Competition Brewing

Owes its flavors to oxidation levels between green & black tea.


Aug 31st, '13, 15:06
Posts: 26
Joined: Jul 14th, '13, 09:00
Location: The U of K

Competition Brewing

by hobnob » Aug 31st, '13, 15:06

Hi,

I've been brewing my Taiwanese Mountain oolongs competition style: 3g tea, 150 ml boiling water, 5 to 6 mins; in a gaiwan. I've had some incredibly tasty results (Western brewing is definitely low on my menu now) and even managed to get 2/3 tasty brews!

Got a few questions :)

1) Due to such tasty brews I was wondering if it is considered 'normal' to drink tea in only competition style? Does anyone here do that?

2) Can you competition brew other oolongs? I was thinking of Tie Guan Yin, Feng Guang and Wu Yi roasted oolongs (I've got various selections of each)

3) Is boiling water always used for this type of brewing or is it tea dependant?

4) Any other tips or advice?

Thanks

Aug 31st, '13, 16:18
Posts: 760
Joined: Aug 1st, '12, 08:20
Location: not anymore Bangkok, not really arrived in Germany

Re: Competition Brewing

by theredbaron » Aug 31st, '13, 16:18

hobnob wrote:Hi,

I've been brewing my Taiwanese Mountain oolongs competition style: 3g tea, 150 ml boiling water, 5 to 6 mins; in a gaiwan. I've had some incredibly tasty results (Western brewing is definitely low on my menu now) and even managed to get 2/3 tasty brews!

Got a few questions :)

1) Due to such tasty brews I was wondering if it is considered 'normal' to drink tea in only competition style? Does anyone here do that?

2) Can you competition brew other oolongs? I was thinking of Tie Guan Yin, Feng Guang and Wu Yi roasted oolongs (I've got various selections of each)

3) Is boiling water always used for this type of brewing or is it tea dependant?

4) Any other tips or advice?

Thanks

Better is Gong Fu style brewing - many shorter brews (but slowly increasing in length) in which the tea develops from brew to brew. Tea water ration depends on the tea, and water temperature as well. Tightly rolled teas, such as Taiwanese high mountain oolongs, cover the bottom of the pot, maybe one fifth of the pot, open leaves, such as Yancha, maybe a third or a half, or up to 2 thirds of the pot. Temperature for greened oolongs maybe a bit less than boiling, Yancha as hot as possible. But experiment, every tea is different, and the many factors have to be adapted to get the optimum.

Sep 2nd, '13, 17:18
Posts: 26
Joined: Jul 14th, '13, 09:00
Location: The U of K

Re: Competition Brewing

by hobnob » Sep 2nd, '13, 17:18

Thanks for the reply. I haven't got round to Gong Fu yet - only just started trying teas competition brew!

I know that it is something I will try very soon though :)

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Sep 2nd, '13, 18:56
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Contact: debunix

Re: Competition Brewing

by debunix » Sep 2nd, '13, 18:56

My limited reading about competition brewing--not having gone for it myself--is that the conditions are designed to bring out the defects in the tea as well as the good points. It brings all the flavors of the tea out in one cup, which I guess is a good thing if you're drinking a bunch of tea at a competition and need to quickly assess the good and bad of all of them.

That's not necessarily a good thing: I can really enjoy some aggressive young sheng puerhs, that have a lot of bitter compounds along with the sweet and herbaceous notes that I crave, but I do this by controlling the amount of bitterness through a series of very short infusions, and some of the high mountain oolongs can have a little bite too.

Sep 4th, '13, 17:00
Posts: 26
Joined: Jul 14th, '13, 09:00
Location: The U of K

Re: Competition Brewing

by hobnob » Sep 4th, '13, 17:00

That's a really good point, hadn't thought of how controlling the release of flavour would help. I'll bear that in mind :)

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