-06-01 23:33:43 -0400

The only reason I don’t buy water is that I drink so much tea that I think it would become unreasonable to keep it around in sufficient quantity.

But I may soon, God willing, end up working back in an office instead of from home, at which point keeping spring water at home for tea in the evening and on the weekends might not be a bad idea.

Profile

Bio

I am a university student, studying Computer Science, who found that I really enjoy a nice cup of tea. I finally got into loose-leaf tea in August of 2011. I am currently in the process of expanding my horizons, and have found that I have a particular fondness for Oolongs in general, and Wuyi Yanchas in particular. The unique mineral taste is very appealing to me, as well as a nice Sencha. More recently, I’ve developed a taste for Sheng puerh, white tea, and black teas. The only things I’ve tried that I didn’t like was Shu puerh, but that might have been because it was quite young. Regardless, I’ve been slowly expanding my horizons, so if you have any recommendations, please feel free to send me a PM.

I’m working at a tech internship right now, so my free time is a bit limited. Expect infrequent notes for the rest of the summer.

Just for the heck of it, my other interests include classical musics (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Debussy, Shostakovitch, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Wagner, to name a few composers). I also have a fondness for a bit more modern music, like The Beatles, all Jazz (by all, I really do mean all), Gorillaz (I love Demon Days), and a couple of Indie artists you will never run across unless you play a lot of semi obscure Indie games. Also, I love cats. When I can afford to have a pet (and when I live on my own…), I want to get an Abyssinian. That, or a Korat (but this is unlikely). Or an Egyptian Mau. I’ll narrow it down at some point…