The Tea Thread

There are 2 varieties that are popular here in Seattle.

One is what I call a nail, as in it’s a rolled up 'large' leaf (think cheroot, only ≈ 2 inches long) that is dark in color and is bitter immediately and 'softens' as additional pours are made.
You use only one to make tea with, they are that strong.
That first pour, if made to strongly will be something like Pu Erh on a first LONG steep, only WAY bitter and 'dense'…

The second is 'organic' with a light almost glow in the light green color. Small, tiny leaves that look really innocent.
The first pour is almost sweet with just a touch of edge.
And as more is made the ratio of sweet to bitter reverses until its VERY bitter, almost as bitter as the nail.

Strangely, the tiny leaves are sweet to the taste when you bite into them and chew.
I've never had the courage to chew on a nail.

JJ

 

Don't know where I got the idea that Americans hardly drink tea at all, only coffee. Just another of those wrong stereotypes I suppose.

 

For the most part that is true.
When I hang out at the tea store I watch white folks walk in, look around, not recognize much of anything except for the boxed tea close to the door.
This is familiar enough such that they hang there and examine all of the boxes, I figure because that is what they see at the grocery store, bagged tea in boxes.

Every once in a while someone would venture deeper into the store and be invited to sit down and enjoy some 'real' tea.

Fewer still would want to take a class in how to make and enjoy tea in the 'traditional' Chinese way.

Learning these tea making techniques is not readily available for most and when they are grasped the level of enjoyment increases significantly.
I spent months on end watching and picking up the 'tricks' from Joe the tea master at the shop.
He spoke very little english so I learned mostly by example, repeated over and over again using a variety of teas.

I repaid his kindness by offering to teach others these same techniques and over a few years a couple of dozen folks learned how to make tea the 'proper' way.
The thing is not many of them returned to take what they had learned and go to the next level, at least that was what Joe and Lydia told me happened.
Which I thought was rather strange, but then here in Seattle coffee is not just popular but rather ubiquitous, what with a drive up barista seemingly on every corner.

JJ

 

Interesting! Of course, us Brits believe that we have the ability to make a good cup of tea in our genes, but maybe we just never met the real teamakers.

 

I learned a 'story' about how the British came up with 'afternoon tea'.

It goes like this…

When trade was begun and tea was being shipped back to Europe all they had were the sailing ships of the day.
This meant it took months to sail from china to Europe and the tea was in a 'bale' in the hold of the ship.

During storms and the like the tea would get wet and further ferment until it was 100% fermented and not the same as the tea that was originally shipped.
The Chinese knew this and so they shipped pekoe tea, which today is mostly known as Orange Pekoe Tea.

Pekeo is a bastardized translation meaning floor sweepings and Orange was a reference to the House of Orange which was the shipping company at the time.
IOW the Chinese knew that what was being shipped would be more or less unsuitable for them to use so they sent the junk they didn't want or couldn't use because by the time it reached Europe it would be even worse.

So the British adapted, and the now 100% fermented dark leaves were made palatable by adding milk and sugar and served along with a 'biscuit' and the afternoon tea ceremony was created.
Which survives to today.

Now the ships captains knew how to make 'proper' tea, at least those who wanted to know did.
And they were given the tea tools (at the time it was a much more complicated process) and know how, along with some of the 'good stuff' to make really good tea in the traditional Chinese way.
But they were in the minority and so the 'secrets' of how to make 'proper' tea along with access to tea that wasn't 100% fermented (except for Pu Erh), was extremely limited.

Oh and, if memory serves boiling water is used to this day to make tea with milk and sugar to 'soften' the taste.
Chinese tea NEVER uses boiling water with VERY few exceptions (such as Kings tea, which is infused with GingSeng or other similar herbs and herbs etc.).

The Chinese method is to use 180º to 200º water, and if the tea is bitter or has a hard edge it was over cooked (too hot) or over steeped (too long), or both, again with but a few exceptions.
And no added anything to influence the taste.

In fact a sure sign of 'cheap tea' (by Chinese standards) is when anything is added (rose hips, chrysanthemum, chamomile, or other flowers) in order to hide or soften the flavor.

An example of the polar opposite of 100% fermented tea is Pouchong.
Pouchong is only minimally fermented and processed (bruised, and dried).
It usually comes out very very light in color and taste.
The best Pouchong I've ever had was almost like water in color and the fragrance and taste were extremely light and subtle but lasted a long time.
It was Very expensive.
It was delightful.

Pouchong is my #2 favorite Chinese tea

JJ

 

Your story could very well be true.

Yes, we believe that the water has to be boiling to make tea. Not only that, but we look with scorn upon those who omit warming the pot with a little hot water before putting in the tea and boiling water. Brits may know not to make coffee with boiling water, but we do use it for tea. We only infuse it; we would never boil it. In India, of course, the tea is boiled.

If I remember my stories right, the Brits stole tea from the Chinese, and brought it for cultivation in India. Maybe they did the same with silk and silk worms, although I suppose the Japanese had already stolen that?

 

The heating of the pot before adding the tea is part of the 'full meal deal' in making Chinese tea using a 'proper' pot and good tea.
It serves multiple purposes but after gently shaking the tea leaves in the warmed pot and the sniffing the aroma, well it certainly gets my taste buds all a tingle…

As for the silk worms, I dunno but what the British and the Dutch did was steal tea plants to 'grow their own'.
It was illegal by Chinese law at the time.

They were successful, after many decades of trying.
But then the real secret in making tea also involves knowing how to process the tea leaves after they are harvested.
These secrets are closely held by each family and require the wisdom of generations to know how best to turn live tea leaves into the most desirable product.

Most tea that is grown is considered a 'commodity' and doesn't get to be 'the good stuff'.
An example would be restaurant grade tea, which is usually purchased in big sacks and is extremely cheap.

JJ

 

Tea's another thing I've taken for granted, meaning that I've not often looked beyond Earl Grey. I stopped using milk a few years ago out of laziness (it's heavy to carry back from the shop and goes off too soon) - that's been the extent of my experimentations, pretty much.

My boss has business contacts in China and is often given tea - he gave me a bag of green stuff to try. It needs to be steeped and then the first brew from the leaves has to be thrown away. It smells like old socks, but still feels good going down. I don't know what it is, there's no English on the packet apart from 'Chinese Tea'. Definitely an aquired taste.

 

That sounds like green Pu Erh.

You can try using a smaller amount and lower temperature water to brew it to see if it tastes better without throwing the 1st steep away.
I make my dark Pu Erh that way.

JJ

 

Thanks - that looks like the stuff- densely packed dried, expands crazily when wet. I'll play with the quantity/temperature

 

If it is in a 'cake' or 'chunk', you want to break off the amount you want to use and then crumble it all the way down to much smaller pieces, and even use the dust that results.

It doesn't take very much Pu Erh, to make a single cup.
When making a 'regular' pot of Pu Erh, 20-30 steeps is not unusual, at all.

JJ

 

I'm a big fan of silver needle. I get it from Adagio, and I steep it for about 2-3 minutes. It's pretty light that way. I'm not fond of overly strong tea.

I've recently tried their Tencha, and it's also very good.

I've been interested in butter tea since reading about it in one of the Pendergast novels by Lincoln and Child, but I'm a little intimidated.

 

There are some lovely teas to be had; however, my sloth permits only boiling water in a heated pot with plain Typhoo- satisfying, inexpensive and comfortable.

 

What I learned was, the 'throw out the 1st 3 steeps' was based upon how not just strong and pungent Pu Erh is but that it isn't until the 7th or 8th pour that it even begins to taste like it can/should/will…
And this is based upon 'properly aged' Pu Erh, and not the young stuff that is prevalent these days.

By 'properly aged' I'm talking 100 years or older.
The really good stuff is like 300 years old (or more), but I doubt we'll see much if any of that.

I had the chance to drink some 50 year old dark Pu Erh and after the ≈15th pour it started to remind me of port, as in the wine with it's complex flavors that morphed and changed on my palate as it was consumed.

Pu Erh is very much of a 'sleeper' tea in that you'd never suspect it was capable of delivering such rich and complex and intriguing flavors and tastes, that is until it is prepared correctly and you run thru the entire 20-30 pours.

JJ

 

Where can I get this good pu erh stuff online?

 

The online 'good stuff' of the Pu Erh variety is like 7 years old, at best.
The really good stuff is not available online, at least I've never heard of it.
And it would have to come from China.
And if it were available you probably wouldn't nor couldn't afford it.

About the only way to obtain some of the really good stuff would be as a gift.

And think about it for a minute, if it were 300 years old it would have been placed in 'storage' from the early 1700's
How would you put a $$ value on something like that?

These are the folks I was trained by and get my tea from.
They list a 'best quality' Pu Erh for $250
http://www.seattlebesttea.com/

JJ

 

Thanks, I think.

 

@purrin - The idea is apparently to "wake" the leaves to get more consistent steeps, and possibly to wash off mold. IDK, I don't do it, seems silly to throw out perfectly good tea, especially when it's expensive stuff.

@cizx and @johnjen - Yunnan Sourcing has a great selection, including some of the highly sought after stuff going back to the 90's. Of course, their navigation makes Amazon seem simple, so if you have no idea what you're looking for forget about getting anything. Their loose leaf shu puerhs tend to be fantastic bargains, and very much worth checking out. I got a pound of damn good stuff for $24 + s/h. Verdant Tea has a very nice curated selection of stuff. Tends to be a bit more on the complex tea side of things, not big bold flavors but more about the subtle nuances over a long series of steeps. Also, both are located in China, go figure.

@johnjen - That $250 bingcha is a CNNP production, based on the label. Given the price, it's OLD. Label looks like stuff from the 90's, but the price is higher than expected. Might be something that's single origin, maybe Mt. Yiwu, Mt. Bulang, or Mt. Banzhang. Regardless, those guys look like some legit vendors, I'll have to check their stuff out in more detail.

 

Joe and Lydia, the owners of that store, are from Taiwan and they have familial contacts with the growers there.

They have very good prices on some very good tea and pots etc.
I highly recommend them over just about anyone else in the US.

Of course if you are considered as part of a Chinese family (one way or another) and they have connections to the tea growers, that is the way to get the pick of any crop for any year.

They usually save the best for themselves and their family's use.

JJ