Wednesday TeaDay 3/10/10 Most difficult tea to brew is ... ?

[spittingoutteeth]

I'm a little surprised at all the reports of difficulty with sencha. I've only been brewing tea for a couple of months now, but I think my sencha is going pretty well.

I don't think it's so much that people are getting bad results from their brews of Japanese greens, only that it takes a lot more care and consideration that many other teas. Water temperature, teaware and timing play such a crucial role with these teas, and if you brew incorrectly, they are not as forgiving as, say, a high-mountain oolong or a puerh might be.

This is part of the reasons why I like Japanese green teas so much though. They require total attention and dedication to teamaking process, and don't allow you to multitask. They force you to ignore all life's other distractions. And isn't this the point of tea anyhow?

[Tea_Rex]

I agree that greens are the hardest to get right, but when I do, nothing beats them. I still have not mastered sencha. I get cups that taste like three-day old fish. And I have never tried matcha, though a coworker offered to make a cup for me yesterday: "You'll love it. I add two tablespoons of honey and some vanilla soy milk..." I politely declined, though I did also invite her to the monthly tea group we started at work.

Right now I am learning how to brew Red Blossom's Dragonwell. I think I'm getting there. The aroma of the spent leaves of dragonwell is among my favorite scents. Now I want a comparable cup of it. Another Red Blossom green (Li Po Chun) has become a favorite now that I have learned how to brew it (to my taste anyway). I've been reading The Half Dipper, starting with his first posts, and I like his attitude toward making bad cups of tea: It's all good because the bad cups get you closer to that cup of tea you want.

Today has been mostly the dragonwell from Red Blossom.

[Tea_Rex]

all it takes is one good experience often in a forest of bad experiences to put us on to a quest.

Exactly! It was those rare cups of wonderful tea when I started out that kept me going.

[JBaymore]

......... never tried matcha, though a coworker offered to make a cup for me yesterday: "You'll love it. I add two tablespoons of honey and some vanilla soy milk..."

Arggggggggggggggggg!!!!!

[entropyembrace]

I´m not sure how to answer...

I never seem to get a very good cup of green...it´s not so much bitterness which I have a low sensitivity to but a roughness in the throat when I swallow...but then none of my green teas are very high grade and the sample of Long Jing from Jing Tea Shop I had last year was easy to brew a good cup even I only had one shot at it...Actually I had a dream this morning before waking up in which I was seriously craving green tea and when searching through my tea storage I could only find old, low grade green tea...tea dream came with a very strong feeling of frustration. I think that´s a sign I need to order some decent green tea this spring

I could also say oolong since Dancong is one of the trickier teas to brew even if you have good quality leaves to work with but I´ve been drinking dancong from Jing Tea Shop as one of my favourite oolongs for more than 2 years now and I´m so familiar with it that I can get a good cup every time now.

Then there´s puerh...if it´s young sheng you really need to be careful to avoid the rough throat feeling when swallowing and any compressed puerh takes a lot of work to break up the cake or tuo and sort the dust from the more intact leaves.

[LauraW]

Fortunately for me, as others have said, I read TeaChat and have subdued most of my previous frustration with green tea. I still find it to be fussier than most others, but I could brew black or white tea in my sleep, I'm pretty sure.

Caramel Delight this afternoon, thinking about some sencha, but I'll probably go with silver needles as I need something non-fussy for the time being.

[Ebtoulson]

I would have to say the hardest tea to brew is definitely green. Either a dragonwell or lightly steamed sencha.

Had my second attempt at making my own hojicha yesterday, while I think I roasted the sencha correctly, I still didn't enjoy the taste. I believe it was because it still had a strong vegetable taste (I used boiling water). Being disappointed about the sencha I turned to some kukicha and I have to say the results were amazing. The tea had a nice nutty taste with just a hint of smoke while still complimenting kukichas sweet background. How does it compare to Den's? pretty close but Den's is still better imo.

[artmom]

Well, I drank more green tea today than I ever have (about six or eight ounces). It was the Sencha sample in the "gourmet tea bag" (pyramid bag) from Den's. It had a fresh, grassy aroma when I opened the outer bag. I used 145 F water, and found that it was pretty much a non-event. Not much flavor, not much aroma, but at least drinkable.

TCer to the rescue! 145* is pretty low. I would go 160-175* depending on several factors ... but they probably only gave you one bag?

Chip, yes, one bag. So, I'll up anything else I have that Den's suggests using at 145* to 160-175*, eh? Thanks.

[jogrebe]

I will have to say puerh as even as a mainly puerh drinker I still find myself struggling after a few years of drinking. Sheng forget it as it is always a bitter mess that makes one sick to try to drink it over 50% of the time. Shu can be a challenge as there is the amount of leaf and how long to brew which varies based upon seemingly endless brick/cake varieties but also how the radio of the sizes of the broken up chunks are. Which can result in it sometimes being really strong and other times on the watery side.

[Chip]

I would have to say the hardest tea to brew is definitely green. Either a dragonwell or lightly steamed sencha.

Had my second attempt at making my own hojicha yesterday, while I think I roasted the sencha correctly, I still didn't enjoy the taste. I believe it was because it still had a strong vegetable taste (I used boiling water). Being disappointed about the sencha I turned to some kukicha and I have to say the results were amazing. The tea had a nice nutty taste with just a hint of smoke while still complimenting kukichas sweet background. How does it compare to Den's? pretty close but Den's is still better imo.

Glad to hear you had better results!

Well, I drank more green tea today than I ever have (about six or eight ounces). It was the Sencha sample in the "gourmet tea bag" (pyramid bag) from Den's. It had a fresh, grassy aroma when I opened the outer bag. I used 145 F water, and found that it was pretty much a non-event. Not much flavor, not much aroma, but at least drinkable.

TCer to the rescue! 145* is pretty low. I would go 160-175* depending on several factors ... but they probably only gave you one bag?

Chip, yes, one bag. So, I'll up anything else I have that Den's suggests using at 145* to 160-175*, eh? Thanks.

Really, they said 145*. The best sencha from them calls for 160* ... I never saw anything say 145* ... except maybe Gyokuro. I wonder if it was a typo.

The 160* is usually with preheating the pot. 175* is if I do not preheat. This is for higher grades from them. Lower grades are generally even hotter.

What else did they send?

[Skippyandjif]

I have the most problems with white tea, oddly enough. Maybe it's because the flavor is supposed to be so mild that any type of bitterness or astringency is even more pronounced. I've had pretty good luck with greens thus far, though.

Two cups of pu-erh this afternoon, and right now I'm enjoying a cup of green tea mixed with lotus petals.

[Chip]

Never mentioned the teas of the day. Began the TD with Gyokuro ... a combo of various gyos. Next up, a Lishan sample that with Mrs. Chip on the road.

And currently Mugicha ... in a ShyRabbit Yunomi.

[Tea_Rex]

......... never tried matcha, though a coworker offered to make a cup for me yesterday: "You'll love it. I add two tablespoons of honey and some vanilla soy milk..."

Arggggggggggggggggg!!!!!

I know. I wondered but did not ask how she tastes the tea.

[brlarson]

Dancong is the trickiest tea that I brew, much finickier than sencha.

[debunix]

.....varies based upon seemingly endless brick/cake varieties but also how the radio of the sizes of the broken up chunks are. Which can result in it sometimes being really strong and other times on the watery side.

One word: scale.