Chaozhou stove and kettle

[Jayaratna]

Dear teachatters,

a few weeks ago I received my chaouzhou kettle, which I already posted in the showoff thread.



Today I am off from work, so instead of my usual routine I thought to give myself some (deserved) good time. In the morning I had a pastry session. The result is two Pastiere (an Easter cake with many many symbolic meanings from southern Italy). In the afternoon I was planning to go to the gym, but I thought it was a perfect occasion for trying out my chaozhou stove: I am free tomorrow as well, so I can enjoy tea in the afternoon, being not anxious about passing the night asleep. I had some hooka charcoal, plus some bamboo charcoal, already exhausted from water purification. It's not my first trial with charcoal, but all the kettles I had, being too big for my stove, did a perfect job in turning my coals off. I knew I had to light the charcoals very well in the beginning, particularly for bamboo, which burns very hot but needs a lot of heat to be lighted on. I put the charcoal on a wire over the kitchen gas flame, and in ten minutes I loaded my stove.



The kettle was soaking with water, and this time I noticed no leakage at all. I think the leakage I had was just water oozing out of the clay after being soaked for a long time. Now the kettle was thoroughly dry, and it showed no sign of leakage. Fanning the fire is quite an exercise, but in ten minutes the kettle started singing and I was ready to pour.





As I expected, my puerh was completelly transifured by the water boiled in this manner: the chaozhou clay changes the water to such an extent that my tea has none of the harsh notes I dislike so much in puerh teas (it has never been my favourite). The tea has no bitterness at all, even if I push it further and further with hotter water and longer infusions. The flavour is a little subdued as well, but the feel is great and the aftertaste is endless. So far it has been the best puerh I ever had.

Next time I really am curious to try if and how this works with green tea.


PS Sorry for my really bad pictures...

[yalokinh]

always wanted one of those!

[Teaism]

Well done.

That is a great way to brew tea. Chaozhou brewing is specific for Yan cha but works very well for puer and oolong too. I use this style to brew very old puer and they really push the flavour out. The style require a lot of skill and practice and the reaction for brewing is in milisecond. The sweetness and bitterness can change within the milisecond of the brewing process.

If you try on green tea, use a gaiwan and use little tea leaves, just enough to cover the bottom of the gaiwan. When the water boil pour them into the gaiwan from the side. Do not hit the tea leaves with hot water, otherwise you will get the bitterness. Immediately pour out the tea and enjoy them. You can try this method on sencha and japanese green tea. I did this for japanese tea drinker and they never believe that their japanese tea can taste so nice.

I am not sure, but you may find olive charcoal in the place you live. The olive charcoal really works wonder with this stove. I have some but too precious to use them now.

Cheers and have fun!

[Jayaratna]

Hi Teaism,

in my experience, but I used a small quantity of leaves, the bitterness is really tamed with this clay. I need to buy olive pit charcoal, but the european website is down these days. Somewhere I read that the kind of olives we have in Europe gives smaller pits, which don't have the same smell as the chinese ones. I don't think I'll ever be able to make a comparison.

As for green teas, japanese ones in particular, I use to bring the water to almost boiling point, then I cool it down by pouring it first in the teapot, then in the cup, then again on the leaves. I think this should work with chaozhou clay too.

I wish I had more free mornings to try it soon: I really can't drink tea in the afternoons if I want to sleep at night.

Cheers,
A

[wyardley]

You can get the Chaozhou olive pit charcoal on Taobao; during the olympics, there were some restrictions which made it hard to ship out, but I think these days it's not a problem; just a bit expensive to ship.

[tecnanaut]

In the morning I had a pastry session. The result is two Pastiere (an Easter cake with many many symbolic meanings from southern Italy).

This is so interesting, we also do this here in Malta!

[Teaism]

Hi Teaism,
As for green teas, japanese ones in particular, I use to bring the water to almost boiling point, then I cool it down by pouring it first in the teapot, then in the cup, then again on the leaves. I think this should work with chaozhou clay too.
A

You can brew green tea in boiling water. A little of tea leaves to cover the bottom and flash brew with hot boiling. You must pour out immediately. Also don't hit the tea leaves directly with the boiling water but pour from the side of the gaiwan and let the water "spin" in. This will reveal the real quality of the tea. The recommended 60 degrees for green tea is to mask the quality. It is a safe temperature to brew without revealing too much, the good and bad tea will moderately drinkable. At boiling point water, good tea will shine and bad tea will fail.
This method is used by some tea expert to assess the quality of green tea.

[Jayaratna]

In the morning I had a pastry session. The result is two Pastiere (an Easter cake with many many symbolic meanings from southern Italy).

This is so interesting, we also do this here in Malta!

Maybe you have some relatives in Naples?

[Tead Off]

Hi Teaism,
As for green teas, japanese ones in particular, I use to bring the water to almost boiling point, then I cool it down by pouring it first in the teapot, then in the cup, then again on the leaves. I think this should work with chaozhou clay too.
A

You can brew green tea in boiling water. A little of tea leaves to cover the bottom and flash brew with hot boiling. You must pour out immediately. Also don't hit the tea leaves directly with the boiling water but pour from the side of the gaiwan and let the water "spin" in. This will reveal the real quality of the tea. The recommended 60 degrees for green tea is to mask the quality. It is a safe temperature to brew without revealing too much, the good and bad tea will moderately drinkable. At boiling point water, good tea will shine and bad tea will fail.
This method is used by some tea expert to assess the quality of green tea.

In 25 years of drinking Longjing, I must admit I've never tried brewing it with boiling water as you suggest. As you know, low temp is a standard way from 60-80c. So I went to my LJ caddy, put leaves into a gaiwan and tried your method. It works! My LJ is not top quality but not bad. It stood up to the hot water. No bitterness. But, I think with a good LJ, low temp will give you nuance and a sweetness that the high temp will not. Certainly the low temp will be better for the lower grades.

[Teaism]

Hi Tead off
Glad you tried it. You can try with Japanese green tea too. It works wonderfully well too.

You can do a slight variation if the tea is slightly inferior. Just pour the boiling water from high position and try to control the water stream as thin as possible and pour in from the side wall of the gaiwan. Immediately pour out the tea when the gaiwan is full. This will open up another dimension.

Cheers!

[theredbaron]

When i was in Hangzhou and have been drinking Longjing at the Dragon Well and in the tea houses in the surrounding tea gardens, people there used water at the boiling point. It was a very simple way - a simple glass cup with the bottom covered in tea leaves, and almost boiling water poured in the cup, with several refills. The taste was exquisite. I could never repeat that outside of the growing area, whatever method or water temperature i used.

[Tead Off]

When i was in Hangzhou and have been drinking Longjing at the Dragon Well and in the tea houses in the surrounding tea gardens, people there used water at the boiling point. It was a very simple way - a simple glass cup with the bottom covered in tea leaves, and almost boiling water poured in the cup, with several refills. The taste was exquisite. I could never repeat that outside of the growing area, whatever method or water temperature i used.

Me, too!

[Tead Off]

Hi Tead off
Glad you tried it. You can try with Japanese green tea too. It works wonderfully well too.

You can do a slight variation if the tea is slightly inferior. Just pour the boiling water from high position and try to control the water stream as thin as possible and pour in from the side wall of the gaiwan. Immediately pour out the tea when the gaiwan is full. This will open up another dimension.

Cheers!

Teaism, that other dimension seems to be closed to me, but it opens quite easily with low temp brewing. I would love it if I could use boiling water on green teas and get the wonderful flavors and aroma that I like about certain green teas using low temp, but it doesn't work me. For quick drinking of green teas, boiling is fine and thank you for showing that to me.

[gingkoseto]

In 25 years of drinking Longjing, I must admit I've never tried brewing it with boiling water as you suggest. As you know, low temp is a standard way from 60-80c.

Here I do have a dispute
I don't think 60-80c is standard for majority of high end Chinese green. Among Chinese green tea drinkers and all classic green tea articles, occasionally 80c is mentioned and rarely anything below 80c is mentioned. It's ok to prefer lower temperature, but lower temperature is far from the standards or the traditions, and doesn't have a cultural root.
I almost feel guilty that every time I see the saying that low temperature "should" be use for green tea, I can't help jumping out and urge people to use higher temperature. I'm working on getting less responsive on this issue
But to some degree, I agree with Teaism (with my cynical mind) that the trend of low temperature brewing of Chinese green somewhat results from misleading by some earlier-days western tea sellers - maybe it was out of some good intentions, maybe without obvious intentions and was just influenced by brewing of Japanese green, and maybe done intentionally to emphasize how "delicate and precious" the tea is or to avoid brewing out bitterness out of bitter tea.

[Tead Off]

In 25 years of drinking Longjing, I must admit I've never tried brewing it with boiling water as you suggest. As you know, low temp is a standard way from 60-80c.

Here I do have a dispute
I don't think 60-80c is standard for majority of high end Chinese green. Among Chinese green tea drinkers and all classic green tea articles, occasionally 80c is mentioned and rarely anything below 80c is mentioned. It's ok to prefer lower temperature, but lower temperature is far from the standards or the traditions, and doesn't have a cultural root.
I almost feel guilty that every time I see the saying that low temperature "should" be use for green tea, I can't help jumping out and urge people to use higher temperature. I'm working on getting less responsive on this issue
But to some degree, I agree with Teaism (with my cynical mind) that the trend of low temperature brewing of Chinese green somewhat results from misleading by some earlier-days western tea sellers - maybe it was out of some good intentions, maybe without obvious intentions and was just influenced by brewing of Japanese green, and maybe done intentionally to emphasize how "delicate and precious" the tea is or to avoid brewing out bitterness out of bitter tea.

It's true that Chinese drinkers always have used higher temps, 80c being most often mentioned. I think with the popularity of Japanese greens and the lower temps that they usually brew have led possibly to a reassessment of greens in general brewed at a lower temp. In Korea, too, brewing is done at a lower temp for the greens, not as low as 50-60c as many Japanese tea drinkers will brew their gyokuro and some senchas. The only thing to say is that drinkers can see for themselves which method they prefer. Cheers!