Brewing question

[Jayaratna]

Dear Theachat members,

I sometimes find that green and white teas have leaves so dry that they float on top of water when brewed. I use to soak them using my gaiwan lid. I was just wondering if this is the right thing to do and what's advisable instead.

Thanks,
Andrea

[Chip]

It is better to use the lid than to not, imho. I recently had tencha which is unrolled Japanese steamed leaf used to make matcha. The stuff was like a liferaft, floating above the water. I had to submerse it manually with the lid or it would not have brewed since it was mostly above the water.

[Pentox]

I find it important to make sure to wet the leaf when you're adding the water. Otherwise you can get dry leaf sitting on top of the water and has to be poked down. But yeah I agree with Chip, if needs be, poke away.

[gingkoseto]

Most of the time, if the leaves don't sink, that means higher temperature is needed. For some white tea, especially silver needle, it does take quite some time for leaves to sink. what I read about is, it takes 10 minutes for top grade silver needle to sink to the bottom (so the lid of gaiwan also helps conserve the heat). My regular silver needle usually only takes 4-6 minutes to entirely sink. I believe it's because mine is only the 2nd-tier stuff.

For high quality green tea, sometimes people tend to use lowest possible temperature and hence the leaves somewhat float. Then using lid to wave away the floating leaves is perfectly fine. That's actually how gaiwan got popular in ancient time - at that time green tea was the most popular tea and people loved to use lower water temperature for greens. The lid serves well to conserve heat and drive away floating leaves.

[Jayaratna]

Yes, I thought it was related to temperature too, but if I use warmer water tea releases some bitterness or astringency (which one is the right word?). I also try not to hit the leaves directly with water. Good to know I am doing right.

[olivierco]

bitterness or astringency (which one is the right word?)

For me the difference between astringency and bitterness is the following:
-astringency gives the feeling that the mouth is somewhat dry (I get also this feeling when drinking very cold water with low mineral contents)
-bitterness is unpleasant, sharp as acidity.

edit: -bitterness is unpleasant, sharp as acidity.

[Salsero]

-bitterness is unpleasant acidity.

"Acidity" actually means sourness, so I think you will have to rethink this definition.

[Chip]

Also bitterness seems to be rather up front, assertive, brash and generally unpleasant. Astringency is more harmonious, pleasing, getting along nicely with other flavor components.

Tea can have one or the other or both. If it is bitter, it makes little difference if it has pleasant astringency since it will likely not be detected.

[Pentox]

I actually enjoy a little bit of bitterness in my sencha. Not too much were it's unpleasant, but a little bitterness paired with a mild astringency provides you with that clean feeling to your mouth after taking a sip.

[Salsero]

I actually enjoy a little bit of bitterness in my sencha. Not too much were it's unpleasant, but a little bitterness paired with a mild astringency provides you with that clean feeling to your mouth after taking a sip.

+1

[olivierco]

-bitterness is unpleasant acidity.

"Acidity" actually means sourness, so I think you will have to rethink this definition.

Thanks for pointing it out!
Correction made.

[Jayaratna]

Thanks you for this lexicon correction. Drinking tea opens up a whole world of new words and new ways of describing flavours, that's so interesting on a linguistic point of wiew too!

In fact I'd call it astringency too: when I think about bitterness it reminds me of radicchio (red chicory) which I don't like in my salads. Astringency is much better, if not too strong.

[Oni]

Sencha is like a dry wine, well it should have astringency, but that is just an underlinig of the other flavour, that makes it so complex.