You Created a New Tea
Here’s an interesting thought. You just created a tea from scratch. Even if you followed a traditional recipe, it’s quite unique. You put your own artistry into it (whether amazing or beginner). But just as important, your tea was created in a different humidity and air temperature. Maybe you rolled it longer than usual, maybe you rolled it slightly harder or softer. The point is, you created something new and unique.
So how do you go steeping your new tea? It’s a whole new creation after all. You can follow traditional steeping instructions, but when you buy from a small tea garden, they often have different temperatures and times than your normal grocery store variety. Your tea is no different.
How to Steep Your New Tea
If you followed one of the traditional recipes, you should still steep it differently. Fortunately, not too differently. The leaves you used, traditionally go into oolong tea. They’re grown differently, they taste somewhat differently as well. This affects steeping time.
When I steep, I like to use boiling for black tea, and around 80 degrees celcius for green tea. The big difference is steeping time. For a black tea made from these leaves, I’ll steep from 6-7 minutes for the first steeping. For a green tea, I’ll steep 4-5 minutes.
There are a couple reasons for this. First, we’re using a whole leaf tea, which needs more time for the water to penetrate and absorb the leaf compounds. Second, just as Chinese teas need to steep longer than Japanese leaves, these Taiwanese leaves will also use a longer steep because of their nature.
How Much Tea To Use
One last bit about steeping. I find the best cups when using about 2 grams of dry leaf for every serving of tea I make. I’ll even toss in an additional 2 grams “for the pot”. My serving size is about 6oz of water.
I hope this helps you during your adventures. And until next time, enjoy the Teawright’s Journey!
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