brewing techniques?

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Jul 2nd, '13, 01:04
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brewing techniques?

by asterix2k10 » Jul 2nd, '13, 01:04

I know there are lots of different opinions on brewing and ways to do it. This is how I do it: I use water around 50 degrees celsius. I use a glass teapot with stainless steel mesh insert. I put in the amount of tea I want, usually about 3 teaspoons for 2 cups of tea. Since I use purified water from a hot and cold spigot, I put in cold water first then add hot water to get it to around 50 C. When adding the hot water I avoid pouring it directly on the tea so it doesn't get scorched. Then I let brew for four minutes. I don't resteep. This is what seems to work best for me.

Things I have thought about doing differently are: putting the leaves directly into the water so they can unfurl better, and maybe getting a digital kettle that I can use to get the temperature more exact. Since I eyeball it I don't always get it right and have to put my finger in the water to check and then adjust.

What is your favorite brewing technique for green (or white) tea? Any suggestions on things I should try or ways to improve my technique?

Jul 2nd, '13, 01:31
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Re: brewing techniques?

by lordmage » Jul 2nd, '13, 01:31

i use a simple wal-mart digital kettle. to set the temp i need low point is 175 F to 212 F if i want it cooler than that i simple wait till it cools to the temp i need or do the kettle, to vessel, to pot method to cool it faster. usually buy the time it gets to the leaves using this approach i cooled it down by 30 F. then i simply use a timer to steep to almost half the total time. for example if i am doing a white that allows for 2 mins before it gets bitter i set the timer to 45 secs and get 4 cups out of my infuser that holds two 16 oz servings. only for the teas that can be infused several times otherwise i steep it max and toss.

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Jul 5th, '13, 16:49
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Re: brewing techniques?

by asterix2k10 » Jul 5th, '13, 16:49

oops, was reading thermometer wrong. I brew at around 57 celsius not 50, I think. Maybe a tad warmer for a greener oolong or a tad cooler for a white.

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Jul 9th, '13, 00:49
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Re: brewing techniques?

by Teaism » Jul 9th, '13, 00:49

My fav method for brewing green tea is using boiling water and gaiwan. The boiling water is poured to the side of the gaiwan from higher level to spin the water and tea leaves and instantly pour the brew out. After pouring the brew out, I put the gaiwan on the tray and turn 180 degrees and pour the remaining residue water and let it breath in between brews.

I find this method can tell the truth about the green tea quality..the good tea turn out very good and the inferior one will reveal its weakness.

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Jul 9th, '13, 04:53
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Re: brewing techniques?

by Tead Off » Jul 9th, '13, 04:53

Teaism wrote:My fav method for brewing green tea is using boiling water and gaiwan. The boiling water is poured to the side of the gaiwan from higher level to spin the water and tea leaves and instantly pour the brew out. After pouring the brew out, I put the gaiwan on the tray and turn 180 degrees and pour the remaining residue water and let it breath in between brews.

I find this method can tell the truth about the green tea quality..the good tea turn out very good and the inferior one will reveal its weakness.
Hi Teaism,

I was meaning to reply again to you on the other thread discussing this technique of using boiling water instead of low temp. All of us have preferences that prevent us from trying new things to see if there is any truth in it. I can tell you that I have been practicing your way for many weeks now. At first, I was very skeptical, but immediately saw the truth in what you were talking about using Chinese teas to experiment on. The tea was delicious using boiling water for all the teas except Long Jing. But I persisted and used more leaf with boiling water. All of the subtle flavors I come to expect from the tea are there. Really no difference and a whole lot faster using boiling water.

I then switched to sencha, Korean green, and Lao greens. Every green tea I tried with this method produced good tea except the lousy teas that I had hanging around the cupboard. Nothing could save those! LOL.

To date, I have not tried it with gyokuro. I don't have any at the moment. I see no reason to switch back to the old, fetishistic way of cooling the water, etc. Will it work for everyone? I would bet there will be those who naysay this method and insist that they can tell a big difference when they use cool water. Whatever makes them happy. Thanks for the good tip and the breaking of another myth in my thinking. :shock:

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Jul 9th, '13, 06:34
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Re: brewing techniques?

by Teaism » Jul 9th, '13, 06:34

Hi Tead Off,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am glad that you put in a lot of effort to try it out and share the experience. Tea brewing is not absolute and it is important that we try to break the boundary to learn and understand them. It is very much like cooking, with so many variables but with different approach then we can understand the process better. It is important that we put in a lot of effort to experiment and understand them.

For LJ, I mentioned earlier that this method either enhance a good tea or expose a bad tea, so the tea quality may be an issue ( Just a personal opinion, I could be wrong). A Westlake LJ of moderate quality could cost US100 for 50 gms and any better quality ones are unreachable as the domestic market in China lined up to grab them. Nevertherless, for those moderate quality LJ, I find refreshing or light baking could improve the final outcome of the brew using this method. You can try it out and see how it goes. It works for other light fermented tea too. Another tip is also careful not to pour the boiling on the tea leaves as hot water will "burn" the tip and cause bitterness.

Thanks for sharing your experience again. :wink:
Last edited by Teaism on Jul 9th, '13, 06:47, edited 1 time in total.

Jul 9th, '13, 06:37
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Re: brewing techniques?

by lordmage » Jul 9th, '13, 06:37

i sort of use the boil method with my infuser and i find the flavor to always be perfect with less leaf and time. i usually only have time to start 16 oz at a time and at work ants are a major problem so i cant let em sit even covered those things get every where. so i use less leaf and time for a perfect bottle brew. took some adjusting with greens vs whites but now it is a second hand nature to me. i am going camping soon so ill have time after the camp is set up for my teapot and a slower method but i think i will stick to the whole fell of it type of thing

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Jul 21st, '13, 11:34
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brewing techniques?

by Poseidon » Jul 21st, '13, 11:34

This in an interesting technique. I have always been told that higher temps can scald green teas. I'll have to try this out!

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Jul 21st, '13, 12:40
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Re: brewing techniques?

by Chip » Jul 21st, '13, 12:40

Poseidon wrote:This in an interesting technique. I have always been told that higher temps can scald green teas. I'll have to try this out!
Yes it can scald green teas ... and generally will if it is anything much more than a "flash brew" or if the tea is not so good to begin with ... this would likely accentuate the bad.

Nevertheless, this certainly goes against "rule of thumb tea brewing!"

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Jul 22nd, '13, 23:36
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Re: brewing techniques?

by Tead Off » Jul 22nd, '13, 23:36

Chip wrote:
Poseidon wrote:This in an interesting technique. I have always been told that higher temps can scald green teas. I'll have to try this out!
Yes it can scald green teas ... and generally will if it is anything much more than a "flash brew" or if the tea is not so good to begin with ... this would likely accentuate the bad.

Nevertheless, this certainly goes against "rule of thumb tea brewing!"
Bad tea will always be bad tea, I guess.

This method has proved to be an 'eye opener' for me. I had to suspend judgement and prior beliefs in only low temp brewing which is tedious to me. However, there may be teas that don't work well at all with boiling water and quick brewing. Steamed teas may prove difficult with this method but the sencha I had worked with it.

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Jul 23rd, '13, 11:32
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Re: brewing techniques?

by MEversbergII » Jul 23rd, '13, 11:32

Den's Tea recommends 4g of bancha / 250ml of water, boiled, for 30 seconds. Turns out well.

On their sencha a second (and onwards) brewing is 30 seconds in boiled water, at 5.5g per 250ml.

As late I've begun to experiment following those guidelines with Chinese teas. Sometimes, some teas turn out weak. I did 5.5g of Bai Mao Hou for 60s in 250ml of 85 degree water - kind of weak. Same with White teas, done at 95. Not sure if it's just the first brew hasn't -really- been steeping 60s or if there's a requirement for hotter water at that short duration.

An acquaintance of mine would call for 5 minutes in "appropriate" temperature water when done 2g to the 100ml, though, so 5g per 250ml at 85 for that green above and 95 for those whites.

M.

Jul 31st, '13, 04:32
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Re: brewing techniques?

by jbu2 » Jul 31st, '13, 04:32

for white pony and sencha i use low temp for longer time, like 10Min@50C (more for white tea) or ~3min@50C for Japanese tea , i called it lukewarm brewing , good for cheep tea since it's avoid the bitter taste .

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