white tea "crumbs" and what the heck to do with them!
hey guys! i’ve got a little problem. i received 2 oz of shanghai orchid white tea from teavana as a christmas gift. i used 1 oz of it without an issue. it’s lovely. the non-broken leaf portion that i got was amazing.
however, the remaining ounce that settled closer to the bottom is made up of crumb/dust/particulate tea. i’ve tried just brewing it as normal (175 for 2 minutes) but it turns out insanely bitter. i’ve also tried halving the steeping time. same issue. i’ve added milk and sugar to it. an ok fix, but it’s a shame to not be able to enjoy the tea on its own.
next time i will thoroughly inspect the tea to make sure there are no crumbs, but do you guys have any suggestions as to how to enjoy these crumbly leaves?
A tea bath is supposed to somehow be good for your skin, but the articles I’ve seen have been very vague on why. But who cares! It’ll make you smell great anyways! Mix in other herbs you want to smell like too! I’d probably bathe myself in jasmine tea if I had a bathtub. Toss in some flower petals and light some candles while you’re at it. :)
Perhaps cold brewing? That seems to cut the bitterness in most teas that I’ve tried it with.
I’ve had that tea before and encountered the same problem, I just mixed it with other teas, especially minty ones. Yes, it sucks not to be able to enjoy it by itself, although I hadn’t tried cold brewing it.
New white teas can get very bitter when stewing in hot water over long periods. The trick is to separate leaves from hot water. If there’s a lot of tea dust and fines, try using a fine sieve strainer, putting the leaves in the strainer, holding over cup/pot, and slowly pouring hot water over leaves in strainer. Or just put the leaves in a tea bag/filter, removing after the tea is steeped to the desired strength.
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