Teapot Tea

Does anyone have any suggestions for making tea with loose tea & in a teapot?

I love tea but I have only had it made with tea bags with water from a Coffee pot or heating the water on the stove. I would love to try the loose tea with a teapot. I went to a specialty store & they were more interested in selling me a $300 teapot & cup set they didn’t really answer most of my questions. They did show me the loose tea & told me you can reuse them for several brews & that they can be mixed for different flavors. Where is the best place to purchase the tea making supplies & would love to know any tips, recipes, or suggestions??
Just to make it clear I didn’t purchase the set they tried to sell me & yes it does end in vana…LOL

This specialty shop wouldn’t happen to end in -vana, would it? They’re famous for that.

Anyhow, what you need is a place to put leaves, a cup, and a device for separating cup and leaves. There are a lot of combinations of those. If you want a teapot, the hardest part will be the strainer. There are three basic types: an in-pot infuser basket (which either comes with the pot or you buy separately), a strainer built into the spout, and a separate strainer placed over the cup. I prefer the second type myself, but they all do the basic job of separating tea and leaves.

I would suggest looking at Asian markets for simple, cheap teapots. Most will be made to work with loose tea because loose tea is the usual Asian form. If you want a fancy teapot, start looking at (other) tea specialty stores. Tea-for-one sets often have a crude strainer at the spout.

For the leaves themselves, I again suggest Asian markets for cheap, (usually) decent tea and specialty stores not ending in -vana for expensive, nice tea. The best tea shops, unless you live in one of the largest cities in the country, are online; there are specialty shops devoted to different types of tea (e.g. only Japanese green tea, only oolong tea, only Chinese tea of all types). A large store will sell all types of tea but usually specializes in some; Upton is said to have lousy oolongs but wonderful black teas, for example. Adagio is a good place to start; I haven’t ordered from them personally but they have a very good reputation.

I don’t know any good blending recipes, other than cutting Lapsang Souchong with some mild tea (stale Lipton did a good job; cheap Assam overpowered the Lapsang Souchong). Mixing any Japanese green with matcha makes them taste better, but the tea companies will usually do that for you.

Make sure you have an idea how to brew each tea! Some teas, especially green teas, have odd and finicky brewing parameters. If you steeped deep-steamed Japanese green tea in boiling water for five minutes, you’d get an undrinkably bitter liquid instead of a sweet, tasty tea. A good tea company will give you directions for each class of tea; some do for each tea they sell. Beware of general directions for “green tea”. Boiling tea leaves of any type in water is not advised.

Nursery Rhymes – I Am A Little Tea-Pot