Best time for a cup of tea?

[YordLama]

I've tried your advice once and it did taste better, though I think the water I used was still too hot. I've bought another small tin from the supermarket for about 100 kuai. I got the same tin to give to a friend in Seoul a few weeks ago and thought I should try it myself. I didn't realise it doesn't keep very long!

[abcdefg]

9 hours ago, YordLama said:

I've tried your advice once and it did taste better, though I think the water I used was still too hot.

 

If in doubt when first getting to know a new green tea you have just bought, such as this Longjing, it's safest to err on the side of the water not being quite hot enough. Then adjust it the second time depending on your results.

 

I live in China, like you do, and we both probably have a water dispensing machine 饮水机 in the house. What I do when using that for hot water to brew Longjing, is use water from the hot side of the dispenser, but hold the glass a few inches below the spigot and pour in a slow stream so that the water can cool a bit on the way to the leaves. If using boiling water made with an electric tea kettle or on the stove, I bring the water to a boil and then let it stand half a minute or so before pouring. The goal is to use water that is 85 or 90 degrees Celsius (with 100 of course being boiling.)

 

Thought I should probably also mention that when brewing many teas, you first rinse them, discarding that water. But when brewing Longjing, you don't. Drink the tea liquor right from the start.

 

9 hours ago, YordLama said:

I didn't realise it doesn't keep very long!

 

In making green teas such as Longjing, the fresh leaves are quickly roasted by hand in large woks to stop the process of oxidation. This is called 杀青 sha qing ("kill green.") But the process is never 100%, it cannot be without burning the leaves. Over time, oxidation slowly takes place and changes the character of the tea, making it less fresh, less grassy, fruity and floral.

 

Commercial vendors can extend the lifetime of a green tea by vacuum sealing the whole package and storing it in a very cold chest-type deep freeze. But individual home users should just keep it on a relatively cool and dry shelf, away from direct light, and over time the tea becomes less interesting. It never becomes toxic or poison, it just looses flavor.

 

Other kinds of tea keep much longer. Red tea 红茶 and some Oolongs 乌龙茶 can keep and improve over the course of 3 to 5 years. Pu'er tea 普洱茶 is often at its best after a decade if stored under proper conditions.

 

I'm sure your Seoul friend will enjoy that Longjing. It's a great gift and one of the specialties of Hangzhou. I similarly send Pu'er tea (the specialty of Yunnan) to my overseas friends if given half a chance.

[abcdefg]

10 hours ago, Minotaur said:

沏茶当用紫砂壶。

 

@Minotaur-- A small purple clay 紫砂 tea pot is great for brewing Pu'er tea, but really not so good for Longjing. I reserve my small Yixing 宜兴 and Jianshui 建水 clay pots for Pu'er and other stronger teas. They can sort of round off sharp corners and give them a more mellow finish.

 

Longjing works best in a vessel which is not porous, such as glass. A ceramic 盖碗 is also OK, but most people enjoy actually watching the leaves "wake up" as they get rehydrated with hot water and move around.

 

[Yadang]

17 hours ago, abcdefg said:

If the water is too hot, it "kills" the tea and makes it kind of sour and bitter.

 

I've always wondered why this is... I wonder if there have been any studies on this... Is it a solubility thing where a certain compound in tea can be extracted at above ~90 deg C, but not below? Has anyone done any reading on this?

 

5 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Thought I should probably also mention that when brewing many teas, you first rinse them, discarding that water. But when brewing Longjing, you don't. Drink the tea liquor right from the start.

 

 

Do you know why it's not done with Longjing, abcdefg?

 

 

5 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Commercial vendors can extend the lifetime of a green tea by vacuum sealing the whole package and storing it in a very cold chest-type deep freeze.

 

My understanding was that if vacuum sealed, an oolong tea (and I would assume a green tea, too) would last (basically) forever, even not frozen, until you open it, and that's when the clock starts ticking. Is this not the case?

[lrumin94]

We just got some Longjing tea as a present and I really like the taste! I can't say I've tried it as per @abcdefg's instruction but will definitely try it as soon as I get home. By the way, seriously living for this thread! I loooove it! <3

[Minotaur]

I'm good with purple clay for Longjing. But the ultimate reason why I like purple clay is because it looks elegant

 

Also, I wonder how people drink Tieguanyin, it looks rather messy every time when I try to brew it in my glass bottle. 

[abcdefg]

That's great, @Irumin94 -- Glad you like that taste. I like it too. Had some this morning, in fact.

 

@Yadang -- You raise some very good points and have asked some thoughtful questions. I don't know why water that's too hot adversely affects the flavor of green tea. Your hypothesis sounds eminently reasonable. I just have not tried to research the subject, but maybe someone else knows.

 

The main reason Longjing isn't rinsed, so far as I am aware, is that it has a light flavor and one doesn't want to just wash part of it away. With a stronger-flavored tea such as Pu'er, there is so much flavor to spare that it doesn't matter if some is discarded. It's not uncommon for Pu'er teas to still produce a good cup after 9 or 10 brewings. Longjing can only give you three or maybe four.

 

And with Pu'er there is also the issue of wanting to wash away off flavors that resulted from fermentation. Longjing isn't fermented, thus it doesn't have that issue. It's also not necessary to "wake the tea up" with a discarded first rinse like it is with Pu'er or even some red teas 红茶。

 

This kind of goes against what I was saying, but I have seen tea masters sometimes give green tea a very quick rinse in only a small amount of water. They do this just to remove dust that might have gathered during display. Lots of wholesale vendors keep seasonal tea open to inspection in large cardboard boxes or round cardboard barrels.

 

About vacuum sealing, I think it hugely retards oxidation and spoilage, but doesn't entirely prevent it. What I've noticed first hand is that a package of Oolong or white tea can taste great when first opened, but then it becomes uninteresting or even somehow "off" very fast, in just a couple of days.

 

Lots of Oolong, including some of my favorite Tieguanyin teas, are packaged in "unit dose" packages which contain enough leaf to make one small pot. They are enough for one sitting; enough to accompany one meal. Thus they get around the problem of quick deterioration. I really like to be able to buy tea which is packaged that way, even though it surely adds to the cost.

 

 

[abcdefg]

6 hours ago, Minotaur said:

But the ultimate reason why I like purple clay is because it looks elegant

 

Haha, @Minotaur -- I certainly agree with you on that score!

 

6 hours ago, Minotaur said:

Also, I wonder how people drink Tieguanyin, it looks rather messy every time when I try to brew it in my glass bottle. 

 

So far as I've seen, most people in the tea business use a gaiwan 盖碗 for Tieguanyin. One which is ceramic, such as Jingdezhen Porcelain 景德镇陶瓷 is perfect for that. One can also use a smallish ceramic teapot. I've seen those in use a lot when visiting Fujian and Guangdong. They seem to be on every table at places which sell dim sum brunch.

 

It sounds like you might be using the "grandpa method" of brewing tea in a large, screw top glass jar-type tea cup, Chinese style. I do that a lot too, though I get better results from red tea and Pu'er than I do from green tea and Oolong. Every taxi driver here in Kunming has his big, refillable 茶杯 tucked down beside his seat or in a door pocket. Half the people on the street also seem to be carrying one, especially the old folks. You refill the cup at places you stop all through the day. It's a tried and true method!

[JeroenB]

9 hours ago, abcdefg said:

But individual home users should just keep it on a relatively cool and dry shelf, away from direct light, and over time the tea becomes less interesting.

We actually freeze our green tea leaves (by just putting the whole bag in the freezer). What's your opinion on that? Would it kill the flavour?

[abcdefg]

On 7/31/2017 at 5:31 PM, JeroenB said:

We actually freeze our green tea leaves (by just putting the whole bag in the freezer). What's your opinion on that? Would it kill the flavour?

 

JeroenB -- This is a controversial issue, one on which internet searches turns up a wide assortment of opinions. Wish I could supply a really definitive answer, one based on actual science. But I'm afraid it mostly comes down to "My teachers said this or that or the other." I fully realize how unsatisfactory that is. And what if someone else's teachers said something different? Who to believe?

 

I also must admit that I used to sometimes freeze my tea too, especially when someone gave me a big tin of it, too much to use in one year. At the time I was living in Texas, where the summers were blistering hot. It seemed very reasonable to protect the tea from that kind of ambient heat.

 

The best argument I ever heard for not doing that was when someone explained how ordinary home freezers, like the kind found as a small section of an ordinary refrigerator, go through temperature cycles during which they get colder and warmer and then colder again. By design, they don't stay at a constant low temperature. This variance lets condensation moisture collect in the wrapped tea, and over time, that harms it. It seems that the moisture doesn't just coat the tea leaves, but rather it forms micro-crystals inside the leaves and this adversely affects cellular structure.

 

It's a real good question, and an important one. Wish I had better answers. Maybe someone else can help.

 

[chenyswhite]

Dian Hong Jasmine Red Dragon Pearl, this Jasmine Dragon Ball Black Tea is an innovative flowering tea combining the jasmine flowers with Dian Hong Black Tea. Dried jasmine has been added into the tea during the molding process. You will taste its jasmine fragrance while brewing, especially brewing with tea cup, even without the process of tea scenting.

[abcdefg]

Quote

Dian Hong Jasmine Red Dragon Pearl, this Jasmine Dragon Ball Black Tea is an innovative flowering tea combining the jasmine flowers with Dian Hong Black Tea.

 

Another enigmatic fragment. (Nearly identical to one you left on another website under another name.) What's going on with that? Are you copying these things from someone else, or just posting on several forums. Are you promoting your own tea shop or products? Inscrutable and mysterious. Not very helpful or informative.

 

Quote

 

New jasmine flavor tea

by janet11 » Aug 14th, '17, 22:32

Have you ever heard Dian Hong Jasmine Red Dragon Pearl? As I know this Jasmine Dragon Ball Black Tea is an innovative flowering tea combining the jasmine flowers with Dian Hong Black Tea. If you would like try some new flavor you should have a try. The jasmine is magical.

 

 

https://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22302&p=296801#p296801

 

[lips]

On the bright side, this means that this forum is known even in the tea community.