Bonavita 1-Liter Variable Temperature Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

From Amazon.com $90

This thing is amazing. This is my new favorite kettle. I have gotten used to the Pino Digital Kettle Pro (see this) and the heating up of water sounding like a jet taking off. The Bonavita is very quiet, something I now can appreciate after owning the Pino for several years. The pore from the gooseneck spout is laminar and aesthetically pleasing. The one thing I would have liked is a slightly larger capacity as my normal morning sessions typically use a little over 1 L, the larger option that is available does not have the gooseneck spout. I highly recommend this to anyone thinking of getting an electric kettle.

(I am leaving the hazy white cover on to protect the electronics)

Bird Tongue Green Tea

From Lang's Tea Co. approximately $180 per 450 g.
Lang's Tea Co.
429 Stockton St.
San Francisco, CA
415-391-2228
www.langstea.com (not there now see below)
429langtea@gmail.com


This was a teashop I stopped by on my trip to southern California. This was a nice stop since it was the only shop that I found that felt reasonably welcoming. The other shops I found were just kept telling you how healthy tea is for you and that their tea is the best... I get it theyre trying to make a living, but after I tell you that I already like tea and don't care about all of the health benefits please stop telling me all the superpowers I am going to get from drinking your tea. With that said we had a nice session with Lang. This was the green that I had not tried, we had the lower cost one and I bought the more expensive one. I got the more expensive stuff since it looked like good leaf. Lesson learned yet again, try before you buy. I now how have a reasonable amount of mediocre green tea. It smells shockingly similar to asparagus when brewed. Its an alright green tea, but a reasonalbe amount will probably be used a a lab tea. Lab teas are the ones I take to work to drink, which is likely the height of my senses being dulled since I am in a synthetic organic lab. Therefore lab tea is tea that is alright but nothing that I want to save and appreciate. Lang was very nice and told me that the shop has been there for about a year and a website is in the works. Theres a couple of more teas from Langs I got that I will post about soon.

Edit: Brew at 60 C, it is much better than 80 C. It is still not the best, but good.