I drink green tea made of loose tea leaves everyday but when I do want some strong, short flavour, I drink coffee too.
I guess
this is what Mr. Wheaton meant by "whole rolled leaves", it's called "Zhu1 Cha2" in Chinese and literally means pearl-shaped tea leaves. All loose green tea leaves are roasted. The species of the tea trees, the location where the tea trees grow and the process of the roasting make the differences of tea.
Traditionally the most classy tea containers called Zi3 Sha1 tea pot...I don't know what's Zi3 Sha1 in English, but it looks like this:
Some Zi3 Sha1 tea pot can cost thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars.
Here is a website dedicated for Zi 3 Sha1 tea pot. All the text are in Chinese but the images are interesting too see.
This google query also brings a variety of interesting images.
Besides Zi3 Sha1 tea pot there are also Zhu1 Sha1 tea pot. (Zi3 means purple and Zhu1 means red, no idea what Sha1 is in English, the material "sha1" can make SiO2....). This is an example of Zhu1 Sha1 tea pot:
They can be very expensive too.
Both Zi3 Sha1 tea pot and Zhu1 Sha1 tea pot are said to be able to improve the nuanced aroma of the tea and they both have some good physical characteristics to keep the water temperature right for the tea leaves....
Yes tea is very healthy, especially good for who want to keep fit, for it contains no fat and some OH- substance "scrubs" fat away from the surface of other materials. But one has to be careful about the source of the tea leaves. Because in a few locations, people use chemical materials to keep bugs away from the tea trees....My tea leaves are said to be from high mountains where "no environmental pollution is detected."
Regards,
Ellen
[ December 21, 2005: Message edited by: Marilyn de Queiroz ]