how to brew loose tea?

I think folks here would like to help you but it appears to me that your questions and statements raise enough questions in themselves that it is hard to know where to start.

So I'll be the first one into the fray.

May I assume that the loose tea mentioned in the first paragraph is a green tea? There are so many variables. First, green tea requires significantly lower temperature than blacks. If the loose tea is too old or of poor quality, or poorly stored, or the water used is too hot or cool, or not enough leaf is used, you may be disappointed.

Don't try to equate bagged tea with loose tea. Bagged tea is dust or fannings and a tsp. of it will tend to brew up much stronger than a tsp. of loose tea; it weighs more. Bagged tea is almost always of far lower quality than loose, as well.

Try this: Take a 5-6 oz. teapot, or use a ceramic teacup with a saucer that you can use for a lid. Fill it with hot tap water. Boil 1 cup, or a little more, of water on the stove (I can't tell you a thing about microwaves) and pour it into a pyrex cup to cool for 2 minutes.

While that water is cooling, empty the teacup, add 1 1/2 to 2 tsp of your loose green tea. Pour the cooled water from the pyrex cup over the leaves. Cover with the saucer. Steep from 1 1/2 to 3 minutes (you are allowed to taste for strength during this time). When it is the strengh you desire, pour the tea into another teacup, using a strainer to hold the leaves back.

This should give you an acceptable cup of green tea. This is just a starting point. Let us know what happens!

Joe Kubera

Yes.

OK... in my experience, a bagged tea tends to brew a stronger cup for the same steeping time.

I see listings of caffeine being 35 mg for green and 60 for black tea. I assume this is for bagged tea? How is loose tea different?

I took some Longjing and used a "heaping teaspoon". I brewed it for 3 minutes at 180 degrees (I microwaved water to that temperature and used a thermometer). The water is dark yellow. When I use a Ceylon green tea in a bag, it will get that color in about a minute of steeping, and a minute and a half it is light green. 2-3 minutes makes a bitter cup of tea with the teabag, but with the loose tea it's just starting to get strong enough to be more than colored water that has a little bit of aroma.

1. Longjin is a very delicate tea that is best at about 140F. (The 180 was a figure I threw out there to be sure you didn't use boiling water.) But depending on where you got the tea and how old it is, etc., it may not deliver much at any temperature. Three minutes should have been a long enough steep, unless you used too much water. Try it with 6 oz. of 140F water for 2-3 min..

I also wonder what you are looking for in your cup of tea. Your experience with bagged tea makes me suspect you are used to a lot of astringency, and you won't get that with a proper and well-brewed longjin, nor with many fine greens. If you like some astringency try Chinese gunpowders or Japanese teas

-- at least you'll get some flavor in the bargain.

1. Color of brewed tea doesn't tell you much about quality, or even whether your tea is ready. Some greens can be the palest green or yellow and be quite strong.

1. It's nice that you have a thermometer to control temp.

Good luck, Joe

Ok.. I gathered it was a pale tea. Not sure how pale, though. I'm used to drinking Ceylon green in the teabags (usually Celestial Seasonings or Hokan- Hokan is more astringent, Celestial Seasonings is not but also weak on flavor). Is Ceylon green a dark tea, or also pale? I have heard that Sri Lanka is getting into green tea, though it's not traditional for the area, becaues of increased demand for green tea.

I find most of these mass-market green teas have no character. I drank some OK bagged teas, so I know it cannot be the reason.

I drank Gunpodwer before. I wasn't aware at the time it was a green tea- i probably overbrewed it. Still, it tasted OK (but then, I have a high tolerance for bitter flavors).

I made an order with Ten Tea online to try some new teas:

Longjing Grade 2 Ti Kuan Yin (Oolong, from what I gather, also toasted) 2nd grade Gunpowder Green Pu-erh 3rd grade

Prices were very good. I ordered from Generation Tea in the past, but judging by the prices and the size of the leaf and color, most of their teas are probably high end. The Longjing I have from them smells somewhat like spinach or grass.

I have not tried many Japanese teas. I tried a Kukicha (twig tea, I believe?) once and I liked the toasted flavor. I presume they use some kind of fire to dry the tea, possibly ironware, and this is what you can taste in alot of green tea (correct me if I'm wrong here). But with the Ceylon teas, are they using some kind of electric oven?

Hi

If you put "tea dryers" or "tea processing" into google you will find many sites that will give you the various ways tea is dried and processed. The main dryers that I have seen in use in Sri Lanka are fluid Bed driers, and they can use all sorts of fuels to powere them. The fuel never comes in contact with the tea!

Tea is a fascinating subject and it will take me the ret of my life to learn as much as my life partner now knows.

Hope your research is fruitful.

Regards

Helga

magnuluscOY5d.204411$% snipped-for-privacy@bignews6.bellsouth.net9/27/04

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I think that 180F degrees is at the far high end of possibility for Longjing. Try brewing at 170 or lower for 2 minutes or less and see what happens. I take it you microwaved the water before you put the tea in? That would be the better way to go.

For a fine Longjing, I like 150 or less, one gram of dry tea for each ounce of wet water, about two minutes more or less, less on the second steep.

light green.

Not to be pedantic, but color tells us next to nothing about the tea's strength, taste, aroma, complexity, and so on. Color is your very last consideration for adjudging and adjusting a tea.

it's just starting to get strong enough to be more than colored water that has a little bit of aroma.

For Longjing, there are a couple possibilities embedded in your comment I can see: First, your Longjing is either older or of a rougher breed. A fresh, fine leaf will produce a wonderous Longjing at 140 degrees and lower at two minutes and less. Second, you're taste runs toward the heavier style and the stronger Longjing taste, but be aware that the delicate beauty of this tea at its best is as missable as a whispy cloud on a windy day.

Keep messing and mucking around with your tea.

Best, Michael

Some of what gets sold as kukicha is all twigs, but some brands are mostly leaf with very thin twigs. The latter is what I like.

/Lew

Amazing. I've been drinking kukicha for a couple of decades, usually buying it at Japanese grocery stores. Always liked it, but didn't think there was enough "there" there. Even in Japan, I've only seen kukicha that looked pretty much like one of my brushpiles. Is the mostly-leaf style you mention readily available? If by mail, does it carry a different designation?

Thanks-

DM

Ito En makes it. I've only bought it loose at their New York shop, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could find it foil-wrapped in the sencha aisle of your nearest Korean/Japanese supermarket.

/Lew