I have been trying to learn more about what makes a difference when brewing tea. There are several parameters. I have been brewing a 3-4 cup pot, putting it in a thermos bottle, and drinking it over a couple of hours while working at my desk.
The next day, or sometimes later that same day, I try again with slightly different parameters.
One problem with this method is that I don't trust my taste memory from the day before, let alone several days before. I could do several
1-cup brews in quick succession, but that is a lot of measuring.
How useful would it be to draw 3-4 cups from the same pot every minute?
Let say I put 8 g of tea in a 4-cup pot and bring 32 oz of water to a boil. I pour the water over the tea and start a timer. When it gets to
1 minute, I pour off 8 oz through a strainer into cup #1. At 2 minutes, I pour off another 8 oz into cup #2. At 3 minutes I pour off another 8 oz into cup #3, and at 4 minutes the last 8 oz into cup #4.
Now I have 4 cups to compare side by side.
Cup 1 is 2.0g/cup for 1 minute Cup 2 is 2.7g/cup for 2 minutes Cup 3 is 4.0g/cup for 3 minutes Cup 4 is 8.0g/cup for 4 minutes
I am varying both time and strength. Is this data worth anything?
After watching the SteapTV video and doing a little more thinking, I realized that my strength numbers above are off.
In my example above, the first cup, drawn at 1 minute, is at 2g/cup strength. However, the second cup is NOT at 2.7g/cup. That cup was brewed for 1 minute at 2g/cup and for 1 minute at 2.67g/cup. The average is 2.33 g/cup. Cup #3 is the average of three 1-minute brews at different strengths and cup #4 is the average of 4. The following table shows the calculations.
Water = water remaining. Subtract 1 cup each iteration. Min = Total minutes of brewing time. g/cup = grams/cup during that interval. = grams-of-tea / water-remaining Tea-Min = Total tea-minutes. = (grams/cup) * (additional-minutes) Cum = Cumulative sum of tea-minutes. Ave = Average strength = Cum / Min
Cup# Water Min g/cup Tea-Min Cum Ave 1 4 cups 1 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2 3 cups 2 2.67 2.67 4.67 2.33 3 2 cups 3 4.00 4.00 8.67 2.89 4 1 cup 4 8.00 8.00 16.67 4.17
Cup #4 is actually at 4.17 g/cup and not 8g/cup as I said above.
If the cups are not drawn at 1-minute intervals, as in the SteapTV video, then the table is as follows:
Cup# Water Min g/cup Tea-Min Cum Ave 1 3 cups 3 2.00 6.00 6.00 2.00 2 2 cups 5 3.00 6.00 12.00 2.40 3 1 cup 7 6.00 12.00 24.00 3.43
Note that the tea-minutes are not equal to the g/cup.
If my calculations are correct, this method is a better way to compare steep times than I thought.
Realizing that your first computation was wrong led you to an interesting thought. But the tea-minute will have merit only if N tea-minutes yield the same result in the cup (assuming the same kind of leaf) with, say, N g/cup for one minute, and 1 g/cup for N minutes.
I would think that brewing 2g for 1 minute would not be the same as brewing 1g for 2 minutes (same amount/temp of water).
Taken to a more extreme example, I would expect 8g brewed for 1 minute to be quite different from 1g brewed for 8 minutes. I would esxpect the former to be strong and the latter bitter.
I don't think I am assuming that at all and, in fact, am trying to eliminate that effect.
Let's take a simple example. Suppose I put 4g of tea in a 2-cup pot, add hot water, and start steeping. After 1 minute, I strain 1 cup into a cup and allow the rest to continue to steep. After 1 more minute, I drain the rest (1 cup) into a second cup.
I now have 2 cups of tea.
Cup 1 is clearly the result of brewing 2g of tea in 1 cup of water for
1 minute.
The question is, "What's in cup 2?".
It is clear that cup 2 is NOT the result of brewing 2g of tea in 1 cup of water for 2 minutes. It is somewhat stronger than that and may have other characteristics.
It is also clear that it is NOT the result of brewing 4g of tea in 1 cup of water for 2 minutes. It is somewhat weaker than that and may have other characteristics.
A simple average would put the contents of cup 2 at the equivalent of brewing 3g of tea in 1 cup of water for 2 minutes.
I am not sure that the contents of cup 2 are "exactly" equal to any kind of average between 2g and 4g of tea in 1 cup of water for 2 minutes, but I believe a simple average is close enough to what's really in cup 2 to be of use in taste testing.
I created an Excel spreadsheet to make these calculations. I'd be happy to upload it someplace if anyone is interested.
I just used it to run a test on Earl Grey Bravo from Adagio. Here are the results:
B C 1,000 ml Water 250 ml Cup size (for strength calculations) 4 Cups in this pot 6.0 g Tea 1.5 g Strength (g/cup) 250 ml Sample size each interval
Gram Cum Cup# Water Tea Min Strength -Min G-M Strength 1 1,000 ml 6.0 g 1 1.50 g/cup 1.50 1.50 1.50 g/cup 2 750 ml 6.0 g 2 2.00 g/cup 2.00 3.50 1.75 g/cup 3 500 ml 6.0 g 3 3.00 g/cup 3.00 6.50 2.17 g/cup
This entire experiment is a weaker brew than planned. I initially planned to start with 750 ml of water and 6g of tea (2g/cup). (I am using 250ml for a "cup".) After I had weighed the 6g of tea, I decided to increase the water so that the difference from cup to cup would be less, but I forgot to increase the tea to 8g. I'll redo the experiment with 8g later.
After I poured the 3rd cup, I strained the remaining tea into a measuring cup. It showed that I had 225 ml left. I will modify my spreadsheet to take that into account.
Here are the results:
Cup 1 had a nice taste, but was just slightly weak. I actually didn't notice that so much until I weas able to compare it to the other cups.
Cup 2 was the best. Again, this was clearer after I tasted all three.
Cup 3 tasted about the same as Cup 2 at first, but then I noticed that it had an aftertaste that was slightly bitter. After going back and forth several times, it was clear this tea is not good after 7 minutes.
Overall, this was very educational. I would want to follow this up with some regular steepings and drink several cups on different days to get a good feel for a tea, but this definitely gives me an upper and lower bound on the time.
My new Digital Kettle Pro is supposed to arrive on Monday. That will make running these experiments a lot easier.
I also want to get at least one IngenuiTea teapot/infuser. That should make getting an accurate water measurement a lot easier and also make it easier to dispense a cup at a time (I hope).
Finally, I want to get some clear glass tea cups so I can see the color and clarity of the tea.
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