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Brewing Tea - Water, Temperature, and Time

I just finished writing this for my blog (teasphere.wordpress.com) and thought it would be useful here possibly. I'd also be happy to take comments/criticisms or additions. i get a lot of questions about actually brewing tea and most people are intimidated and don't even know where to begin or go by the numbers on the package or a website and get discouraged. Often sites and packages will grossly overstate the amount of tea to be used as is the case with coffee to keep sales up, but not to produce the best tea always. I had a conversation earlier that sparked me to write the following piece as a basic introduction which can be built on and fine tuned later, but would be enough to get someone started in the right direction:

I realize that to many tea brewing begins and ends with dunking a teabag into a mug of variably tepid/boiling water for an indeterminate amount of time and then adding in sugar and/or milk to mask the acrid brew that was just unleashed. I cringe when I see folks at cafes get handed a cup full of improperly heated water with a single-use tea strainer/bag in it and that is where it remains for the duration of the drink. No wonder people don't get tea or think it needs to be doctored up in myriad ways to become palatable. There are other extremes of thermometers and timers and digital scales too, but as with anything, there is a balance. This post is meant to be a primer, not the final master class, and I plan to continue to cover this in increasing depth to help everyone realize that there is so much more to the world of tea and that it isn't hard.

Water, Temperature, and Time

Water is one of the most important parts of the whole equation. You want to make sure the water is absent of any flavors or chemicals. Water that is poured from the little orange/red spout from coffee machines might be filtered but it also may have some hints of the coffee present. Water straight from a tap might have chlorine or sulphur. There are many options but two inexpensive options are to buy a simple faucet-mounted filter (Pur, Dupont, Brita, etc.) or buy the

1, 3, or 5-gallon jugs or containers of spring water. Starting with a solid foundation is the only way to get a great final result.

Temperature can make the same tea brewed the same way taste completely different. Sometimes this range is a good thing and can allow for a range of flavors from the same leaf, sometimes too much heat can destroy a delicate tea. This is a topic that entire books could be written about, so what we are aiming for here is just a good reference point and we will dig into it in more detail in the future. There are also debates on how the water is heated: microwave, gas stove, electric kettle, etc. And while there is some merit to some of these arguments, for right now the method will be ignored and we will just focus on the final water temperature no matter how it got that way.

The basic rule goes like this:

Black tea - full boiling water or just off boil at the least

Oolong tea - small bubbles/almost boiling or boiling water that has been allowed to cool for a minute or so

Green tea - hot but not boiling, allow boiled water to cool for a few minutes before using. You should be able to touch the water without suffering a burn, not literally but as an illustration of the temp we are going for here.

Tisanes/Herbal tea - full boiling water, the hotter the better. This is not tea and as such you are trying to extract everything you can from the herb/flower.

As you can see, the one-size-fits-all orange/red coffee machine lever is not useful for almost anything but green tea and some oolongs. So if you are at a cafe or situation (like an office) where this is the only option, your best bet is to select a green tea or oolong and just make do.

Time is the other important piece in this equation. Again some teas allow for some variation here and will offer up different flavors and complexities depending on how short or long it is steeped, some will become undrinkable (bitter or astringent) if left for too long. Each particular tea within a larger category (green, black, etc.) will have an optimal time and temperature but again we are setting up the basics here.

I start from 30-45 seconds to about 1-2 minutes and an occasional tea will work well with 3-5 minutes, herbal/tisanes always go 3-5 minutes. Start shorter and then try longer brews and find your particular sweet spot for the specific tea. Some do well with even longer 3-5 minute brewings, some become bitter and too strong. It is all about what tastes good to YOU, not what a package or "expert" states is correct. With the right water and temperature, you can experiment on time to find what works for you... but leaving the tea in the cup for 5+ minutes until you finish it is not really the proper solution for ANY tea.

Quality tea makes a huge difference as well as does the amount used. Start with a solid teaspoon's worth of leaf if in doubt and adjust from there to your taste.

Enjoy!

- Dominic

Reply to
Dominic T.
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I always tell people if they can boil water they can make tea. They can learn the variables later.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Agreed, but often in cafes they simply plunk in the tea bag(s) or the loose tea and offer no instruction to the customer or even a place to put the tea once it has brewed to the desired strength... which makes people believe it is meant to be left in. That was the conversation I had had which prompted me to write this. A woman asks the woman behind the counter how long she should let her tea steep and the answer was "oh, just leave it in, it's fine" Followed by a couple minutes later the customer walking back up with the cup stating that it was way too bitter to drink. Not offering any info the worker just tossed it out and simply handed her another one. Both were frustrated.

I was sitting near the customer so I simply asked what kind of tea she had chosen, it was a black tea and I noticed they had used about 4 Tablespoons of leaf both times which could have brewed a pot or three not a small cup. So I said with that much tea try like 30 seconds to a minute and set the tea strainer on a spare lid. She was thankful to just get some instruction and enjoyed the tea. People just need some basics and they can go from there, but with every tea in these places being treated like they are all the same it's impossible for people to get even a decent representation of what it should be.

I think we take a lot for granted at times, I know my first struggles all surrounded around combating bitterness and astringency but I had no idea that each tea was different and that wasn't the only goal, to not produce some bitter/acrid cup. Just a nudge beyond that point opens up a level of comfort and enjoyment which is the first and last barrier to many people getting into tea. I've seen it with friends and family, they just need some starting point beyond just boiling water and tossing the tea in.

- Dominic

Reply to
Dominic T.

I had the opposite experience recently. Im over at a guys house where I would guess he is using 25g of tea where 5g would do. I didnt say anything because he is active in a tea blog so I let it pass. I saw him later and he said he got some scales because he was using too much tea. I would have said the British use cream and sugar to tame the bitter taste the way you just made it. I to this day who use to catch crab on the gulf coast dont know if I am suppose to eat the mushy stuff in the shell. Even if we use the right parameters does that guarantee an appreciation of tea. I try to suggest that selecting tea is like hunter gathering. Let your instincts guide you. Its an adventure. I think this more important than parameters which sort themselves out.

Jim

PS I know what you are say> On Oct 16, 8:01 am, Space Cowboy snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com> wrote: >

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Yes, many people don't even make it to that point which is what I'd like to address. I know once I've given these very basic instructions to family/friends they always end up enjoying tea more... they may never progress or care to but it at least lets them in and opens up the potential for further exploration.

Ans yes you can eat the stuff in the shell, not the grayish "lungs", but the yellow/green/brown gunk which goes by many names in many cultures... many claim it is the best part. I don't personally buy it, but I did have it prepared once and on top of a small piece of crusty bread which was very good... still not my idea of a good time. My grandmother would fight you for it even at 93+ however.

- Dominic

Reply to
Dominic T.

I guess it is a function of how much you paid for the crab. Since for us it was free we skipped that part. I never wanted to know what the crab was digesting if that is what crustaceans do. We also didnt eat that part in crawdads.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy

"British tea" - CTC tea from India and East Africa should never be bitter however it is made - but it certainly should be astringent. From UK Tea Council stats - only 30% of tea drinkers use sugar; 98% use milk - I have never in my long life ever seen anyone in the UK use cream - that's the Friesians across the North Sea.

Nigel at Teacraft

Reply to
Nigel

They call it Devonshire clotted cream. It is generally agreed in the food industry caffeine is the taste sensation bitter. We always have this discussion.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Brewing tea is really quite easy. Here are some instructions for brewing a perfect cup of tea.

First start with cold, great tasting, water. If your tap water does not taste good, then use filtered or bottled water. (I say to use cold water because a typical hot water heater will often add contaminants and reduce the amount of oxygen in the water, which is needed for flavor extraction).

Then bring the desired amount of water to a rolling boil. (Do not boil the water for a long period of time because this too will deplete the water of oxygen).

Put approximately 2 grams or 1 tsp. of tea leaves per 6-8 oz. of water into a pre-heated pot or cup (pre-heating will allow the tea to steep at the proper temperature).

Then add hot water according the chart below for the type of tea you are brewing. Please note that these are general guidelines. If your tea container has brewing instructions I would follow those as they are probably ideal for that specific tea.

'Bhopal Directory '

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