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Peony White Needle White Tea
People often tell me that they don’t drink oolong and white teas because these teas are so difficult to prepare. So instead they stick to “easy” teas: black teas.
Black teas easy? Are you kiddin’ me? After green teas, black teas are the touchiest and most persnickety of all the teas. Some of them are downright pains in the you-know-what to get right.
Consider: If your water isn’t hot enough, like at a rolling boil, most black teas end up tasting flat. And you have to time them really accurately. Too short a steep and there’s no taste. Let them steep just a tad too long and you’ll end up with a bitter, undrinkable cup.
Compare that with oolongs and whites, the easiest of all the teas to prepare and the most forgiving when you get it wrong.
You can infuse oolongs and whites in a standard English-style teapot. Or in a gaiwan, or gongfu style in an Yixing teapot. There might be black teas that versatile, but I’ve never come across them.
In English style teapots, oolongs can steep for anywhere from four to seven minutes; white teas for ten to fifteen minutes. Now that’s what I call versatile! And there will still be enough spirit in the leaves for one or two more infusions.
Using a gaiwan or an Yixing pot? Put a black tea into either one of them and you’ll end up with over-steeped swill. And most black teas do not lend themselves to multiple steeps – one infusion and the leaves are spent.
Ti Kuan Yin Iron Goddess Oolong
Oolongs and white teas share one important characteristic with black teas: you do need to use water at the proper temperature. For oolongs that’s just below boiling while still bubbling, about 190 deg F. White teas like their water flat, about 140 deg F. And if you use water that’s a little too hot or too cool? No problem: the teas will still come out just fine.
“But white tea has no taste!” you’ll tell me. Actually it might not – not if you’re steeping it for one or two minutes, as many tea vendors advise. Try infusing for twelve minutes and you’ll be amazed at the wonderful taste and aromas you can coax out of white teas.
And no, you won’t be over-steeping them. Back when I was taking night classes, I always brought along a thermos of white tea to keep me alert. There weren’t any of those nifty travel mugs with built-in infusers, so I just put leaves and water into a regular thermos. Three hours later I’d drink the tea during class break, then refill the thermos with hot water – using the same tea leaves – to steep for the ride home. And never once did the tea get bitter. It smelled and tasted sweet from the first sip to the last.
Can you do that with black tea?
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
I decided to take the opportunity to revisit my tea cupboard and whilst there were some teas that had kept well despite years of storage (one of which I had written about in a previous post), there were other teas that were not as fortunate.
Green Tea and Essential Oils
Having enjoyed a sample of Dragonwell green tea I went online and purchased some from the vendor. Unfortunately, upon arrival, the tea had already faded in colour and in aroma. I should really have informed the vendor, but as a typical Brit I don’t like to complain, preferring instead to keep it in the cupboard. I couldn’t bear the thought of throwing away the tea despite the fact that it wasn’t at its best.
I looked at the faded tea and after several conversations with a Twitter friend of mine, we decided to spruce up the tea by adding essential oils. We started by adding a quarter of a drop of peppermint oil to the dragonwell. As I have had very little experience with essential oils, it was felt that one full drop might be too much for me to ingest hence the quarter drop (which we controlled through the use of a tooth pick). The peppermint cut through the astringency of the green tea yet lifted the tea’s natural nutty sweetness. The tea and oil blend was extremely pepperminty on the nose but didn’t come through in the taste of the tea. It was an amazing combination.
We then decided to add a quarter of a drop of lemon essential oil and I felt like Violet Beauregarde (the girl who chews gum all day in Roald Dahl’s children’s books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as the taste of the Dragonwell was followed closely by the peppermint and the lemon came through on the taste right at the end. One flavour didn’t overwhelm the other but were equally complimentary to each other: tea-licious!
So the next time you open up your tea cupboard and find some tea that is past its best, why not spruce up the tea with some essential oils? You may be amazed with your tea-search 
)
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
I love the Twitterverse and after admiring from afar, I finally had the opportunity to tweet with, and eventually meet, Sally Lynch of Taste Trekkers. It is always a pleasure to meet someone who is as passionate in their field as I am passionate in tea, and Sally is no exception. She LOVES food! She loves talking about food, cooking food and also writes about food. You can imagine my delight when I was invited to an event organised by another influential foodie.
The Christmas Foodie tour consisted of a food shopping tour of Brisbane, visiting stores that sold authentic European food, herbs and spices; a wonderful lunch, care of Taste Trekkers; and a wine tasting from the local winery whilst I provided the tea. You can read more about the event and view some wonderful pictures of the event via Rhubarb Wine’s blog.
Sharing Tea with Foodies care of @rhubarbwine
Welcoming the food and beverage enthusiasts from their Christmas Foodie tour and whilst lunch was being prepared, I was able to talk tea with eager listeners, and on a hot yet rainy day I decided to offer the guests a cold brew herbal infusion. (Cold brew is a method of iced tea which I’ve talked about in a previous post).
To introduce the guests on the idea of cooking with tea, Sally had made some oolong cooked tomatoes as part of a much wider lunch offering. It was a lovely introduction to cooking with tea as the flavour of the High Mountain Oolong was extremely subtle, and the floral notes of the oolong didn’t overpower the flavour of the tomatoes. It certainly kicked off an interest in the herbal infusion the guests had tried, the oolong cooked tomatoes and the teas that I had on display.
Oolong cooked Tomatoes
I was extremely delighted to be invited to be part of the Christmas Foodie Tour and I’m really looking forward to working with Sally again later on in the year to create a whole culinary experience with tea. The oolong cooked tomatoes was a mere introduction to other tea-based recipes which I am looking forward to writing about in the near future.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Forgetfulness is not the exclusive province of the elderly. At least that’s what I keep telling myself, and thus am assured that being forgetful is not a sign of being over the hill. Many people — even some decades younger than me — forget things due to their busy lives, including attending to their children. I don’t have that excuse either. So, why do I often forget to time my tea? No idea, but I do know that it’s not a total disaster.
A big note on the teapot to remember to time the tea!
The good news is that forgetting to time your tea is not the end of the world. Nor does it mean that you have to dump the oversteeped tea down the drain (or water your garden with it). There are options:
- If it’s a fairly strong black tea such as an Assam, you can add a bunch of sweetener and, if you are one who can stand milk in your tea, you can add some milk. That will take away the bitterness.
- If it’s a green tea like gunpowder, I find that thinning it with some water heated to the proper steeping temperature helps.
- A little lemon juice would be a help, with just the right amount of sour balancing out the astringency.
- Ditto for a sprinkle of cinnamon or some other flavoring according to your particular taste. In fact, if you have typical chai spices on hand, turn your oversteeped tea into a spiced chai.
- And then there are recipes where you can use strongly steeped tea in place of broth or water. Soups, stews, casseroles, baked goods, or more, are possibilities here.
Of course, the best cure is prevention. Time to implement a timer. Having a full set of fingers and toes, I nevertheless find using them as my instruments to keep track of the passing seconds and minutes for steeping to be a tad tricky. With so many timers available, from those shaped like mini hourglasses and filled with colored sand to high-tech apps for your iPhone or computer, timing your tea should be a no-brainer.
But, how do you remember to use the timer? Ah, as the Bard said, there lies the rub. You could enlist your spouse or other family member or a roommate to remind you, but who will remind them? This could end up being an infinite regression, like images in fun house mirrors, with Donny reminding Susie to remind Tiffany that she promised to remind Harry to remind you to set the timer when you steep your tea.
Hm… maybe a note on the teapot would be simpler.
A big note.
A big big BIG note.
Well, anyway, even if you forget to time your tea, you can save it with the options listed above. And don’t worry about your forgetfulness being due to old age. Blame it on insufficient sleep, your mind being occupied with deep thoughts, or some such excuse… uh, I mean legitimate reason.
See also:
Time to Time Your Tea
Nothing Beats that “Golden Pour” of Tea
Tea Gadgets and Novelties
It’s Teamaker Time
Tea Time Horrors
Time to Time Your Tea
Tea Brewing Techniques ß correct spelling
Tea-Timing!
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Keeping the peace among the teapots in my bevy can be a bit tricky. One teapot tends to get a bit envious when another teapot gets to steep a particularly special tea. They also can develop a competitive instinct, challenging each other to steep offs.
“Bruno” on the left vs. “Little Yellow Teapot” on the right
It’s my fault, probably. I tend to favor some teapots over others for steeping certain teas. My Blue Betty, for example, is the teapot of choice to steep my heartier black teas — Scottish Breakfast, English Breakfast No. 1, CTC Assam, and so on. A little 2-cupper teapot is just right for some Snow Dragon, Gen Mai Cha, or a nice oolong.
The steep off challenge this time around was between my “bruiser” teapot “Bruno” from Louisville Stoneware and the much smaller but much feistier Little Yellow Teapot. It’s all in good fun, since they are best buddies, but it’s still all about the tea, and the steeping is serious business.
On with the steep off:
The tea: Mim Estate Darjeeling (2nd flush Darjeeling)
The selection of tea was pretty important here. We wanted something that could be steeped in large amounts and be as tasty as when steeped in smaller amounts. This is essential when comparing a 2-cup teapot with a 6-cup teapot. Some teas seem to steep differently when done in different quantities.
The process: This was a broken leaf tea, that is, one where the tea leaves were not whole but that also had not been ground to fannings or dust. Also, being a 2nd flush Darjeeling, this tea had a strong Muscatel aroma that we wanted to be sure would come through in the final tea liquid. So, a cooler water temperature was used — 190°F. We also stuck with a 3-minute steeping time.
The proper amount of dry tea went into each pot (about one teaspoon of tea leaves for each 8 ounces of water), the water was added to each pot, and the timer was set. Time for hubby and I to do our little tea steeping jig — just a little bit of fun to pass the time. Step to the left, step to the right, left, right, left, left — oww!! Ok, enough jigging here.
The results: Here’s where the difference in size mattered, but not in the way I thought it would. I expected the larger teapot that was also thicker and held the heat in longer to therefore steep the tea up stronger than the smaller teapot; this was not so. The larger teapot (“Bruno”) steeped the tea up lighter so that the full Muscatel character did not develop. The smaller teapot steeped the tea up stronger and yet not overdone, with the tangy Muscatel character coming through loud and clear.
I think I have to declare Little Yellow Teapot the winner here. Sometimes smaller is more powerful!
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The Tea-Cha company, headed by Ian Bersten, has proposed a revolution in tea preparation: brew it like you would brew coffee. Is that really possible? Ever being the one to like to test things out and run little mini-experiments, I looked forward to receiving the newest model of Bersten’s brew filter and giving it a whirl.
The filter is made of a superfine mesh all around, with a metal rim at top and bottom to hold the mesh into shape. It came with simple instructions and some questions that Bersten wanted me to consider as I tried the device. Step one was to find a mug that was the right size for the filter to fit into with a slight gap around it and the bottom of the filter sitting on the bottom of the mug. This was very exciting, since I have advocated in the past that if one must use an infuser basket or a filter, that it be about the same size as the cup or teapot in which one was steeping. It was pretty easy to find the right sized mug, since hubby and I have quite a collection. (The company may be selling a properly sized mug with the filter.)
Bersten proposes that tea should be processed to a fine dust to steep best, that is, for a short time yet give a strong flavor and have no bitterness or astringency. That’s how a lot of coffee is brewed — from fine grounds. So, we tried the filter using some Barry’s Gold Blend (loose, of course, not in the bag).
The brew time is crucial and so is the need to be precise. Too short can result in a weak taste, while too long can mean you get that bitterness and astringency you are seeking to avoid. So, hubby and I had to proceed with great care and precision.
A photo log of the process:
- The filter beside a cup that was sized just right for it.
- The filter slides into the cup.
- The bottom of the filter sits on the bottom of the cup — a perfect fit!
- A teaspoonful of tea goes into the filter.
- Boiling water is poured in up to the rim of the cup.
- Our first steep trial was for 15 seconds. Too weak in taste and aroma but not bitter or astringency.
- Our second steep trial (with fresh tea) was for 30 seconds. Stronger taste and aroma and no bitterness or astringency, but still too weak to have with milk, so for us, not good.
Hubby did a final trial for 50 seconds and got a decent tea liquid that was strong enough for milk with only a trace of bitterness that the milk took away. As Goldilocks would say, “It was just right!” So, it seems that yes, you can brew tea like you brew coffee.
One caution: the tea will be quite hot since the steep time is short and the water does not have the chance to cool. A small inconvenience, though; just let it sit a few minutes. You’ll still have a fairly quick and convenient cuppa to give you that charge of caffeine just when you need it. Bersten also suggests that you only fill up the cup about 3/4, steep up the tea a bit extra strong, remove the filter, and then fill the cup the rest of the way with cool water. This should make the tea cool enough to drink. Also, if you take milk in your tea as I do, use cold milk to reduce the temperature.
Would a device like this coax you to give up your full and broken leaf teas? That is something only you can answer. As for hubby and me, this filter is a great alternative for a daily cuppa.
Some fine ground teas to try using this method:
Kambaa Estate tea loose leaf
Loose Organic Tea – Assam
English Breakfast Blend No. 1 loose leaf tea 8 oz. Pouch
Note: Mr. Bersten is still working on the design. What you see in the photos here may not be the final product. He is also trying it as a way to steep full and broken leaf teas. See Janis Badarau’s review of the original Tea-Cha Pet filter.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
It is Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, but Down Under, it’s Summer!
I’m a BBC (British Born Chinese) and my wonderful blend of cultures has come together rather nicely on the subject of tea. Growing up, us Brits would always turn to a hot cup of tea in order to cool us down, and growing up in a Chinese family, drinking cold carbonated drinks was very much frowned upon, opting for the flask of hot jasmine tea to cool us down instead. In the hotter climes of Brisbane, however, I found myself drinking a lot more cold water so I thought I would try making some iced tea. After speaking to many tea friends on Twitter, two methods of making iced tea came to mind.
Hot Tea Cooled with Ice
Fans of this method argue that it is quicker to make and the flavours of the tea are fully developed as the components in the tea leaf that contribute to the flavour of the tea wake up at around 113oF (45oC). To make the tea one places double the amount of tea leaves into a jug, make the tea at the desired temperature and preferred steeping time. The tea is then cooled down with ice.
Cold Brew
This method requires patience but in talking to many of my tea friends on Facebook, this appears to be the preferred method. It is a very simple process where the tea is made with cold water and then the jug is popped into the fridge overnight. As the tea is not heated, it is less likely to result in a bitter brew because fewer catechins and tannins are released than in the hot method.
You can see from the picture below that the resulting brew generates quite different results.
Left: hot tea cooled with ice. Right: cold brew method.
The cup on the left shows the hot tea cooled with ice and the cup on the right, the cold brew method. On the nose, there isn’t much of an aroma to discern from the cold brew when compared to the hot brew. On the palate however, the two teas are quite different. The hot tea with ice method had a fuller flavour and with the doubling of leaves, I can see how this method would be more suited to teas that are less temperature sensitive than others. The cold brew method had a refreshing flavour profile and is more delicate on the palate.
What iced tea method do you prefer and what tea do you like iced?
See also:
Iced Tea Roundup — Some Good Teas to Serve Chilled
For Chilled Tea, Go With Basic Black
Trying a Couple of Teas Chilled
Teas That Can Take the Chill
Iced Tea Tidbits & Trivia
Keeping Cool with Iced Tea
Iced Tea: Themes and Variations
Quick and Easy Iced Tea
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Confession is good for the soul – or so the saying goes. So without any further ado, my confession. I have not consumed hot tea for a very long time. I’d like to be able to say how long but it just sort of crept up on me and so I’m not really sure. It’s probably been at least a year now, at the very least.
Ti Kuan Yin Oolong served cold
Which is not to say that I don’t drink tea. I actually drink it in amounts that are probably not so good for someone who doesn’t respond well to caffeine. It’s just that at some point I decided that I preferred my tea cold rather than hot. This goes for any type of tea I drink, whether it be a nice robust cup of Assam, a colorful Japanese green, an aromatic oolong or one of those relatively rare forays into herbal/tisane type beverages (mostly rooibos).
I’m not sure how or why this came about, but I suspect it has something to do with climate. Living here in southern Arizona it can be a bit daunting to contemplate a cup of steaming hot tea when the temperatures are well over 100 degrees and when grown men are weeping and the birds bursting into flames in the sky. While I’m aware that people in other hot regions, such as north Africa and the Middle East, often consume tea and other hot beverages in spite of the heat that doesn’t make the prospect any less daunting in my book. Then again, even when the temperatures fall into the fifties and sixties, during what passes for winter around these parts, I still drink tea iced, so I’m not sure if the climate theory is really sufficient to entirely explain the issue.
I guess if I had to pin down any reasons why this has come to pass I’d say there are primarily two of them. Since I drink so much tea in the course of a day’s time I find it more convenient to just whip up a larger quantity and stash it in the refrigerator. I know there are a lot of people who find the ritual of preparing tea to be an integral part of the process but I’m not one of them.
My primary reason for making the switch to iced tea is simply that I don’t like to drink tea hot anymore, although when it comes to the term “iced” I should probably clarify things a bit. Unless it’s a blazing day I tend to drink tea that’s not quite “icy” but that also has not had a chance to reach room temperature. I haven’t done much research into the matter – aside from my own experiences – but it seems that the extremes of the temperature range aren’t really the optimum temps when it comes to getting the optimum flavor from tea.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Whether you’re trying a new tea or revisiting one that you haven’t had for awhile, check out the vendor’s label on the package or, if there isn’t one, their information about the tea on their web site.
English vs Chinese methods
Even for teas with which you’re familiar, information about the tea could have changed. I have noticed this especially where steeping instructions are concerned, but there are other reasons to pay close attention to vendor labels.
- For flavored teas, you’ll want to check the ingredients, especially if you have allergies to things that could be used in them such as strawberries and nuts (some vendors don’t disclose everything in these teas, so you might have to email them and ask about the specific things you are allergic to)
- New thoughts on the best ways to steep certain teas have been coming out recently, with shorter steep times and sometimes lower water temperatures being recommended, so that new package of the tea you’ve been enjoying for a few years now could have revised steeping instructions
- Some vendors give you the option of steeping the tea the “English” way versus the “Chinese” way, each having its own merits (I recommend that if you can, you try both methods and see which you prefer)
- The trend toward marking teas with their tea garden/estate of origin and even the flush and year harvested is growing and can tell you a lot about what to expect in terms of aroma and flavor
Web sites for tea vendors are starting more and more to sport videos, showing basic information about the tea and how to steep it to get the best taste. These can be even better than the labels and are worth a few minutes of your time to view.
While you’re at it, you might want to check out the vendor’s About Us page to get a better idea of who they are. Many of these pages are little more than some marketing jargon, but others actually give you the owner’s name and how he or she approaches tea.
Happy tea steeping and shopping!
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Don't spill the matcha
I’m not one of those people who have been drinking tea since birth. As a matter of fact, I’ve only been a tea drinker for a relatively short period of time, about ten percent of my life. But over the course of the past few years I’ve been doing my best to make up for lost time, and I’ve picked up some lessons along the way. Here are a few of them:
- Never, ever boil the water for green tea. Really.
- There’s no sense in crying over spilled milk. Spill matcha (Japanese green tea powder) all over the kitchen and you’re justified in throwing a full-scale tantrum.
- The merchant’s recommended steeping times are probably too long. Maybe it’s just me.
- Tea wasn’t really discovered by that Chinese emperor, the one who just happened to be boiling water (outside, apparently, and yes, most emperors do spend a fair amount of time boiling water, now that you mention it) when leaves from a nearby tea tree just happened to be carried aloft on a breeze and just happened to land in the kettle and said emperor just so happened to give the resulting brew (which must have been a bit weak, unless it was a very tiny kettle or unless about a pound or two of leaves just happened to be borne aloft) a taste and pronounced it good. Come on.
- You can’t decaffeinate tea by rinsing the leaves in hot water for thirty seconds and discarding the water, no matter how many people say so. If this were a viable method, tea sellers would be falling over themselves to adopt it.
- You get what you pay for. Match the per cup cost of a high quality loose leaf tea against what you’d pay for so-so stuff at that big coffee and tea chain and there’s no contest.
- We all like what we like. People who put milk, sweeteners and whatever in their teas (or green tea – gasp) are not bad people.
- Drunk – it’s not just for alcohol anymore.
- Tea can give you a boost, even as it calms you down. No kidding.
- There’s feather duster type dust and there’s tea dust. Neither one’s good for much.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
