I see there's been an uptick in "new-to-tea" style posts after Christmas; a lot of people who got nice loose leaf and don't know what to do next!
The nice thing about brewing tea is you can do it however you want. You only need tea leaves and water. Sometimes I skip the water and just chew on leaves ;)
The sidebar has a brief guide for brewing tea. It's designed for a mild western style cuppa and is definitely a great place to start.
But in addition to that I figured I'd rehash all the different ways I've learned to brew tea while hanging out here (and elsewhere).
The primary way Westerners first learn to brew tea is what I refer to as "western style". There are many variations on this style depending on what tools are available to the brewer.
The key features of western style are: Simple brewing with little tradition, a low leaf to water ratio, careful timing but with relatively long steepings, and only using the tea leaves once before discarding.
This style is best suited for flavored teas and teas with chopped leaves.
The amount of tea and water to use is usually around 3-5 g per 350 mL (which is a standard mug) or "one teaspoon for each person and one for the pot" which works out to about 4-5 teaspoons for a 2-mug pot (like the 24 oz personaliTEA pots from adagio).
(The discrepancy between the British saying and my own calculation comes from the fact that tea from a pot is traditionally served in 8 oz cups rather than 12 oz mugs, so you need 50% more tea leaves if you are brewing in a mug. Likewise some tea bags seem to be sized for cups rather than mugs so some people prefer to use two tea bags for a mug!).
Water temperature is very important in brewing western style. The water temperature to use depends on the leaf. For black teas, with or without flavoring, and herbal teas or rooibos, use boiling water. For white and green teas, generally 80 C (180 F) water is used. Using boiling water will make the brew very bitter. If you do not have a thermometer, boiling the water and then waiting about 5 minutes will bring it down to an appropriate temperature. With some practice and once you get used to your method of heating water, you can catch the pot at the right temperature before it boils, but you'll only know if you got it right if the tea turns out tasty.
If you boil in a pot on the stove or in a glass kettle you can use this traditional Chinese method to predict how hot the water is and when it is right to brew with.
The simplest is simply a tea bag in a mug. With loose leaf, many people replace the teabag with an infuser like this or this. Most serious tea drinkers prefer the latter because it gives the tea leaves more room to expand. If you use the former it works fine for some teas but trust me, do not use it with a tightly rolled oolong - the tea in the middle will still be dry when you're done!
For a pot simply place the leaves in the pot. Some pots come with an infuser like the basket shown above; others do not. When the time is up, either remove the basket from the pot or decant the pot into another container. Some people like to have two pots: one for brewing in and a second to keep the tea warm but not to have any tea leaves in. Sometimes people make pot-shaped vessels specifically for this purpose, like this curiousity! Otherwise you can simply pour into the mugs you intend to serve out of, but if the pot makes more tea than you want to drink right away this can be problematic.
Finally steep times. I think 3 minutes is about right for most teas western style. Some people say 2-3 min for green and white and 3-5 for black. I've had blacks like yorkshire gold that became absolutely undrinkable a second over 3 minutes of brew time. Others are just fine for 20 minutes in the water. Generally speaking if the tea isn't strong enough, it is better to add more tea leaf the next time you brew it rather than brewing longer. Brewing longer will make the tea more bitter.
A variation on Western-style brewing, but distinct enough that I think it deserves its own place of recognition, is ice tea. Designed to be served cold, ice tea can be brewed cold or hot. Because the cold numbs the flavors slightly (Serving temperature is nearly as important as brewing temperature for tea), ice tea is usually brewed very strongly and served with lots of sugar to cut the astringency.
Traditional southern sweet tea is brewed with boiling water, usually 5-8 tea bags per pitcher (although I've seen more). My grandmother pours boiling water in and then leaves it for hours; my mother prefers to actively boil the bags on the stove for a few minutes and then decant into a pitcher. My understanding is that my mother's way is actually more traditional. After decanting the hot tea into the pitcher, she adds a ton of sugar. At this point is very dark and black and sweet, similar to the middle eastern way of brewing tea (more on that later!). She then dilutes it to taste with cold water and ice.
With my grandmother's method the sugar isn't added until after the tea already cools to refrigerator temperature. My boyfriend insists that adding the sugar when the tea is hot vs. cold changes the flavor and that only the hot way is proper. What do you guys think?
Cold brewing tea is even simpler. Stick leaves in pitcher, place in fridge, leave for at least several hours, often over night. Usually this isn't brewed as strongly (fewer leaves are used) and so it often doesn't need to be sweetened. People have had good results here doing it with loose leaf oolongs. You don't need to contain the leaves in an infuser because they will sink to the bottom easily.
Next up: "Eastern Style" by which I mean, grouped together very roughly, Chinese and Japanese ways of brewing tea.
These methods tend to favor a very high leaf to water ratio, very short steeps sometimes instantaneous, usually brewed in a [small pot]http://ift.tt/1THSRPc), gaiwan, or shiboridashi. Many steeps are done on the same leaves leading to liters of tea per session.
There are eastern methods that do not follow those themes which I will also discuss later.
The traditional Chinese way of brewing tea often discussed here is "gongfu cha" - translated: "The art of tea" or "a traditional, thoughtful way of making tea". Yes, it is the same word as kung-fu!
A true gongfu cha tea ceremony celebrates not only the tea, but grace, conservation of movement, and skill in brewing.
But you can use the same techniques to simply brew tea in an interesting and tasty way.
Gongfu-cha is most commonly performed in a gaiwan or a yixing pot. These usually range between 100-200 mL. Very small (60 mL) are sometimes used and also very large (300 mL). Because it tends to involve sloshing a lot of water around a tea tray that can sit under your brewing area and catch the waste water is very helpful. Likewise, a kettle that can keep water warm a long time is helpful so you don't have to re-heat the water for each steep.
Typical amount of leaf is 5-7 g per 100 mL. This may look like the gaiwan is more than half leaves, especially after the leaves have unfurled. This is correct!
It is easier to show than to tell. Here is a woman doing traditional gongfu cha in a yixing pot.
This music video also has a very traditional tea ceremony as part of its theme. Be wary though as it also has some more... weird stuff. Probably NSFW.
My boyfriend says that gongfu cha is like doing chromatography on the tea. Western style pulls all of the tea compounds into the same pot and they are served all at once. With many short steeps you are instead only getting one piece of the tea at a time. The early bits, the middle bits, and the late bits.
You can argue about the exact definition of gongfu-cha for days. Some people say that it must be the full tea ceremony to be called that. If you don't combine three steeps in three cups then it doesn't count! But it still a Chinese style even if you are just using some of the principles.
This method is best for puerh and long-lasting oolongs. It works fine for whole-leaf chinese blacks and greens. Do not use it for flavored teas.
Sometimes I do a hybrid style. I have 200 mL teapots which would make too much tea for me if I did true gongfu cha. So I use less leaves than I would for true gongfucha, do longer steeps, and usually get about 3-4 steeps. It works for me!
Japanese traditional method of making tea is similar. There are a few key differences. Usually the volumes are slightly larger, and while Chinese tea almost always stands up to boiling water, Japanese tea must be brewed at very cold temperatures or it gets bitter. Don't brew Japanese tea hotter than 80 C! (Exceptions being japanese black or fermented tea, but almost all tea from japan is green).
Here is a video of using a shiboridashi.
Keep in mind this is for full tea leaves. Another traditional Japanese drink is Matcha which is made with powdered tea. Rather than being brewed this is whisked into a smoothie-type drink (still hot though!). Here is a great video of making matcha.
Another traditional Chinese way of brewing tea is "grandpa style". That particular term was coined by MarshalN, and his explanation is probably the best. It is a no-fuss way to brew tea. Put tea in cup. No infuser, nothing else. A cup that doesn't hold heat well (but can still stand up to boiling water) is actually preferable for this. Glass works well. Add hot water. Drink as soon as it gets cool enough. Continue adding hot water until you don't want to drink anymore or it stops tasting good. This works best with very inoffensive teas like good quality tieguanyin or green teas. Don't use with flavored teas or with raw puerh!
In Russia the tradition is to brew tea very strongly in the tiny pot on top of a samovar, and then dilute it with hot water from the bottom to taste. Rather than sweetening the tea with sugar, it is sweetened with jam or drunk straight while holding a hard candy in one's mouth to sweeten it. Here's how to use a samovar.
Tea is the most commonly drunk beverage around the world. There's one more tradition I wish to discussion and that is of the powerfully strong, sweet, frothy drink, of which has countless variations, usually done with black tea.
This is what I mean.
The tea leaves are boiled in a pot, usually black tea that has broken leaves. In Morocco fresh mint is added. In India and southeast asia, spices are added (masala, as in masala chai). An insane amount of sugar is then added and then the pouring starts.
You've probably seen videos of the insane pulled tea made in southeast asia. The pouring back and forth cools the tea and also causes it to froth. In these traditions condensed milk is also added, which further increases the frothing.
Another way to make Masala Chai. Rather than using the pouring to froth, the boil > reduce heat cycle leads to a smooth consistency.
Sweet and flavorful, this tea appeals to people across the world.
How do you like to brew tea?
Submitted January 08, 2016 at 12:20AM by Thallassa http://ift.tt/1THSUug tea
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