While it is not possible to group every tea in the same brewing temperature range, below is a rough guide. Basic water temperatures low-75'C; medium-85'C; high-95'C: green tea and yellow tea low temp.; black tea, dark tea, and dark Puer(ripe Puer) high temp.; white tea and green puer(raw puer) medium temp.; oolong usually high. note for black tea and oolong: if tender leaf or tips use medium temp.
I am afraid Oolongs have to be divided into subgroups, concerning suitable temperature to brew.
differences within oolong tea group are bigger than between green tea and "green oolong".
You are right Poutnik. It is more complicated than that given the wid variety of Oolongs.
But there does come a point when following different detaile instructions for each different type of tea becomes too complicated. think you lose something of the personal ritual and sensory experienc of drinking tea when you follow robotic instructions.
I'm constantly trying to move people away from the tea bag and toward loose leaf tea. But as tea bag tea preparation is so simple, givin them a massive list of instructions can work against me.
So for the loose leaf tea newbie I encourage them to just hot water t good quality tea leaves (adjusting slightly for temperature).
If the tea tastes good. It's good tea
I think it is the opposite
- less robotic, avoiding given tables..
It is more about tea sense and feeling.
Thanks for sharing nice tip
yes i agree its not that easy to just put all the teas in simple categories.
i think the green oolong you are talking about is anxi iron goddess?, we also can classify as light, medium, heavy, roast, and scent oolong.
why so many oolong teas: after withering, one of the most important steps in making is the tossing and setting, this is done during the fermentation(oxidation), and too much or not enought will screw up the whole batch of tea.
oolongs; things that affect brewing temps:
*tip or leaf and maturity at picking, ex. tips or younger(lower temps) *roasting(high temps) *scenting(lower temps) *aging(higher temps)usually higher temps will bring out more flavor (and or bitterness too), lower temps will bring out fragrance.
soft is better than hard: water is very important for tea and hard water will adversely affect the taste of the tea, Hard/soft classification(ppm)mg/L: soft water 0~60; moderately hard 61~120; hard 121~180. parts per million (ppm) is usually defined as 1 mg/L CaCO3.
Infusions should be added to high. I've discovered that lemon & ginger tea is much more flavorsome if boiled to 100%. Kettles often boil tea for a split second before switching off leaving the water to cool off and deprive the tea bag of a through infusion.
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