now that I've polished off the adagio.com green tea starter set...

I've been craving some good (by my standards) tea for a while now, and recently did something about it.

But first, what constitutes "other than good" tea? For starters, almost any tea in a bag will score "tolerable" or worse on my tea scale. The two main reasons for this are:

1. Brew-in-bag is not an ideal way to prepare tea, for reasons I'm sure I'll explore in more depth elsewhere.
2. Tea bags are often used to disguise bad tea in the same way that the best ribs are not the ones chosen for serving in a wet sauce. As a rule, the best tea is loose and the best ribs are served with a dry rub. (If the rib reference escapes you, don't sweat it.)

Other sorts of "other than good" boil down to objective matters such as freshness (even though tea can be kept in good shape for quite some time if handled properly at all) and subjective matters such as straight up personal taste.

I first "got hooked" on good tea back in the early 1990s, but never developed a really cultivated tea palate. I tried various teas and noted that some I loved, others I hated, and some left no meaningful impression. For the most part, I was still drinking tea from bags, but found that some enjoyable cups of tea can result from applying hot water to at least some tea bags.

Worth note is that I was able to have a very good time drinking teas that weren't amazingly good and were prepared... inelegantly, let's just say.

But over time, I've come to prefer better teas over worse teas in an increasingly meaningful way. But I needed a less messy way to prepare a cup of tea, and my search for one led me to an office-friendly tea infuser sold at adagio.com under the name IngenuiTEA.

I noted that they had one on sale with a little tea book and some sample tins for the same price as the device itself, and was pleased that one of the options was a green tea sample set including genmai cha.

Mmmmm, genmai cha.

Only one of the sample green teas didn't really suit me: the kukicha. I honestly can't say what it is I didn't like about it, because the smell and flavor (floral and sweet) were fascinating. Maybe it was just too much in such a small package, because I have tried mixing it with things like green pekoe and yerba with enjoyable results. Flavorful stems, of all things, stand out the most about this one.

(I'll prattle on about yerba later, as it's well worth some words.)

Citron Green turned out to be something of a treat for me, with little dried chunks of some kind of citrus in with it. The smell, flavor and color were thoroughly enjoyable. I would actually serve this to people afraid of good tea.

Green pekoe is a great "drink this any time you like" tea. You totally don't have to be a tea snob to enjoy this, as it is not exotic in any way.

The genmai cha is a personal favorite of mine. It is another non-exotic tea, blended with roasted rice kernels (some of which are popped like popcorn). I understand it came about due to times when tea was a real luxury item and rice was readily available, reminding me of the history of chickory coffee.

I learned about genmai cha quite by accident some years back. At a "Day of Zen" at the home of a Zen monk, I had a bowl of something that just blew my mind. When I asked him about it later in the day, he said, "It's just genmai, rice gruel. It's nothing special."

Nothing special, but I loved it. Of course, I'd been in zen practice for hours, so I may have simply been more mindful of the meal, enhancing the whole experience. More on mindful consumption later, I'm sure, as it's part of my long-term approach to enjoyment of food & drink.

In searching for information about genmai, I found essentially no information about the rice dish I'd eaten, but I found out about genmai cha. Then I found a local market where some passable genmai cha could be purchased. The genmai cha from adagio.com's sampler was in fine condition by comparison, and I consumed it with glee.

The little book that came with the set was interesting enough. It struck me as a long essay with lots of pretty pictures. Not a bad addition to a starter set, considering that one might give such a set to someone unversed in tea snobbery. It was informative and well-written.

The IngenuiTEA device has proven its merit since the shipment arrived. It has made the process of preparing and enjoying loose tea about as simple and painless as I can imagine.

For a single cup (the only amount of tea I actually prepare), I spoon in (depending on the tea) a rounded spoon or so of tea, then fill with water to the level of the text printed on it, fire up the pre-set tea timer on my Palm Treo, and wait.

When my Treo emits the sound of a Chinese flute about 3 minutes later, I place the IngenuiTEA on top of a cup (any cup I've tried so far), and the hot, yummy liquid drains neatly into the cup.

The tea leaves remain in the IngenuiTEA, to either be used again or rinsed off into some handy means of disposal.

I found that the IngenuiTEA works just fine with the Taragui yerba I buy by the kilo, as well. This frankly surprised me, because the yerba contains some material that is ground pretty much to a powder.