I don’t cover that many back to basics themes but in this I’ll explain ten ways to improve an approach to brewing tea.
- Ditch the tea bags and drink better tea
Tea in tea bags is typically terrible; low quality, ground-up dust. Sticking with an old favorite brand is fine but in the end that usually amounts to drinking bad tea.
Beyond tea bags, loose teas vary a lot. In general, if a tea looks ground up (as CTC, crush-tear-curl automated processed teas are, or just broken orthodox versions can be) then the brewed tea won’t be very good. It’s difficult to summarize what makes up “good tea,” since that can mean a range of different things. Paying more is no guarantee, and not all vendors can probably even tell the difference themselves. The look of a website or physical shop tends to not mean much either. You have to go through a learning curve to judge for yourself.
- Don’t use boiling point water for green tea
Simple enough. Preferences could vary, and for different green teas different temperatures would work best (per individual preference), but dropping down to something like 75 C / 170 F for most green teas works much better, for most people. Even lower for some Japanese green versions; it’s best to experiment a bit and read around.
- Don’t trust bloggers or vendors for input
So much for the rest of this list, right? More than half the people offering advice about tea online–vendors included–know very little about tea, and haven’t experienced much for varying parameters, checking out different versions, even trying very high-quality tea, looking into background research, etc. Even what I say should be taken with a grain of salt, to some extent. Most input really would be helpful, it all just needs to be screened.
- About infuser devices
Orthodox Assam in a for-purpose basket, cup, and lid infuser device
I tend to de-emphasize this factor but brewing devices are a critical aspect. For Western style brewing (the teaspoon per cup approach) it seems to not matter as much; you could use a ceramic teapot, infuser basket, gravity device (similar to a drip coffee maker in design), or even a French press, and results wouldn’t vary much. Some people brew green teas in a glass to see them swirl, which also works out using specialized tea bottles / tumblers, and those also travel well. Covering a tea while brewing probably makes a difference; volatile components that make up the flavors could evaporate off otherwise.
To be continued tomorrow
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I have to say that I agree with you in general. Tea preferences are very subjective. What I love might not be what hits the spot for you. In recent years however, I found tea bags, from some excellent tea companies, a world apart from older tea bags. Merchants such as Smith Teas for example, are small batched and use whole leaf teas in their tea bags. I’m happy to always keep a few sealed bags in my purse for when I’m traveling or out and about. At home, it’s whole leaf all the way. I’ve found that the larger the strainer, the better. It allows the whole leaf tea to fully open. I also have a small – 6 ounce – glass tea pot with metal strainer in the spout. It allows the tea to expand nicely into the entire pot. As I tend to drink green tea most often, it’s important to be sensitive to these issues. I also agree that lowering the brewing temperature is also important. It tends to reduce the bitterness that can be associated with green tea. When properly brewed at lower temperatures and for shorter brewing cycles with a covered lid, I find it sweet and delicious.
Looking forward to Part 2. Thanks John. You are a wealth of information.
Thanks! It does come up that if someone was to put good loose tea in a tea bag it wouldn’t taste that much different than if brewed in an infuser device with more space. It probably wouldn’t be possible to tell the difference. Most tea bags just don’t use good tea, but there would have to be exceptions. Fixed judgements tend to not work well for tea given the space required for preference differences but I’m shifting theme in this to cover starting points. I’m definitely not at any opposite end-point related extreme for my own practices and preferences; I’m ok with a range of types and quality levels, and not really precise about brewing.