Does 1g tea leaves difference matter?

[bonescwa]

Oh I don't believe that. I grew up drinking strong stove top espresso every morning on an empty stomach so this "bitterness" is absolutely nothing to me. It's like a lot of people here hate anything that's bitter, which I don't understand at all.. hating a fundamental component of taste lol. Anyway, your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid endogenously, I'm pretty sure no kind of tea is going to be as irritating as that to the stomach mucosa.

[BW85]

Oh I don't believe that. I grew up drinking strong stove top espresso every morning on an empty stomach so this "bitterness" is absolutely nothing to me. It's like a lot of people here hate anything that's bitter, which I don't understand at all.. hating a fundamental component of taste lol. Anyway, your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid endogenously, I'm pretty sure no kind of tea is going to be as irritating as that to the stomach mucosa.

Hear hear. I do enjoy me some bitterness. I like it to be balanced though. There's a difference between the bitterness of cheap tea and the bittersweet finish of strongly brewed awesome tea

[the_economist]

I'd be interested to hear what 10g of tea would do.

10g for several years and your stomach will have trouble with Gaoshan, or Sencha, or Matcha, or aggressive young Pu Erh, while during the early days there were not problems. Moderation is the key

I would agree that a lot of green stuff would make me uncomfortable. Luckily we can also choose to drink more oxidized teas.

10g of matcha is pretty darn intense.

[William]

Oh I don't believe that. I grew up drinking strong stove top espresso every morning on an empty stomach so this "bitterness" is absolutely nothing to me. It's like a lot of people here hate anything that's bitter, which I don't understand at all.. hating a fundamental component of taste lol. Anyway, your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid endogenously, I'm pretty sure no kind of tea is going to be as irritating as that to the stomach mucosa.

Who talked about bitterness?

Living in Italy, I probably drank thousands of super concentrated espresso, but I would not compare two different plants. If you think of it, after all the espresso is just a quick brew!

I would agree that a lot of green stuff would make me uncomfortable. Luckily we can also choose to drink more oxidized teas.

In your opinion, your stomach's trouble with greener tea is a direct consequence of how you brew your teas, or just a characteristic of your physiological constitution?

Just curious!

[bonescwa]

The bitterness and caffeine is usually what people tend to associate with stomach irritation... not quite sure what else would be responsible

[William]

Read below.

tea is under 1%, maybe under 0.1% aromatics, 99%++ everything else, pigments, polyphenols, tannates etc. the latter compounds appear to have more health effects both negative and positive depending on body condition.

[entropyembrace]

Read below.

tea is under 1%, maybe under 0.1% aromatics, 99%++ everything else, pigments, polyphenols, tannates etc. the latter compounds appear to have more health effects both negative and positive depending on body condition.

Actually 99% is water

And most of that other stuff besides caffeine we get in much higher concentrations from vegetables.

[the_economist]

In your opinion, your stomach's trouble with greener tea is a direct consequence of how you brew your teas, or just a characteristic of your physiological constitution?

Just curious!

I would say it is a direct consequence of both. To get the best out of some teas, you need to have a high enough leaf-water ratio. It seems that some people have physiological constitutions that can withstand more green stuff.

I very rarely would consume 10g of greener tea in a day, since the average pot I use is smaller than 100ml (probably closer to 70-80ml). On top of that, I rarely consume greener tea in the first place, and rarely on an empty stomach. Finally, there are always exceptions. There have been a couple of 'greener' teas that I feel quite comfortable drinking, maybe because of some aging, or slightly higher roasting/oxidation.

[kyarazen]

10g of matcha is pretty darn intense.

anything "ingested" tends to be more intense

fortunately tea tends to be steeped, and with one's preference the steep can be regulated.

it reminds me on something funny that i had heard from some high profile person in tea research institute hang zhou : "if you dont eat the tea leaves, then you dont have to worry about pesticides, because the types that are used are not water soluble, and in our steeping experiments, none of them were dissolved into the tea brew"

even if tea is brewed thin, the effects on health will still depend on the overall consumption volume.

it is like sugar. if you are supposed to take only 40 grams a day, what difference would it be to eat a super sweet donut with 40 grams of sugar in one serving, or to drink throughout the day - 2 litres of iced lemon tea with 40g of sugar dissolved in.

its not uncommon to encounter people/tea lovers/masters that restrict their consumption to 3 steeps for every tea. however sometimes when there is residual fragrance, aroma, body in a good tea, steeps can be endless. all in all over time, the total consumed dissolved solids from a batch of tea leaves over many repeated steeps, can be more than the amount that comes out in the first 3 intense steeps.

[kyarazen]

yumyum! espressos!

i made a mistake by asking for an "americano" in europe, everyone was laughing... and someone chimed : "Who on earth puts water into espresso!"

a typical tall "americano" contains about 3 espresso shots diluted with copious amounts of hot water.

espresso is not dissimilar from chaozhou gongfu cha. its all about pushing the best of the tea/coffee into a single cup, using hot water, high pressure and the length of the "pull".

Living in Italy, I probably drank thousands of super concentrated espresso, but I would not compare two different plants. If you think of it, after all the espresso is just a quick brew!

[William]

espresso is not dissimilar from chaozhou gongfu cha. its all about pushing the best of the tea/coffee into a single cup, using hot water, high pressure and the length of the "pull".

A nice comparison, Kyarazen!

I am lucky enough living near a renowned coffee seller here in Italy, he performs on its own roasting and blending.

I would say it is a direct consequence of both. To get the best out of some teas, you need to have a high enough leaf-water ratio. It is also seems that some people seem to have physiological constitutions that can withstand more green stuff.

I very rarely would consume 10g of greener tea in a day, since the average pot I use is smaller than 100ml (probably closer to 70-80ml). On top of that, I rarely consume greener tea in the first place, and rarely on an empty stomach. Finally, there are always exceptions. There have been a couple of 'greener' teas that I feel quite comfortable drinking, maybe because of some aging, or slightly higher roasting/oxidation.

I also found that some teas performs well with a great quantity of leaves (Yan Cha ), but I usually not use such quantity as everyday parameters. Maybe I am lucky since I love lighter cups.

After all, if you are happy of your brews, this is what matters!

[Tead Off]

yumyum! espressos!
espresso is not dissimilar from chaozhou gongfu cha. its all about pushing the best of the tea/coffee into a single cup, using hot water, high pressure and the length of the "pull".

I can see how someone can equate these two, but the comparison is really not an accurate one. More tea leaf, less time, non pressurized extraction. One serving of coffee, many servings of tea.

Espresso is really a different animal. The technical extraction of the essential oils, etc., cannot be acheived in any other way but with a machine and not all machines are equal. I love espresso but after thousands of cups over 25 years, I can no longer drink coffee on a regular basis. It is hell on my stomach. Tea and coffee contain proven irritants to the stomach. Some stomachs can handle it, many cannot. Throw in all the other dietary irritants that we eat each day and see how you feel after let's say age 50.

[kyarazen]

A nice comparison, Kyarazen!

I am lucky enough living near a renowned coffee seller here in Italy, he performs on its own roasting and blending.

thats lovely despite having quitted coffee i still have a couple of shots a day, unlike early days when i have four or five, or as an when i like.

the philosophy of both gongfu tea and italian espresso techniques is still central to creating an optimal brew.

on a different note, if you have a chance to try, it can be nice to seek out some guldrutan coffee (sweden). they roast it like how the chinese traditionally roasted TKY

[William]

on a different note, if you have a chance to try, it can be nice to seek out some guldrutan coffee (sweden). they roast it like how the chinese traditionally roasted TKY

Will look for some! Thanks for the tip.

[ABx]

I don't think it's really useful to talk about what tea will or won't do, because you're just going to end up comparing individual physiology.

Tea certainly *can* upset a person's stomach, but that will vary by person and can vary by the day. Drink tea for long enough and you'll have a day when a particular tea will upset your stomach that never has before, won't again, and doesn't bother anyone else that's drinking the tea with you.

Young puerh will frequently cause me problems, as can heavily roasted teas when brewed too strong (thankfully not at usual concentrations), but I've never had a problem with greener wulong (even though I don't drink it much these days). For most people it's the opposite.

It's like a lot of people here hate anything that's bitter, which I don't understand at all

There's good bitterness and bad bitterness. The owner of a local tea house once said that the hardest thing to get used to in America (at least in regards to tea) was that we only have one word/concept for bitterness and consider it all bad, whereas in China they have multiple words for different kinds of bitterness. I also think that learning the different kinds of bitterness is one of the more important steps in developing your palate; it'll open up a whole world of new tea.

I also agree with the others that mentioned tea having a 'sweet spot' in terms of strength of brew. You generally want to get as much as you can from the leaf, but going beyond that can overwhelm some of the best qualities. Too much leaf can easily kill hui gan, for example, and it can also prevent the leaf from opening up completely and/or evenly, which can result in an unbalanced brew. If there are too many broken bits then even a great tea can also be ruined. While palm-crushing is used in Chouzhou style brewing, you still have to find the right balance.