High-temp brewing of white tea

I do prefer cooler water (65-70 C) to white teas, because in my experience boiling water (which I have tried because of the recommendation of some authorities, too) kills the subtler nuances in these teas.

I do also use cooler water to uncooked puerhs, but for avoiding the astringency. Even when I have used boiling water, I have never experienced any "cooked-vegetable" taste.

Just my 2 cents.

Gyorgy

Gyorgy Sajo4327c38b$0$94399$ snipped-for-privacy@dread15.news.tele.dk9/14/05

02: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

in its implications.

Yes, I completely agree with Gyorgy, and have had the same basic experience. Nonetheless, if you use really hot water to brew your silver needles (white tea buds), and you perceive little or no difference between that and the results of a cooler brew, your tea is probably sans subtler nuances, and thus the question is academic.

What I do experience when using water too hot for a young green Pu'erh is a harshness and emphasis on the cigar ash thing. The fruits, meadows, musty flowers, and other nice attributes of such a tea reveal at the lower temperatures. That's my experience anyway.

And worth every penny.

Michael

Hi Dogma,

White Tea and Pu'er silver tips are processed differently.

If you have Bai Mudan and Silver Needles, the suggestion is usually with hotter water, while cooler water for the rest.

Danny

Meaning, white tea might be more oxidized but even new Puerh buds would be somewhat microbially fermented?

Is your reason for this that buds require hotter temperatures?

Recently I've been getting the best results for bud-only whites and Puerhs with fairly hot (170-180F) water. I know Michael says there are nuances in a really good Yinzhen that hot water destroys, but maybe I haven't had access to a white tea that good for a while.

/Lew

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com9/14/05 11: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

Lew,

I'm thinking of our sojourns to IPOT more than anything else. I know the Yin Zhen was not your/our favorite, but the nuances were clearly there. MHO.

Michael

Honestly, I can't remember that. I've only started to love white tea in the last year or so, so maybe I was just too insensitive a clod to appreciate their Yinzhen at the time.

/Lew

Hey Lew,

a) Different processing Uncooked Pu'er (Silver Tips) : Withering, Fixation, ...etc White Tea : Withering, Drying...etc

b) Different varietals Uncooked Pu'er : Yunnan White Tea : Fujian (though there are some production in Yunnan, and India now)

White tea is treasured in the cosmetic industry for it not being oxidized, but to everything there is no absolute exception - some of the newer types of white tea (rolled Jasmine White Tea Pearls) are lightly oxidized.

Likewise some uncooked pu'ers are allowed to oxidize during the processing to create new flavours.

Buds require a longer yielding time than leaves, so it's lower temperature water with longer brewing time, or hotter water with shorter brewing time. One brings out the sweetness of the tea, the other gets the freshness out from the tea. Strike it in the middle you get both...

:")

Danny

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com9/14/05 12: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

Had perhaps more to do with the fact that it was the first offering among many, and was easily forgotten therefore. BTW, it turned out to be Thompson, not Sullivan. Sullivan sports three Tibet shops in a row. It was the same shop I remembered from over 30 years ago.

Those of you who aren't following, don't try. This is all in code.

Michael

True, I have completely forgotten that last thing. When I tried my first green puerhs, I found them all being too smoky for my taste, and I was almost going to quit the whole experiment. Fortunately I have read Mike's posts about the lower temperatures, and now I can taste a wealth of nuances, flowers and fruits in my young puerhs.

[samarkand]

Sorry, posted after single-mindedly drinking Puer for a month or two. And haven't had a decent "regular" white tea for a long time. It was to Silver Needles Puer that I referred.

Within that, I might have been more clear. I prefer silver needles brewed at very moderate temperatures. Today at work, for example, I had five steeps of

101Tea organic Silver Needles starting at 100F (barely warm) and ending at 120F. All were excellent. Any hotter and the (to me) light citrus notes disappear. But it's still pretty good (though entirely different) brewed in boiling water. Anything greener and that young, by comparison, tastes to me like overcooked spinach. So I'm speculating that silver needles can tolerate hot water because whatever turns into the cooked-spinach taste is absent.

That's probably no clearer, but what the heck.

-DM

Gyorgy Sajo43286f11$0$94468$ snipped-for-privacy@dread15.news.tele.dk9/14/05

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Ah, happy news. Mike's posts certainly are a gold mine of good information. Cut to his site and see the rest of the story.

Michael

Dog Ma 13D3We.43441$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net9/14/05

20:54spamdogma snipped-for-privacy@att.net reply w/o spam

Dog,

Actually, quite clear. A true white tea you like at a super-low temp. I have heard it said that if the tea changes the water so slightly that only the aftertaste suggests that the tea was there, it's a well prepared white of good quality. I've had it served from that perspective -- in that way -- and it is nice, although not the brew for when you're busy. Gotta pay attention. Single mindedness (which isn't easy when you're double headed), you know.

Michael

Wow. How much time do you give it at 100 quaint degrees?

/Lew

[Lewis Perin]

About six minutes, probably 3g of tea in 4 oz water. Fifth steep was about a minute, and was very good but definitely starting to lose the delicate high notes. I left the wet leaves in the pot overnight, and the next morning, it all smelled wonderful - all the floral/fruit notes back again. I'd have brewed it up a few more times, but was hot to try some ITC WuYi. Latter turned out to be very over-roasted by my standards, though a second steep was a lot better balanced.

-DM