No, no, no, no ..... NO.

Hi Chopper,

Speaking of Gaiwan cups (on another post)... I'd check out a Gaiwan cup. They look like this:
www.jingteashop.com/introduc...aiwan.cfm

are easy to use, (sort of), and a lot of fun. You can easily control the strength of the tea because you can watch it as it brews.

Pick up "All the Tea in China"... I can't remember the author. That's a good introduction to tea and yixing pottery.

If you're ever in Hawai'i come by and we can have tea.

Aloha,

David

hi chopper -

here's a couple suggestions:

ditch the coffee maker. too easy for flavors of plastic of stale coffee to contaminate the tea. boil clean (filtered, or spring, ideally) cold water on your stovetop in a kettle or pot.

use good tea. contrary to what everybody is saying, this does not necessarily mean ditching teabags, but think about what you are buying. some loose tea is crap, some teabags are crap. more often the teabags are crap, but some brands are quite good. the companies "mighty leaf" and "two leaves and a bud" both make excellent tea in teabags, expensive but quite good. you will find several examples of the green teas and chamomile you like. also, chamomile is not something you need to spend a lot on, cheaper brands like "traditional medicinals" make fine chamomile teabags.

find something to infuse you tea in. a good teapot with strainer basket is fine, as are the gaiwan referred to in the thread, and you can also just use a clean mug, glass jar, you name it, as long as it is clean and will not add flavor to the tea. if you get into loose teas you will have to have a wire mesh strainer or something similar to remove the tea leaves when they are done steeping.

the other great thing about heating water on the stovetop is that you can control the temperature. green tea will be over-extracted and bitter if steeped in boiling water. you can probably find temperature guidelines and actually check with a thermometer, but a good way to eyeball it is to consider the water ready when the first little bubbles begin to come to the surface, well before you reach a rolling boil. this is good for green teas, oolong should be a little warmer - tiny bubbles everywhere - and only black teas should be allowed to come to a rolling boil.

best of luck, hope you enjoy.