I just ordered the Black, Green and oolong tea sampler kits from Adagio, and I was wondering how many infusions I should get out of these teas. I never realized that you could do that with tea and expect good results untill I read it on this forum. Up untill now I have only used Twinings and Tazo tea bags, and I have only drank tea for a month so please excuse my ignorance.
BTW: I notice that on the site there seems to be no address for Adagio. Where are they located?
Steve
Adagio is located in New Jersey. So shipping is fast to the East coast and they also have a West coast warehouse for shipping to the western states.
Depending on your brewing vessel all those teas should give you at least two infusions. What are you brewing in?
Depending on your brewing vessel all those teas should give you at least two infusions. What are you brewing in?
- Victoria -
http://victoriasown.blogspot.com/
http://victoriasown.blogspot.com/
Jan 4th, '09, 22:48
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mar 19th, '06, 12:42
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: On the couch
Contact:
Proinsias
The main factor is leaf:water ratio. I tend to use lots of leaf in very little space which gives me many infusions, I'm currently drinking Adaigio's Golden Spring black tea in a 60ml gaiwan with around a tablespoon's worth of leaf and I'm on about my 8th infusion. Similarly if you use only a little leaf and a big teapot you'll be lucky to get two infusions.
I always go a bit heavy on the leaf amount and shorter on the infusion time... and as a result, I routinely get multiple infusions of good quality from my black teas... it's all about the quality and freshness of the tea, and the amount of leaf you use. Don't trash your leaf until you see what its capable of!
Disclaimer: Kids, don't try this at home with a Lipton bag.
Disclaimer: Kids, don't try this at home with a Lipton bag.
***This organic blend is earthy & spicy, with a fragrant aroma & smooth flavor to captivate the senses. Naturally sweetened in the Kentucky sunshine & infused with natural energy. Equally delicious when served piping hot or crisply chilled.***
I am brewing in a two cup Brown Betty teapot. I am considering a small cast iron teapot also.Victoria wrote:Adagio is located in New Jersey. So shipping is fast to the East coast and they also have a West coast warehouse for shipping to the western states.
Depending on your brewing vessel all those teas should give you at least two infusions. What are you brewing in?
Steve
I tried doing multiple infusions of the Adagio Yunnan Jig this morning. I used about 1.5 teaspoons of leaf, and about 6oz of water. The first steep was at about 2 mins which was pretty good, but then I went and did a 5 minute steep (bad idea) and it was pretty much flavorless. Next time I try this, I'm definitely going to do much shorter steeping times and probably less water.
Black and green teas are traditionally prepared by very different brewing methods.
Truncated fermentation and brief oxidation time doesn't break down leaf microstructure nearly as much as fully fermented and oxidized leaves, obviously.
This means that unless you're strongly inclined towards analysis of your teas, rather than more simple enjoyment, you would brew a black as a single steep.
Why? Because the peak extraction time plots as a very sharp peak, in a plot of aromatic fatty esters leaching with time (the extract being tea oils and some soluble flavor components, like polyphenols and theanine) - and thats due to the oxidation degree of blacks where the plant cell walls are degraded to afford thorough extraction of taste components, but it also withstands slightly higher infusion temperatures.
Greens and many mildly oxidized oolongs plot as a blunted broad curve of extracted components over time because the leaf cell wall structure is still mostly intact and doesn't withstand a higher temperature (that results in astringent notes being extracted early in the infusion cycle).
You can get separation of flavor components - the POINT of serial extractions - if you prepare black teas in the manner of greens, but the optimum is very brief and the early and late infusions won't be nearly as pleasant as if the tea varietal were processed as a green.
The other issue in serial extractions of black is the infusion concentration (tea to water ratio). Thats why the author of the blog, below, got a very strong flavor on the first infusion at the recommended strength on the can.
Because green tea leave cell walls are relatively intact, serial extractions require more tea mass/higher tea concentration to fully detect flavor and aroma nuances that are released.
Read this blog as an stellar example of why one does not typically conduct short serial extractions on black tea:
http://multipleinfusions.com/2008/05/ri ... en-yunnan/
Had the author kept to the recommended duration for black (3 min), they would have gotten all of the good taste and none of the early cardboard aftertaste and late astringent/bitter (in the fourth extraction) overtones.
If you want to determine the optimal brewing time for a black tea varietal of a specific season/estate, one would use successive short extractions with the liquor decanted to separate cups for side-by-side comparison.
Truncated fermentation and brief oxidation time doesn't break down leaf microstructure nearly as much as fully fermented and oxidized leaves, obviously.
This means that unless you're strongly inclined towards analysis of your teas, rather than more simple enjoyment, you would brew a black as a single steep.
Why? Because the peak extraction time plots as a very sharp peak, in a plot of aromatic fatty esters leaching with time (the extract being tea oils and some soluble flavor components, like polyphenols and theanine) - and thats due to the oxidation degree of blacks where the plant cell walls are degraded to afford thorough extraction of taste components, but it also withstands slightly higher infusion temperatures.
Greens and many mildly oxidized oolongs plot as a blunted broad curve of extracted components over time because the leaf cell wall structure is still mostly intact and doesn't withstand a higher temperature (that results in astringent notes being extracted early in the infusion cycle).
You can get separation of flavor components - the POINT of serial extractions - if you prepare black teas in the manner of greens, but the optimum is very brief and the early and late infusions won't be nearly as pleasant as if the tea varietal were processed as a green.
The other issue in serial extractions of black is the infusion concentration (tea to water ratio). Thats why the author of the blog, below, got a very strong flavor on the first infusion at the recommended strength on the can.
Because green tea leave cell walls are relatively intact, serial extractions require more tea mass/higher tea concentration to fully detect flavor and aroma nuances that are released.
Read this blog as an stellar example of why one does not typically conduct short serial extractions on black tea:
http://multipleinfusions.com/2008/05/ri ... en-yunnan/
Had the author kept to the recommended duration for black (3 min), they would have gotten all of the good taste and none of the early cardboard aftertaste and late astringent/bitter (in the fourth extraction) overtones.
If you want to determine the optimal brewing time for a black tea varietal of a specific season/estate, one would use successive short extractions with the liquor decanted to separate cups for side-by-side comparison.
Then you should definitely get two infusions. If you start out with 3 mins on the blacks and oolong, they will definitely go again, next steep go 5mins. Can't say for the green, never made those in a pot.shardy53 wrote:I am brewing in a two cup Brown Betty teapot. I am considering a small cast iron teapot also.Victoria wrote:Adagio is located in New Jersey. So shipping is fast to the East coast and they also have a West coast warehouse for shipping to the western states.
Depending on your brewing vessel all those teas should give you at least two infusions. What are you brewing in?
Steve
Hold off on buying a cast iron teapot for now. It's easy to get caught up in the teaware frenzy, but in the beginning people do buy a lot of wrong pots before they discover their style of brewing.
.
