Surprise at people liking cool tea - what about Oolong

[Herb_Master]

Tuesday's TeaChat Topic - Poll, reveal how many people actually enjoy cooler tea, rather than just accepting it as a minor irritation.

This raised a few moments of introspection in my mind with regard to Oolong.

1. How many people go to the bother of pre-warming the non brewing vessels. Fair Cup and Tea Cup/Bowl ? Does this enhance your experience?

2. I can see how prewarming the pot, and giving it showers can aid in the infusion, but does prewarming beyond the teapot aid in tasting - particularly the fragrance or beyond. How many only prewarm the pot.

3. I think that many of those voting to enjoy cool tea were in the case of oolong drinkers those who prefer the greener types, does temperature matter more to DC and Yancha drinkers ?

Todays poll asked about the weather getting colder

The glass has dropped several degrees in my house lately, and I have moved on to Yan Cha, but the cups have been getting uncomfortably cold before the end of each Fair Cup.

I have brought my candle teapot warmer out from the cupboard and rest the faircup to the side of it now. Does anyone else have methods of keeping their faircup warm when the weather gets colder.

If you linger over a cup and it get's coldish, do you discard it and top up from a warm faircup?

If you linger over an infusion do you discard the remainder in the faircup or top it up with the next infusion?

[AdamMY]

Well it baffles me how some people can drink their tea and coffee while it scalds your mouth, but in terms of ultimate enjoyment of Types of tea at temperatures. I think I better enjoy yancha when it is slightly lower temp then I have a hard time enjoying green TGY.

Something about the greener the oolongs flavor the more I dislike it when it cools.

[gingkoseto]

I have a few supposedly "bad" oolong that perform pretty good when cold brewed.

I am surprised to find that a traditional heavy roast tgy of mine taste better when cooled down (after regular hot water brewing). There is some fruity buttery flavor that gets more obvious when the tea cools down. This is the first time I have a tea like this. But this is a relatively inexpensive tea, generally tastes very good but didn't start with the top grade tea leaves. So I wonder if some rough, astringent flavor disappears during the cooling down time.

As for green roast tgy, the greener tgy made with traditional method (hard to find though) will not have the grassy flavor in modern green tgy disliked by many people, especially when cooled down.

[shah82]

what is an example of a traditional green roast tgy? Whenever I see mention of traditional tgy, I think in terms of lots of roasting and baking...

[wyardley]

what is an example of a traditional green roast tgy? Whenever I see mention of traditional tgy, I think in terms of lots of roasting and baking...

I think she means a more oxidized tea, possibly with some level of roasting (vs. none at all). You don't see much of this style in the mainland AFAICT, but some of the HK merchants (Best Tea House comes to mind) sell TGY that's fairly oxidized but still only a medium level of roasting.

People's concepts of "traditional" vary greatly, and part of that is because presumably tea wasn't all made one way "back in the day". While Chaozhou gong fu style Tieguanyin is usually a pretty high roast (and, as I understand it, this roast is often performed by the merchant rather than the original tea farmer), I am sure there was other tieguanyin that received a lower roasting that's still much heavier than you'd see today.

On this note, I am curious -- I had one vendor claim that in the newer style of TGY production, the red edges are actually torn / cut off. This doesn't make sense to me (why not just oxidize the tea less if you don't want red edges). Has anyone else ever heard about this being done?

[Intuit]

In the UK and Europe and quite a bit of the US, central heat didn't become prevalent until near the mid-20th century (two WWs and economic depression between limiting home improvement revenues). Between the end of the 50s and the end of the 70s, global temps cooled, especially in the higher latitudes. Homes were cooler. If you wanted your tea to stay warm in your cup, you heated your cups. You always heated the pot, because of the considerable drop in water temp if the teapot wasn't pre-warmed.

I think drinking cooler tea has its roots in the spread of green tea appreciation and how to brew it, quality tea retail access, appliances that allow for heating water to lower temps, and a shortage of time for the enjoyment of tea. Interruptions in tea drinking are probably the central factor in causing tea to cool below the desired temps.

Roasted oolongs that change aroma/taste at lower temps: reduced volatilization and solublity of some larger aromatic flavors/aromas shifts their relative abundance in gas and liquid phase, and changes the taste/aroma perception of these teas. In other words, when you have cooler temps, fewer compounds are released and detected. Heavy flavors/aromas tend to overwhelm the more delicate nuances. Later eluting large polyphenolic acids also 'cuts' the oily viscosity of early eluting fatty esters (buttery aroma/texture).

Will, I sincerely doubt that any producer would take the time to trim off red edges off of individual leaves. Too expensive, not enough reason to do it, result wise. As you say, its easier to alter processing steps to avoid excessive leaf margin oxidation.

[gingkoseto]

As Will said, a key feature of tradtional tgy is medium oxidation (vs. light oxidation in modern style). Besides, the real tgy was processed with extensive sun dry and more "shake green" processes (4 times vs. 1 or 2 in modern style). Then the "kill green" process should happen early morning of the next day (vs. afternoon or even later in modern style). The traditional tgy can be either green or heavy roast.

To new tea drinkers of tyg, who seek for explicit fragrance, traditional style may not taste better than modern style. It's harder to make and is not rewarded by market, so very few people want to make it.

Getting rid of red rim is said to be essential for modern style tgy. One reason is, in modern day Chinese market, a tgy that yields light green tea water is always sold better than tgy that gives tea water with darker/redder hint. Getting rid of red rim "improves" the tea water color. Some say it improves flavor too. I don't know how much the flavor can be improved, but since modern tyg can get bitter or other unpleasant flavor more easily than traditional tgy, I think it's plausible that removing red rim helps improve the flavor of modern tgy.

[gingkoseto]

(why not just oxidize the tea less if you don't want red edges).

I asked the same questions to some tea professionals and their explanation is, since modern style tgy receive shorter time sun dry, and is shaken less in the "shake green" procedure, the tea leaves have lighter initial oxidation. Then the tea leaves must wait longer before they are "killed green". Due to the long waiting, the leaves must develop red rim. Without the longer waiting, the tea will retain bitter and astringent tastes.

[TIM]

(why not just oxidize the tea less if you don't want red edges).

I asked the same questions to some tea professionals and their explanation is, since modern style tgy receive shorter time sun dry, and is shaken less in the "shake green" procedure, the tea leaves have lighter initial oxidation. Then the tea leaves must wait longer before they are "killed green". Due to the long waiting, the leaves must develop red rim. Without the longer waiting, the tea will retain bitter and astringent tastes.

I remember the farmer said the broken edge and red rim add aroma and sweetness. Too much then it will be too floral and sweet, too less then bitter and flat.

[Intuit]

How tea leaves for making TGY are processed, with photos:
http://www.wikihow.com/Process-Tie-Guan ... TGY%29-Tea

See step 4. Some bruising - resulting in the red edges observed after leaves have infused and unfolded - is required. Step 5 is cool condition drying (using air conditioner to dry leaves). Steps 4-5 are the 'repeat differences' between newer and traditional TGY, mentioned above.

One of the differences in the grades produced must be how tightly the leaves are rolled. I recently bought a relatively inexpensive TGY that has poorly rolled/dried leaves. They opened very quickly, yielding a very weak first infusion and almost tasteless second infusion. This was in direct contrast to the previous batch of TGY from the same company, that had a very nice aroma, flavor and liquor body.

When I checked the leaves in the old (2008) and new batches, there was much more red edge striping in the inferior batch (2009). The leaves of the inferior batch were larger with fewer buds, indicating that the farmer had cut corners in the starting leaf quality, too.

[gingkoseto]

How tea leaves for making TGY are processed, with photos:
http://www.wikihow.com/Process-Tie-Guan ... TGY%29-Tea

Between step 7 and step 8, there is also step 7.5, shuai qing (punch the leaves), as showed in this


That's when most red rim of the leaves is removed and that's why modern tgy has broken leaves compared with other oolong. I think this photo looks amusing

The photo is from http://teabbs.zjol.com.cn/viewthread.ph ... ra=&page=1
There are many interesting photos taken by the author of this post.

[TIM]

There is no 'one' formual or 'wikihow' way on making oolong. The best way is to visit farmers and learn how or why they do so. To newbies wine maker studying wine making for dummies and hope to make or understand the secret of winemaking will take more than Scienticfics data?

Tradition rolled oolong are not tighly rolled, those are most hand crafted, non machine process tea. The reason it opens quickly due mostly of it's roasting level and aging process. So, if the tea opens quickly, it does not mean it's bad process or lazy farmer. Most because it's just bad and cheap grade. Just my 2 cents.

[Intuit]

Gingko, can you please repost the image from your last reply? It didn't append and open correctly.

Gingko, Does 'punch the leaves' mean to punch out the green inner leaf and leave the red edges behind?

Tim, I know there is no replacement for chatting amicably about tea making with the tea farmer, but that is a near-impossibility for most of us.

If we wanted to study moon-rocks, it would probably be advisable to visit the moon, too - about as likely an occurrence as traveling to China or Taiwan to chitchat with tea farmers.

Of course there is a difference between hand- and machine rolled teas. However, I am not a tea newbie. I have both batches in front of me, and there are obvious differences in the tightness of rolling between the two.

"So, if the tea opens quickly, it does not mean it's bad process or lazy farmer. Most because it's just bad and cheap grade. "

Didn't I write specifically that there was a marked difference in tea leaf size and quality??? I never said the tea farmer was lazy, but there is an obvious difference in the rolling process result, apart from tea leaf quality.

[kymidwife]

Thread drift... thread drift.

Back to the OP: I have always felt like a tea oddball because I will drink it from the time it cools enough to NOT scald my tongue, all the way down to when it's totally cooled and at room temperature. I would never throw most teas out because they'd cooled, and if an occasional tea were to only taste good hot, I'd just reheat it if it cooled.

What I have found interesting is that there's a point, to me, well below the point of the immediate brew, where the flavors of most teas are more pronounced. Not cool, not exactly lukewarm, but not roaring hot either. I enjoy seeing how each individual tea's character changes over the cooling process. Tasting a tea at a variety of temperatures peels off a layer of flavor for me, much like the experience of gongfu brewing does.

Sarah

[Herb_Master]

Sarah, Congratulations on 1000 posts


Do you appreciate the fragrance when it is still scalding and too hot to drink!

Perhaps the aroma cup could serve a dual purpose by cooling it to an acceptable temperature by the time it is transferred to the tasting cup!