Tea in a French Press.

[alfredo]

Yep it works.

[Warpy]

1. I suppose if you are a loose tea fan like me

and don't want to wait for the leaves to settle on their own, this makes sense. This guy is too much of a fussbudget for me, though. A French press might keep the occasional leaf out of the bottom of my cup, but I figure the leaves will be cheap entertainment if a Roma tea leaf reader comes to lunch.

[alfredo]

2. I'm not fussy about an occasional leaf, but I like putting my FP to

work in service of tea. It seems like a good way to make flavored teas.

I saw this teapot infuser with a piston to isolate the tea, and wondered if a french press would do the same.

[Warpy]

4. It probably would, and more cheaply, too

I'd also be concerned about any coffee drinkers in the house using the French press. I can't think of anything less appetizing than coffee flavored tea.

[alfredo]

5. Soap and water seems to work for that. No one else uses the press.

My wife likes her instant coffee. Of course she likes my cinnamon coffee.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

11. If you clean the French press properly, that shouldn't be a problem.

After all, most of us use the same cups to drink both tea and coffee from.

[Warpy]

13. Ugh, not me. I had dedicated cups

for coffee drinking visitors. There's just something very persistent about coffee if you really hate the stuff and the French press has a lot of little bits and pieces for it to hide in.

I really, really despise coffee. I live in the desert and if it was the only thing to drink, I'd die of dehydration and I don't say that lightly.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

17. Disassemble the French press and run it through the dishwasher, the coffee contamination will go

I understand how you feel about coffee. I feel that way about cooked green peppers.

[Warpy]

18. My dishwasher is at the end of my arms

[pinto]

19. LOL. So is mine.

Well put, I'm stealing that line.

[alfredo]

21. And you called the guy in the video a fussbudget. ;)

I do have my favorite cup, bowl, spoon, and my favorite kitchen knives. When I cook, I am in a zone, don't get too close to the force field around me.

Using dish detergent on my well seasoned iron skillets is like kicking Bambi in the stomach.

[Major Nikon]

12. Tea purists insist you must brew in the cup and leave the tea leaves in there

Mostly I use a teapot with an infuser. I'm not sure why you would need a piston in the infuser because it already isolates the leaves. Maybe it's for squeezing the leaves, but I'm not sure this would be a good idea as you can get 3-4 seepings out of a batch of leaves.

[Warpy]

14. I do the by the cup method with Chinese teas

like jasmine tea because they are full leaf teas and you almost need the bottom of the cup for them to expand fully and release their flavor.

The Chinese reuse their leaves 3 times and consider the second cup the best since the first cup keeps all the bitterness and the second has the flavor. The third cup is colored water.

With finely textured teas like PG Tips, I use the pot, stir the leaves in and leave them to settle. Once they settle, the pot of tea is perfect. Stirring them in infuses the water efficiently.

[Major Nikon]

15. Some tea purists will throw out the first steeping

In Hangzhou, China I saw many people who carry around their tea container all day with the same leaves and just refill with hot water many times throughout the day. I suspect they were all using the pan roasted green teas that are produced in that area.

[Warpy]

16. Throw it out? That's where you get the theophylline

Might as well drink caffeine free soda.

I have one of those big Chinese thermoses, something I've bounced off the floor for 25 years and is still hanging in there. My tea during the day tastes vaguely like cork but the advantage is that I can boil water in the morning and have my tea without waiting later in the day and not have to nuke it and have it taste weird.

I do the two brews of jasmine tea. A third isn't worth bothering with.

[Major Nikon]

20. With really good pan roasted green tea, the first steep tastes a little too grassy

I drink it anyway as there's still a lot of great flavor, but the 2nd steeping does actually taste better.

I like a really good cup of tea, but I'm mostly a coffee drinker.

[japple]

27. When I went to a tea ceremony in SF, Chinatown. The host said that the

first serving goes to "nosy neighbors and irritating relatives!" The teas that he served were so green, fresh, and costly that they were used several times. It's not like plunking a Lipton bag in a cup of nuked water. It is a ritual in many cultures, where the pot (and most use a tea pot) is warmed. Then the leaves are poured into the pot and are followed by water that is heated to the temperature appropriate to the tea that is being brewed.

I drink full bodied (English, Irish, Indian) blends like Bary's Gold Blend, PG Tips, Bewleys, Yorkshire Gold, anything dark, strong, and dense. I use a teapot that is only used for tea.

When I have to use a commuter mug, it is only used for tea. When I drink coffee, it is from a ceramic cup and my commuter mug is never used for coffee. I agree, Warpy, that the two will never make peace. Coffee corrupts the commuter mug, because they all have a plastic top, and no amount of washing, by hand or in dishwasher, will ever remove the coffee taste.

[Major Nikon]

29. The big difference with tea is how it's processed and how fresh it is

I visited a coffee plantation in China just outside of Hangzhou where the finest green tea in the world comes from. It was a pretty neat place and reminded me quite a bit of Napa valley. They showed us how it was roasted in a wok-like pan by hand. They also did several steepings using the same leaves and showed us how you can get several out of a batch. From my experience how many you get depends quite a bit on how fresh the leaves are.

The only thing I reuse between coffee and tea are ceramic and glass. Everything else is dedicated to one or the other.

[alfredo]

22. Actually the FP doesn't go down far enough to squeeze the leaves.

[Major Nikon]

23. I'm not sure what the advantage would be

What is its claim to fame?

[alfredo]

24. It puts to use that much neglected French Press in the cupboard.

It's just a tea pot with a strainer. It works, and that's what's important.

[Major Nikon]

25. I was a bit confused on what you were mentioning

I was referencing this and wondering what the piston was for:



I understand the FP is an excellent device for brewing tea.

[alfredo]

26. The piston isolates the leaf. The Piston is a strainer.

[pinto]

3. I use the old metal-basket-hung-in-a-pot method, but this seems like a good option.

Like the preheat aspect for the tea leaves before brewing.

[alfredo]

6. I have the metal basket too, but I like this method.

Last edited Thu Nov 20, 2014, 11:01 PM - Edit history (1)

BTW, this summer I put a sprig of Rosemary in my cup when brewing coffee. It's so good.

[Blues Heron]

7. Our teapot has a built-in ceramic "beehive" style strainer in the spout

Works like a charm, that old teapot just can't make a bad cup. It's so well seasoned by now you could get by for a few days just pouring hot water in without tea before you noticed the lacking! It was a gift from someone in Japan, been trying to find another like it but to no avail.

I buy loose tea by the pound from Harney's. good stuff, excellent value.

[alfredo]

8. I buy mine from an Arab grocer. $7 a pound. Their halvah is good and cheap.

[Blues Heron]

9. nice price!

No way can Harney's beat that. I should check w/our local Arab grocer, didn't think of that.

[alfredo]

10. I even found a gunpowder green. It kicks ass.

[japple]

28. Harney's does have good tea selections, IMHO. It's not always affordable

in my life unless I have a gift certificate from some generous relative.

[alfredo]

30. We have several good tea shops in town. I can buy bulk at several.

I will have to sit and try tea brewed by them to see the differences.