Taiwanese Dao of Tea: Adaptation.

So, today I tried bagging my tea as suggested to me by Taiwanese people. I decided to try it because in my encounters so far with tea in Taiwan, the inbibeor would not come in oral contact with soaked tea leaves and I want to learn how to do things "properly" when it comes to tea. I usually detest tea bags because the leaves are generally cut up, of poor quality and are only used once. Here I added my own tea leaves and I was encouraged to re-steep the tea until it lost flavor - as I do with leaves when they are non-bagged. These do-it-yourself tea bags were not my first encounter with self bagging techniques (and technology), at Franklin Peirce College when I prepared tea for myself I occasionally would use a tea ball, because it made clean up easier. Some souls are less brave (or gross) when it comes to putting non-food in their mouth than I am so I would also use the ball when brewing for others. The problem with a tea ball is, it tastes like metal! I was given the tea ball by my parents right before leaving for my Freshman year at college, but they weren't the first ones to do battle toward ending my leaf-munching while tea-drinking days. My track coach before them had purchased me a metal leaf holder to use; maybe the nalgene of tea I used to carry around full of Jasmine green tea leaves looked funny!? This strainer had a large handle so it was hard to use for my nalgene and made my tea taste like metal, this encounter made me swear off separating tea and the leaves - so I was happy in China where tea leaves would float in my cup all the time - it was only through laziness(tea bag means no leaves stuck to your cup), and the will to be considered a knowledgeable tea drinker that I tried it again.

Using tea bags does affect the taste of the tea but I haven't developed my tea palate enough to explain what the difference is.