Eastern Style Brewing of Black Teas - a little guesswork.

[Intuit]

I'm trying to puzzle out the physical and chemical qualities that permit Eastern Style brewing of certain black teas.

Short, sequential steeps permit some separation of taste and aroma elements.

My first guess would be that tea leaves must be very tightly rolled, and re-rolled during oxidative processing steps - akin to oolong processing. Leaf size and degree of fragmentation might be a key factor here as well, because very small leaved teas processed as blacks would elute *very* quickly due to high surface area exposed to hot water.

Second guess is that not all tea varietals have the innate chemistry required. Perhaps tea plant culture conditions (altitude) and seasonality are at issue, as they would influence the starting tea leaf chemistry. Soil qualities would also contribute to the sweeter elements (see below) that affect polyphenol concentrations (coloration and more bitter large/complex flavor elements that elute later in the extraction series.

Third...and here I hesitate a bit....the degree of oxidation must be high, but not complete, because you would loose the last of the slow eluting sweeter components (tea leaf sugars and theanine). So the typical black tea processing sequence might not be the case for these teas.

Lastly, I seriously doubt that you can deviate from use of a small *clay* brewing vessel, fairly tightly packed. You want to "smear" the early extraction fractions a bit. That's where the clay chemistry and microporous vessel surface comes in.

Obvious factors include: series steep temps and timing, tea/water ratio, and any washing needed (dust removal).

Attemps I've made to produce satisfying short serial extractions with black teas in a gaiwan and small porcelain teapots with my various black teas didn't yield satisfying results on second and third extractions.

All of this is seat-of-the-pants educated guessing.

I would be quite interested to know of black teas that lend themselves to Eastern Style brewing technique and the steep conditions used.

[Herb_Master]

Just a thought

Have you tried Jing's "Keemun Gong Fu Black Tea"

http://jingtea.com/tea/black-tea/keemun ... u-hong-cha

Though why the name it such (Gong Fu) and then give these brewing recommendations

Type Black
China Anhui
Caffeine Moderate
Infuse 1-2 tsp per cup;
use boiling water;
infuse 3 minutes

I don't know

[Herb_Master]

Andao almost gives a reason as to why it is called Gong Fu

http://www.andaotea.com/news/blackteainfo.htm

This Fujianese variety, known as 'Xiao Zhong' in Chinese, or "Small Variety' in English, later became one of the three sub-categories of Black tea. By the late 19th century all three major varieties of Black tea had been established. They are: Gong Fu Black tea, Xiao Zhong Black tea (which many have come to refer to as Souchong in English), and Chopped Black tea.

[woozl]

I have a nice Keemun that I have never gung fu'ed. Will try soon
But I spaced on it one day, must have steeped 15 mins.
It was still fab.
I get 2-3 steeps from this tea....but more western style I guess

[Intuit]

This website has a list of candidate teas (albeit with sales hype)

http://www.buy-tea-online.com/buy-loose ... ck-tea.php

Hunan and Yunnan blacks look to be processed with steps akin to oolongs.

Note that some Keemuns are said to 'age well' - like oolongs.

Congou = gongfu??

[Herb_Master]

con·gou (kngg, -g)
n.
A grade of Chinese black tea, obtained from the fifth and largest leaf gathered from a shoot tip of a tea plant.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Chinese (Amoy) kong hu (te), elaborately prepared (tea), corresponding to Chinese (Mandarin) gngfu (chá), from gngfu, worksmanship; see kung fu.]

from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/congou

Not sure about that 5th leaf being fully correct

Con"gou (?), Con"go (?), n. [Chin. kung-foo labor.]

Black tea, of higher grade (finer leaf and less dusty) than the present bohea. See Tea.


Of black teas, the great mass is called Congou, or the "well worked", a name which took the place of the Bohea of 150 years ago, and is now itself giving way to the term "English breakfast tea." S. W. Williams.

from
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=211176

In Guangdong they drink a lot of Congou Gong Fu style, Amoy/Xiamen seems to have been the origin of the term Congou and is a stone's throw up the coast from Guangdong

[Intuit]

Confirmed that congou grade teas are highly processed (read: extra effort), tightly twisted/rolled, and often curly leaved.

Congou=kung fu = produced through skill and effort

So maybe congou refers to the quality grade black teas produced for in-country consumption (Eastern style, gong-fu brewing), as opposed to 'chopped' teas produced for trade??

Souchong being a high-grade that was highly processed and smoked for flavor and as preservative, maintaining it's flavor when being shipped for long distance and lengthy periods of time.

Do smoked (flavored/preserved) small-leaved teas also hold their admittedly strong flavor well over repeat extractions?

Pine pitch is a very good preservative, eh?

Caveat: still guesswork.

[Intuit]

http://www.fmltea.com

Chinese Black tea

According to different processing methods, Chinese black tea can be detailedly sorted into three types: Souchong black tea, congou black tea and broken black tea.


* Souchong black tea: The unique black tea from Wuyi mountain city, Fujian province. The pine-smoking fragrance of Souchong black tea is much different from any other black teas of the world. According to different producing area, Souchong black tea can be farther classified into the three types:Tongmuguan Souchong, produced in Tongmugaun county; Lapsang Souchong, produced in Chong'An, Jianyang, Guangzhe; XingChun Souchong, produced in other areas which around Xingcun town of Chong'An county; Smoking Souchong, which not from Wuyi mountain city, but other tea producing area. Among them, Lapsang Souchong is the best which offering longan flavor. Smoking souchong is made from low grade congou black tea, processed by imitational method as other Souchong black tea. The smoking fragrance is exactly coming from the burning brushwood of pine plant.

* Congou black tea:Congou black tea is evolved from Souchong black tea. The famous Chinese congou black teas include:Qihong of Anhui (Keemun black), Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.

* Broken black tea: Broken black tea is also called "graded black tea" since there is international uniform grading standard for broken black tea. Accoding to the different shapes, broken black tea is classified into four types: whole Leaf black, with short strip shape; broken leaf black, with small grain shape; Fannings black, with small slice shape; Dust black, with powdered shape.

The origin of Chinese black tea is Chong'An, Fujian (Wuyi mountain today). In the last of 18th century, the souchong black tea was firstly created in Wuyi mountain. Following that, the congou black tea was ceated there. The manufacturing techinique of blakc tea was then spreaded to jiangsi province, then to Keemun.

~

This does seem to suggest linkage to the geographic origins of chinese oolong teas. So maybe the tea varietals, soils, climate and processing play a role in the unique chemistry that lends itself to Eastern brewing technique.