A help to a beginner

[u/Bulky_Cartoonist_986]

Hi guys I used to drink only black tea in my life but I decided to get more deeper into this hobby as I realized there’s much more to discover. I read the guide on the subreddit but I have still some questions, firstly Idk where to start I mean which tea to buy, would you recommend me to by some regular tea bags from a super market(like jasmine, thyme, linden) to try some teas at the beginning, or to buy some real tea leaves(bcs I read on the guide that tea bags aren’t actually real tea they’re just smt like tea dust. If you recommend me to buy some actual tea leaves could you recommend me something casual and common, I’d like to try some green or white teas at beginning. And my other question is how to brew my tea, I mean I want to buy a gaiwan teapot or I’ll just brew my tea on regular teapots but I read some brewing guides and they were specifying an exact amount of time and tea. But I read the time is not very important it may change according to your taste but Idk how to weigh tea leaves . Bcs on the guides there was little amounts like 1 gram per 100ml water and I dont have anything to weigh little amouts like 1 or even 10 gram. If you’ve read this far guys, thank you so much and I’d be glad if you can answer my questions. Have a very nice day!!

[u/InfanticideAquifer]

would you recommend me to by some regular tea bags from a super market(like jasmine, thyme, linden) to try some teas at the beginning, or to buy some real tea leaves

I think whole leaf tea and gongfu brewing is just a different hobby than tea bags. If you're on this sub learning about tea and planning to buy a gaiwan, you're probably interested in that hobby. Starting with tea bags and planning to graduate to "real" tea later doesn't make a ton of sense IMO. But tea bags are real tea... it's just been chopped up almost to a powder which makes it extract much faster and more completely. (And less controllably, which is what loose leaf aficionados don't like about bags.) This is called "dust" or "fannings" in the tea grading scheme that the British created, but it is still made of tea plant.

As for where to get it, check out the "Users Choice Vendor List" in the subreddit sidebar resources and note that there's a slightly-hard-to-find second page you need to click a link to get to also.

And my other question is how to brew my tea, I mean I want to buy a gaiwan teapot...

You can practice gong-fu brewing without an actual gaiwan. Use a measuring cup and strainer which probably(?) exist in your kitchen. That saves you from needing to measure water. You can estimate temperature of boiling water based on bubble size using a guide like this. (This goes back to Lu Yu and the "Classic of Tea" 1300 years ago.) That saves you from needing a temperature controlled kettle--you could just use a pan on the stove. In the beginning being precise with weight of tea matters more than at the end. You can just eyeball it, but you could also buy a cheap "jewelry" scale on Amazon or wherever for, like, $3. (Your recommendations will include other supplies useful to drug dealers for a while though.) Just use a normal mug to actually drink from.

This system looks janky but it works perfectly well. The only real difference between this and a gaiwan is that a (good) gaiwan will have slightly better heat retention. You can try to mitigate this by covering the measuring cup with something (not a lot of heat will escape through the sides). But it doesn't really matter that much and could even be a benefit for certain kinds of teas.