About a year or two ago now, I bought a pu-erh at Uwajimaya. It was on sale and they'd advertized it well. I went home to try it and was rewarded with the worst tea of my life. I tried brewing it several different ways with different temperatures and steeping times- but to no avail. It was as if I'd just brought in a fish factory to my house. Worst pu-erh experience of my life. It's a miracle I ever bought another, especially from Uwajimaya. Hahaha.
Speed forward to last week, I went and made my recent favorite in one of the glass Teavana tea tumblers so that I could have it with me on the go on my way to work. The tea is super dark and thick, just how I like it, and my coworker spots it. I have just taken my first sip and have noticed that it doesn't taste nearly as good as normal. I attribute this to maybe not having used enough leaves, but really, I put in a ton. But my coworker asks if she can smell it and I agree. I quickly tell her though, that it doesn't normally smell like this (because it doesn't) and have to make an excuse for the poor aroma. Days later and this memory still bothers me. I couldn't understand how my favorite pu-erh could have smelled so unpleasantly fishy. Then I made gyokuro in it. Miracle above all horrible miracles, even my gyokuro smelled bad!!! I was in absolute shock. That was just so ridiculous. This should not have been happening! This couldn't be happening! But it was!
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there had to be a connection between these two incidents and that original Uwajimaya crap pu-erh. Then it dawned on me. The tumbler. At the time of that original pu-erh, I didn't actually own a real gaiwan or even a real tea pot. I brewed all of my teas in my little glass Teavana tumbler. Most of them were just fine, but they had always seemed a bit sweeter on the bad side of sweet when coming from there. I thought it was the metal mesh, and have avidly avoided using anything metal in my brewing pots for a long time, but now I don't think it was actually that.
I've been reading up on wine and alcohol culture lately (which always confuses me anyways since I don't actually drink at all), but if any of you drink wine in particular, I'm sure you'll know that the air and how the drink is poured is actually very important to the taste. This is true of making cocktails as well. There is a reason why people can get degrees in being a sommelier or bartender. Mixing and pouring and making drinks brewed from plants are actually very complex chemical processes. So it could make sense that the brewing vessel actually makes a difference in the taste of the drink, in the taste of my tea.
I bash Teavana enough as it is, so I will say here that I do not think this is anything that's out of the way their fault. I'm pretty sure there are many other companies with straight tall glass cylindrical tea brewing tumblers. Also, as I've mentioned before, some teas taste just fine in one of them. But they're never that special kind of magical that I get with brewing them other ways.
Because of how much control you have, I think I like brewing in a gaiwan best. There are however, different shaped gaiwans. I'd known before that this was for different types of tea, but I'd always brushed that off as being way too nit-picky. I think now though that there probably is a lot more truth to those sort of thing than I thought before which only goes to show again that it's better to respect the words of your elders and give them more trust than doubt. I'd talk about the different shapes of gaiwans and teapots and what those are better suited for, but I'll just save that for another post another day. Or just put tidibits of that in as I go along like usual.
By the way, that I've brought out this tea (which now tastes MUCH BETTER brewed in a gaiwan) also means that I've brought out the other shu pu-erhs that I'd had in storage for the school year and... MOON WHITE.
I have it next to me right now and I keep opening the jar I have it in to smell it happily. I might even write a poem about this tea in my next post. Tea and poems go together, right? Or maybe I should just post a music video I find appropriate and let a pro do the mushy stuff for me. Haha.
Showing posts with label brewing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brewing. Show all posts
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Coffee Floats and Tea Sinks? Where To Put Your Leaves?
"Coffee Floats and Tea Sinks" is apparently the title of some book, but it was a book about coffee, so I didn't bother looking at it much more than that on amazon.
Today, kind of like usual, I was looking around online for a nice Gongfu tea tray. Upon looking around, I found out that some people call it a "tea sink"! I started looking for one using those keywords, but came across something interesting about tea leaves sinking into the water instead.
Vicony Teas Tea Encyclopedia How to Brew Tea
I'd never heard of this before, but apparently there are 3 different methods of brewing tea concerning when you put the leaves in the water. Most of us use "Bottom-Putting Method" (下投法), but it appears that for green teas we should be either using "Middle-Putting Method" (中投法) or "Top-Putting Method" (上投法). What is the difference between these 3 methods? Well simply put, it has to do with where you put the leaves in the water.
For those of you who don't know, this can be important to consider because some leaf flavors are more sensitive to heat than other. My favorite tea, Gyokuro (a Japanese green) is a perfect example for what the different temperatures of water do to the flavors. Green tea in general likes water at about 175 F. Personally, I never like my greens at anything higher than 160F (unless it's Houjicha). When the water is too hot, it brings out a very disgusting bitter taste in green tea. When the water temperature is correct, you will taste sweeter, grassier, more flowery and vegetal flavors instead (unless your tea is either crap or too old). About every 5-10 degrees between 35F and 140F (the highest I'll ever go with Gyokuro), you will notice a difference in the flavor of Gyokuro. Why? Because different chemical components of the leaf are being pulled out (lower temperature= more L-theanine, less caffeine) and the temperature also highlights different flavors too. Ever notice how American beer tastes like crap at room temperature, but the Germans think we're insane for drinking beer cold? Or how ice cream is way too sweet when warm?
As I tried to imply with Bottom-Putting Method (henceforth BPM), this is where you put the leaves in before putting the water on top. This is what most Americans use, probably because we're so used to doing dry ingredients before wet ones when baking. You're really never supposed to do this with green tea because that's too harsh on the delicately steamed leaves (or pan fried if they're Chinese). This source seems to suggest that you shouldn't really do that with any type of good quality tea, but I guess I'll have to do an experiment with that using pu-erh and oolong (I don't have any black teas) and see if there's any reason to fuss about that with the hardier, more oxidized teas.
Middle-Putting Method (MPM), seems pretty interesting to me. In this method, the source says to fill the brewing container about 1/4th of the way with water at brewing temperature. Then you need to put the leaves on top of that and let them soak a little until they start to float down (vessel may be shaken slightly). Finally you fill the rest of the vessel with brewing water and then wait until the leaves fall to the bottom (it suggests that if they don't then your water is too cool, but that appears to be partially because it looks like they're suggesting drinking "Grandpa style") and then wait for it to brew (about a min or so) and only then drink. This is suggested for Chinese greens like Longjing (Dragon Well) and Huang Shan Mao Feng (Yellow Mountain Fur Peak) with are both delicious.
Top-Putting Method (TPM) is where you put the leaves on top of the brewing water. They recommend this for even more delicate teas like white teas apparently (they say Bi Luo Chun, but I haven't ever had this one or seen it before which isn't surprising because I'm not typically a white tea person).
I'm curious to see if these really do make an impact on flavor. For more delicate teas for sure, I would imagine that they do, but I'd like to try it out for myself too. If any of you have experience with this as well, or know anything more, please feel free to comment on this post!
On a more personal note, I'm down to my last 5 grams of my absolute favorite 2898!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness. When you get a new brick, it looks like it'll last you forever, but I'm down to the last tippy little corner now, and in another 2 hours or so it'll be gone. I'll possibly post something in it's memory. Hahaha. But funnily enough, getting a larger gaiwan and hand strainer has really increased my tea consumption. I had nearly 50 grams still left a month ago when I came back to Seattle from Mount Holyoke. Hahaha. Oh well. I've loved every drop of it!
Today, kind of like usual, I was looking around online for a nice Gongfu tea tray. Upon looking around, I found out that some people call it a "tea sink"! I started looking for one using those keywords, but came across something interesting about tea leaves sinking into the water instead.
Vicony Teas Tea Encyclopedia How to Brew Tea
I'd never heard of this before, but apparently there are 3 different methods of brewing tea concerning when you put the leaves in the water. Most of us use "Bottom-Putting Method" (下投法), but it appears that for green teas we should be either using "Middle-Putting Method" (中投法) or "Top-Putting Method" (上投法). What is the difference between these 3 methods? Well simply put, it has to do with where you put the leaves in the water.
For those of you who don't know, this can be important to consider because some leaf flavors are more sensitive to heat than other. My favorite tea, Gyokuro (a Japanese green) is a perfect example for what the different temperatures of water do to the flavors. Green tea in general likes water at about 175 F. Personally, I never like my greens at anything higher than 160F (unless it's Houjicha). When the water is too hot, it brings out a very disgusting bitter taste in green tea. When the water temperature is correct, you will taste sweeter, grassier, more flowery and vegetal flavors instead (unless your tea is either crap or too old). About every 5-10 degrees between 35F and 140F (the highest I'll ever go with Gyokuro), you will notice a difference in the flavor of Gyokuro. Why? Because different chemical components of the leaf are being pulled out (lower temperature= more L-theanine, less caffeine) and the temperature also highlights different flavors too. Ever notice how American beer tastes like crap at room temperature, but the Germans think we're insane for drinking beer cold? Or how ice cream is way too sweet when warm?
As I tried to imply with Bottom-Putting Method (henceforth BPM), this is where you put the leaves in before putting the water on top. This is what most Americans use, probably because we're so used to doing dry ingredients before wet ones when baking. You're really never supposed to do this with green tea because that's too harsh on the delicately steamed leaves (or pan fried if they're Chinese). This source seems to suggest that you shouldn't really do that with any type of good quality tea, but I guess I'll have to do an experiment with that using pu-erh and oolong (I don't have any black teas) and see if there's any reason to fuss about that with the hardier, more oxidized teas.
Middle-Putting Method (MPM), seems pretty interesting to me. In this method, the source says to fill the brewing container about 1/4th of the way with water at brewing temperature. Then you need to put the leaves on top of that and let them soak a little until they start to float down (vessel may be shaken slightly). Finally you fill the rest of the vessel with brewing water and then wait until the leaves fall to the bottom (it suggests that if they don't then your water is too cool, but that appears to be partially because it looks like they're suggesting drinking "Grandpa style") and then wait for it to brew (about a min or so) and only then drink. This is suggested for Chinese greens like Longjing (Dragon Well) and Huang Shan Mao Feng (Yellow Mountain Fur Peak) with are both delicious.
Top-Putting Method (TPM) is where you put the leaves on top of the brewing water. They recommend this for even more delicate teas like white teas apparently (they say Bi Luo Chun, but I haven't ever had this one or seen it before which isn't surprising because I'm not typically a white tea person).
I'm curious to see if these really do make an impact on flavor. For more delicate teas for sure, I would imagine that they do, but I'd like to try it out for myself too. If any of you have experience with this as well, or know anything more, please feel free to comment on this post!
On a more personal note, I'm down to my last 5 grams of my absolute favorite 2898!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness. When you get a new brick, it looks like it'll last you forever, but I'm down to the last tippy little corner now, and in another 2 hours or so it'll be gone. I'll possibly post something in it's memory. Hahaha. But funnily enough, getting a larger gaiwan and hand strainer has really increased my tea consumption. I had nearly 50 grams still left a month ago when I came back to Seattle from Mount Holyoke. Hahaha. Oh well. I've loved every drop of it!
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