Setting the infuser aside
I’m setting my tea infuser aside and I’m running a little comparison experiment. When I was a young girl neither my mother nor my grandmother ever used an infuser. So I’m going the old way. First pour hot water into the tea pot and make sure its warm, then empty that water out. Then put in the loose leaf tea and let them warm up. Now, pour the hot water in to make the tea. Let it steep. The leaves freely unfurl with all the room they need. After it has steeped and the leaves are settled on the bottom, pour a cup of tea from the top. Yummm.
My family has always made tea in much the same way. They don’t prewarm the pot though. And it’s boiling water for everything, regardless of the tea type. Then the top off the pot with more boiling water as the tea is drunk. This is usually done only when you expect a large tea drinking party. If it’s just one or two people, they put a few tea leaves at the bottom of a mug and go through the same process as with the pot.
This works well enough for casual drinking with everyday tea, but I wouldn’t do it with the really good stuff. Or the finicky stuff. Brewing time is pretty much impossible to control, unless you can chug boiling tea in less than 3-4 minutes?
I had to show my mom how to make a japanese green with cooler water because she kept complaining that it was bitter. At first she was reluctant because, “you won’t be able to extract the flavor if the water is too cool.” That’s right mom, all the bitter flavors you don’t like won’t come out. Nice, right? hehe
I haven’t tried the mug that way. It’s sounds like a good idea. I’m going to do that today.
usually we drink it pretty fast, but we keep a kettle of boiling water on hand. Then we add some boiling water to the pot as it goes down. Seems to work pretty good.
I am honestly still not sure if I am sold on prewarming the cup/brewer etc. It makes sense that the heat isn’t lost to the surrounding but in my case I never find myself leaving the tea long enough.
A good point by Mercuryhime that larger leaf teas do better in that style of brewing as it really lets them stretch their legs out :)
That and larger leaves are easier to avoid eating. :) They can also brew a little longer before becoming undrinkable. Well…many of them. Not all.
In the old tea house (and old dim sum place some twenty years ago my father frequent) I used to go…
They always warm the teapot and cups with boiling hot water.
Its an act of purification and sanitation the old ways.
For the aromatic nose tall vessels… Where you smell the first phase of below boiling water to tealeaves poured from the teapot and to cool the tea to when you can drink it without burning your lips… You get to enjoy the sense of smell or nose of the tea.
Last phase is tasting of course.
That’s what I remembered of the old ways of the Chinese tea house.
Sometimes the "old’ ways are the best ways. Since, smell and taste are senses so closely linked that they affect each other that first smell of the tea is truly a reward not to be missed.
My family did that, and I did too early into my tea drinking days before exploring tea more.
I was under the impression back then that good tea sinks to the bottom! Totally not the case.
On occasion I just toss the leaves in a glass mug and add water, mostly on really lazy days with a big leafy oolong or pearl black. Though from drinking tea like that, if I get a little leaf in my glass I really don’t care.
I didn’t warm my fine China tea pot and as soon as I poured the boiling water in, I heard it crack. That is one of the main reasons to warm china. :(
OOOh, darn. So sorry to hear that. I did the same thing with one of my grandmother’s spode tea cups. It also broke my heart. Warming the cup is truly worth it.
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