Zo and I – as I am affectionately calling him have just had our maiden voyage. Okay I have not made tea with him yet but he got a first boil clean out.
So far I love this thing!
Handy as all get out, cute musical alarm to tell me the water is ready, four heat settings, reboils water SUPER fast for those small repetitive infusions of tea, a nice nifty handle to move from one room to the other with if need be, and small enough to sit on my coffee table to enjoy pu-erh all day long!
I am going to be in heaven with this thing!
YAY!
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Been considering this for a while. I don’t like the notion of maintaining high heat of water for any serious amount of time but I can’t really say I could call out a difference between a Zoji and freshly boiled in my heavier teas. This review is swaying me more towards the “I should buy this” mindset.
Well the reason I did this – as I do have the breville as well – is that I know I will not only drink more pu-erh but ENJOY it more with this. I mean to sit at my coffee table on the floor with a bunch of pillows, or take it into my meditation room / exercise room and enjoy it … quickly having the water the right temp RIGHT NOW for another steep – with the steeps being so small and frequent. Just could not see myself doing this with a stove top kettle or breville.
We have one of these at work and it is convenient, but I swear my tea tastes better at home when I use boiled water from the tap…
Do you think it is the office water or the machine?
Both the water from my apartment and from work come from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir which is supposed to be very clean. Honestly I have no idea. Maybe it’s just that everything is better when I’m not at work, or maybe the water tastes better when it’s freshly boiled rather than sitting in the water heater for a period of time.
For most teas there’s definitely a difference in flavor between water that’s kept warm for a prolonged period and fresh cool water brought up to temp since most gasses dissolve in water more easily at lower temperature. Most people will tell you it’s oxygen but I don’t buy it since O2 is tasteless. Dissolved CO2, however, forms an equilibrium with carbonic acid which produces a crisp taste. At the extreme end of carbonic acid saturation there’s carbonated water, to give you an idea of the effect it has on taste (try both freshly opened and after a few hours as it bubbles out of solution as carbon dioxide, going flat).
Yeah I can understand that concept – I don’t plan to let it sit around all day though – I hope at least to have an hour sitting time with my teas then I will either dump the water or at least change it over.
I have been using these for 9 years! Love them! At home, at our tea shop, these things rock! Funny that you called it Zo because that is what we call it, too!
You also don’t have to let it go through its boil mode and then cool back down to say, 175. Let’s say you set it for 175. As the temp is heating up and it gets to 175, you can simply unplug the Zo for 4-5 seconds and then it will switch off from “reboil” and hold it at the 175. It’s quicker that way, too!
We do a lot of tastings using the zo. Pretty darned convenient. And unless that water has been sitting along time, we have a hard time discerning a big change in the waters qualities. Quality water to begin with is a huge contributor to that, as is not using the reboil mode, especially using it frequently.
As the old Chinese tea books say, one can also add more fresh water to an old pot of water to bring it back to life. Or change the water completely.
Great! Someone reviews the Zojirushi and we are out of stock on them!! Sheesh :) We are waiting for a new shipment.
Garret – how do you clean it? that maybe part of the issue with the one in my office as well.
Hi Amy! Not with vinegar!
This is the only way to fly with it:
http://shopmandalatea.com/tea-wares/water-heaters/zojirushi-water-heater-cleaner-descaler.html
Or find citric acid and follow the Zo cleaning instructions. It makes the Zo more efficient and gets rid of all the calcification and funk.
thanks!
@ Garret yeah that is a bummer that your all out :( Maybe you should set up a Pre-order on your site so people can get them and you can ship them as soon as they come in! Just note that they are not in stock yet maybe.
Azzrian -If I wasn’t about to take off on a 5 day meditation retreat, I’d get on that. I soooo need to back away for a few days from my business and have some solid meditation and qigong time. I am going to be without electronics and computers and phones. Need some serious recharge time. I’ll get all the Zo stuff taken care of next week. But you have a great idea there, my friend!!!!!
We are having a major heat wave here right now. Local tea sales ground to a halt yesterday. Funny thing is, I drink hot tea no matter what the weather. I’m sure our locals are icing their teas right about now!
Enjoy your time Garret – sounds wonderful.
I will post updates to my Zo experiences though to keep the love alive :)
I would expect nothing less, m’dear, nothing less :) I leave this evening and will check in throughout the day today, though I’ve a few massage sessions to do. Drinking some incredible wild arbor gong ting pu’er right now. The cakes just arrived yesterday!!! I had 200 of the 250 gram cakes pressed of this amazing material. After 3 months since commissioning the pressing, they arrived yesterday and it was like Christmas in July for this young man!! It is tea-licious!!! While it is quite tasty now, I really look forward to what 2 and 3 years is going to bring to it. It’s gonna open up wide in 2014/2015!
Oh I bet you were so giddy having them all come in! Are they on the site yet? I can go look – ignore this post and go enjoy your retreat!
Not on the site yet! It’ll have to wait until I get back. I’m going to put them up for a special price for the first 25 cakes. I’ll post it to Steepster once I do.
Nice! Will keep my eyes open for it!
Been considering this for a while. I don’t like the notion of maintaining high heat of water for any serious amount of time but I can’t really say I could call out a difference between a Zoji and freshly boiled in my heavier teas. This review is swaying me more towards the “I should buy this” mindset.
Well the reason I did this – as I do have the breville as well – is that I know I will not only drink more pu-erh but ENJOY it more with this. I mean to sit at my coffee table on the floor with a bunch of pillows, or take it into my meditation room / exercise room and enjoy it … quickly having the water the right temp RIGHT NOW for another steep – with the steeps being so small and frequent. Just could not see myself doing this with a stove top kettle or breville.
We have one of these at work and it is convenient, but I swear my tea tastes better at home when I use boiled water from the tap…
Do you think it is the office water or the machine?
Both the water from my apartment and from work come from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir which is supposed to be very clean. Honestly I have no idea. Maybe it’s just that everything is better when I’m not at work, or maybe the water tastes better when it’s freshly boiled rather than sitting in the water heater for a period of time.
For most teas there’s definitely a difference in flavor between water that’s kept warm for a prolonged period and fresh cool water brought up to temp since most gasses dissolve in water more easily at lower temperature. Most people will tell you it’s oxygen but I don’t buy it since O2 is tasteless. Dissolved CO2, however, forms an equilibrium with carbonic acid which produces a crisp taste. At the extreme end of carbonic acid saturation there’s carbonated water, to give you an idea of the effect it has on taste (try both freshly opened and after a few hours as it bubbles out of solution as carbon dioxide, going flat).
Yeah I can understand that concept – I don’t plan to let it sit around all day though – I hope at least to have an hour sitting time with my teas then I will either dump the water or at least change it over.
I have been using these for 9 years! Love them! At home, at our tea shop, these things rock! Funny that you called it Zo because that is what we call it, too!
You also don’t have to let it go through its boil mode and then cool back down to say, 175. Let’s say you set it for 175. As the temp is heating up and it gets to 175, you can simply unplug the Zo for 4-5 seconds and then it will switch off from “reboil” and hold it at the 175. It’s quicker that way, too!
We do a lot of tastings using the zo. Pretty darned convenient. And unless that water has been sitting along time, we have a hard time discerning a big change in the waters qualities. Quality water to begin with is a huge contributor to that, as is not using the reboil mode, especially using it frequently.
As the old Chinese tea books say, one can also add more fresh water to an old pot of water to bring it back to life. Or change the water completely.
Great! Someone reviews the Zojirushi and we are out of stock on them!! Sheesh :) We are waiting for a new shipment.
Garret – how do you clean it? that maybe part of the issue with the one in my office as well.
Hi Amy! Not with vinegar!
This is the only way to fly with it:
http://shopmandalatea.com/tea-wares/water-heaters/zojirushi-water-heater-cleaner-descaler.html
Or find citric acid and follow the Zo cleaning instructions. It makes the Zo more efficient and gets rid of all the calcification and funk.
thanks!
@ Garret yeah that is a bummer that your all out :( Maybe you should set up a Pre-order on your site so people can get them and you can ship them as soon as they come in! Just note that they are not in stock yet maybe.
Azzrian -If I wasn’t about to take off on a 5 day meditation retreat, I’d get on that. I soooo need to back away for a few days from my business and have some solid meditation and qigong time. I am going to be without electronics and computers and phones. Need some serious recharge time. I’ll get all the Zo stuff taken care of next week. But you have a great idea there, my friend!!!!!
We are having a major heat wave here right now. Local tea sales ground to a halt yesterday. Funny thing is, I drink hot tea no matter what the weather. I’m sure our locals are icing their teas right about now!
Enjoy your time Garret – sounds wonderful.
I will post updates to my Zo experiences though to keep the love alive :)
I would expect nothing less, m’dear, nothing less :) I leave this evening and will check in throughout the day today, though I’ve a few massage sessions to do. Drinking some incredible wild arbor gong ting pu’er right now. The cakes just arrived yesterday!!! I had 200 of the 250 gram cakes pressed of this amazing material. After 3 months since commissioning the pressing, they arrived yesterday and it was like Christmas in July for this young man!! It is tea-licious!!! While it is quite tasty now, I really look forward to what 2 and 3 years is going to bring to it. It’s gonna open up wide in 2014/2015!
Oh I bet you were so giddy having them all come in! Are they on the site yet? I can go look – ignore this post and go enjoy your retreat!
Not on the site yet! It’ll have to wait until I get back. I’m going to put them up for a special price for the first 25 cakes. I’ll post it to Steepster once I do.
Nice! Will keep my eyes open for it!