New to Tea (Green in particular)
Hey everyone, So I decided to cut coffee out my diet and moved on to Green Tea. The horrible free stuff that our office supplies us with spurred me to purchase some high quality loose tea, mainly as an experiment to see / taste / smell the difference between bulk made, and specialist.
The two I purchased were as follows (in 10mg packs):
http://jingtea.com/tea/type/green/gyokuro
http://jingtea.com/tea/type/green/dragon-well-supreme
Not surprisingly they are a lot nicer than the supermarket green tea, in fact they are so much nicer that I have decided to invest some time and effort in to sampling high quality green teas and begin my tea journey.
What I’d like to understand is how people differentiate between the flavours. Certainly I can tell the difference between the two above, but I cannot pinpoint what makes it different. The Japanese seems to taste stronger, whilst the Chinese tasted smoother. But I cannot fathom how you smell or taste to the depth that people seem to go in to. I understand that it is practice, but is there a way you are supposed to savour the drink?
My method is as follows:
- Using a glass steeper, fill my cup with 90 degree filtered water.
- Add some filtered cold water to bring the temperature down to what I believe is between 60 – 80 degrees (because I’m not sure I want to go in to specifics with thermometers quite yet!)
- Pour that water into my steeper and put in roughly a teaspoon of leaves (the packet suggests a teaspoon)
- Leave for around 3 or 4 minutes and swirl it around to fully infuse the flavours before pouring
- Drink a semi-large mouthful and let it settle a bit before swallowing slowly. Gulping it down just seemed pointless!
Feedback, suggestions and tips to help me get on my feet would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks!
These are very fine teas, as far as green tea goes. They are light and refreshing. If you want complexity, try oolong or puerh teas.
I’m finding that I can only get one really flavourful steep out of them though. The second always tastes a little metal-y. I try to keep the timings the same, (although they’re approximates, not exact measurements). I refill the pot and let it brew for a further 3 minutes. It’s never even close to being as good as the first steep.
Advice?
EDIT: Okay so I did a bit of reading. It’s possible i’ve been steeping the second for too long, and I also swirl the leaves around in the pot… apparently this is bad and can lead to a bitter brew ;( I also misread the pack and it says TBSP not TSP!
Only experience will make your palate more sensitive. So the solution is obviously more tea.
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