Fun with tea

Now, my flat-mate kept telling me about a great tea-store in Berlin, which unfortunately closed. It had not only loose tea for sale, but also a small 'tea-lounge' where you could sit and drink properly prepared teas. At the same spot there is now a store of Gschwendner and instead of the tea-lounge you can enjoy Sushi. Or not. Dunno, I couldn't judge if it is good or not. But anyhow, this small tea-store reopened a couple of blocks away from its old location and what can I say: The King's Teagarden is the most amazing place (store-wise) I have been to. Great atmosphere, competent people, self-made cakes, exquisite teas.

I bought two teas, an Assam and a Lapsang Souchong (smoky). And I couldn't resist buying a weighing scale made of brass. So we are now having a lot of fun preparing the teas with the properly weighed amount of leafs. With the scales came 10 golden rules how to prepare a cup of tea. First of all it is important to have the right amount of leafs, 2.75g for 150ml of tea. Fine with me. The thing that disturbed me in the beginning is the use of candy which is added to leafs before the water is poured. But actually, comparing to cups, one prepared with candy the other without, I tend to agree, that the addition of sugar during the steeping does enhance the flavour of the tea without sweetening it.

Nonetheless I will have to conduct a series of experiment as to how long to steep the leafs (exactly 3 minutes the rules say), how and if resteeping works. And I will have to investigate into Oolongs.