I am finally starting a tea club at Mount Holyoke! This makes me really happy because then I'll be able to share my love of tea with even more people and help spread much better tea knowledge around instead of all that folklore unsubstantiated info that too many companies and people keep repeating. But really, I just hope to inspire more people to enjoy all the wonders of tea like I do.
One of the things I want this club to do is be involved with the tea community outside of our college. I only really know of one good tea shop in the area, but I wondered a bit about whether the extremely large cities on this coast offered any festivals like Seattle does. So to my absolute joy, I found the Coffee and Tea Festival! It has two dates and two locations, the soonest is in Atlantic City and is from November 3rd to 4th this year. Atlantic City is really far away from Mount Holyoke though, not to mention November is really soon, so I looked at the other location; New York City!!! Woo! Not much has been planned for this one up on it's website yet, but it's not until March (and during our Spring break no less!!) so I have high hopes.
I think this will be really great because finally I'll be able to get more in touch with the tea community here on the East Coast. I love my tea stores over in the NW, but let's face it, shipping is a huge pain (especially for a college student). Not to mention that I am severely limited on where to tell people to try or buy tea over here. This also gives me an excuse to go to NYC (which I've been avoiding because of how people describe it here). Hahaha.
As for how tea has been going these first three weeks at school anyways, it's been great! I've had a ton of tea drinking sessions with old friends and new friends alike. It's made me really happy and I think I've changed several people's minds about tea.
The other day I was serving up some tea in the living room and one student told me that she didn't want a cup of tea because she'd already had some earlier that day. I've since realized that when I'm serving a specific tea, I never want to use the word "tea" again. If you're offering a ride in a Lamborghini to someone who has no idea what kind of car you drive, do you simply say, "Hey, do you want a ride in my car?" No! Referring to a Lamborghini like it's any other car is akin to referring to your child as if they're just a random person. I realized that this has become the same with Macs and other large brand name items like Coke and Skittles. They make you think there is absolutely no replacement for them, even though a Mac is in it's general essence simply a computer, Coke is a soda, and Skittles are just candy. This is how I want to make it with my teas. So from henceforth, I will never refer to a tea I'm drinking or offering as "tea", but exactly what it is. On that evening I was serving up Moon White pu-erh from New Century Tea Gallery. When that student saw how much the others were enjoying the Moon White she decided to change her mind and ask for a cup too. It made me so happy!
I've noticed that just saying "tea" has also created other problems. The other night I posted something about having found a new scientific collection of reviews and research articles on Camellia sinensis and tea and my friend commented that he was shocked that tea was so complicated when he couldn't even decide if he liked green or black tea better. From this I realized that people even clump all greens and blacks etc together! Some of them are fairly similar to each other, and there are minor differences when it comes to a specific type just from a different farm or microclimate (in general, such as *the* Da Hong Pao vs. Da Hong Paos from grafts grown on different farms etc), but no one can really deny the difference between something such as Dragonwell and Sencha. Besides not even being from the same country, they taste completely different! In general, I do like green teas and will say that and clump them all together like that, but I don't think my friend even realized that there were multiple kinds of green tea. Most people's jaws drop when I tell them all kinds of tea (except for tisanes!!!) are from the same plant.
These are fairly big problems, but I think it's essential that we work harder to change how we speak about tea in order to influence how others see it so that more people will be able to understand how many wonders tea has to offer. :)
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
My Theory- Tea and Mountains and Temperature
I really need to go on top of a mountain and make some tea. Why?
Because I was looking at mountain pictures or something the other day
when I noticed that the climber remarked that while he was going to make
a cup of tea on top of the mountain, he didn't expect it to be any good
because the altitude was too high to reach 212 F (boiling temp at sea
level).
Here's how boiling temperature and altitude go:
Altitude (ft/m)- Boiling Temperature (F/C)
So why are we trying to boil our tea at 212/100?
I will tell you from personal experience, tea can brew at basically any temperature, especially green and white tea (I haven't tried it with a yellow, but I suspect yellow would be the same, as with less oxidized oolongs). In an older post, you will notice me brewing Japanese gyokuro with snow. I have yet to record these differences well, but the taste of the tea will change markedly about every 10/6 degrees.
You may be saying, "Well that sounds fine and all for the less oxidized and fermented teas, but the darker teas still need really hot water." and I will disagree with you. They grow black tea at those high altitudes too, you know. Very good pu-erhs come from some very high altitudes. Also, I've always suspected that the reason why I hated red tea (black to all of you Westerners who are new here) was because it was being brewed at too hot of temperatures like is commonly done to all other teas. Sometimes I've also noticed that I really dislike my pu-erhs if they're brewed with boiling water, but I like them better at around 195. So that's where I brew my tea at the maximum.
Here is my tea temp range (F):
White: 1-120
Green: 1-120
Lightly oxidized oolongs: 120-160
Dark oxidized oolongs: 120-175
Red (back) tea: 160-195
Pu-erh (and other fermented teas): 185-195
And note, these are not set in stone and are personal preferences. Also, I don't have enough experience with black teas to really tell you that is my minimum temperature for sure. But I do have one that I've been drinking recently that I like (lychee flavored is why hahaha) and I've liked it at 195.
Why are the ranges so high (especially for whites and greens)? Depends on my mood. Some days I want to be hit in the face by my tea's massive flavor (lower temp) and some days I want a more mellow ride and a hot cup in my hand (higher temp).
Note that the amount of L-theanine and caffeine will change depending on the temperature you brew your tea at. More caffeine is released at higher temperatures, contributing to the mistaken theory that darker teas have higher levels of caffeine. L-theanine is more present in tea brewed at lower temperatures, contributing to the noted relaxing effect and false idea that there is less caffeine in the lighter colored teas (L-theanine counters the stimulatory effect of caffeine). Also note that while L-theanine is noted to be in higher concentration in more white and green teas, it is not absent from the others. I haven't figured the exact specifications of that entirely yet, but I'm getting closer. Ask me if you want my sources for anything, I suppose I should just put up a post and update said post with all my sources anyways.
So in conclusion: drink tea at lower temperatures!
Here's how boiling temperature and altitude go:
Altitude (ft/m)- Boiling Temperature (F/C)
- 0/0- 212.0/100.0
- 250/76- 211.5/99.7 (This is about where I go to college)
- 500/152- 211.0/99.5 (This is about where I live when on the west coast)
- 1000/305- 210.1/98.5
- 2000/610- 208.1/97.8
- 3000/914- 206.2/96.8
- 4000/1219- 204.3/95.7 (One of the lower elevations of good quality tea)
- 5000/1524- 202.4/94.7
- 6000/1829- 200.6/93.6
- 7000/2134- 198.7/92.6
- 8000/2438- 196.9/91.6 (Pretty much the highest elevation of tea I've seen online)
- 9000/2743- 195.0/90.6
- 10000/3048- 193.2/89.6
So why are we trying to boil our tea at 212/100?
I will tell you from personal experience, tea can brew at basically any temperature, especially green and white tea (I haven't tried it with a yellow, but I suspect yellow would be the same, as with less oxidized oolongs). In an older post, you will notice me brewing Japanese gyokuro with snow. I have yet to record these differences well, but the taste of the tea will change markedly about every 10/6 degrees.
You may be saying, "Well that sounds fine and all for the less oxidized and fermented teas, but the darker teas still need really hot water." and I will disagree with you. They grow black tea at those high altitudes too, you know. Very good pu-erhs come from some very high altitudes. Also, I've always suspected that the reason why I hated red tea (black to all of you Westerners who are new here) was because it was being brewed at too hot of temperatures like is commonly done to all other teas. Sometimes I've also noticed that I really dislike my pu-erhs if they're brewed with boiling water, but I like them better at around 195. So that's where I brew my tea at the maximum.
Here is my tea temp range (F):
White: 1-120
Green: 1-120
Lightly oxidized oolongs: 120-160
Dark oxidized oolongs: 120-175
Red (back) tea: 160-195
Pu-erh (and other fermented teas): 185-195
And note, these are not set in stone and are personal preferences. Also, I don't have enough experience with black teas to really tell you that is my minimum temperature for sure. But I do have one that I've been drinking recently that I like (lychee flavored is why hahaha) and I've liked it at 195.
Why are the ranges so high (especially for whites and greens)? Depends on my mood. Some days I want to be hit in the face by my tea's massive flavor (lower temp) and some days I want a more mellow ride and a hot cup in my hand (higher temp).
Note that the amount of L-theanine and caffeine will change depending on the temperature you brew your tea at. More caffeine is released at higher temperatures, contributing to the mistaken theory that darker teas have higher levels of caffeine. L-theanine is more present in tea brewed at lower temperatures, contributing to the noted relaxing effect and false idea that there is less caffeine in the lighter colored teas (L-theanine counters the stimulatory effect of caffeine). Also note that while L-theanine is noted to be in higher concentration in more white and green teas, it is not absent from the others. I haven't figured the exact specifications of that entirely yet, but I'm getting closer. Ask me if you want my sources for anything, I suppose I should just put up a post and update said post with all my sources anyways.
So in conclusion: drink tea at lower temperatures!
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