Archive for the ‘white tea’ Category

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you can brew tea in cold water?


2011
12.27

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Posted in alternative brewing, green tea, Oolong, white tea | 9 Comments »

that’s Tie Guan Yin on the left and Silver Needle on the right

This is really a post for summertime. So all of you in the Southern Hemisphere will be happy. The rest of you are probably asking, ‘Why not wait until it’s seasonally appropriate? What’s the story on a summer topic in the opening days of winter?’ Well, in my defence, I started thinking about this in summer. And if I try to wait for the right time, I just might forget.

Over the summer, I read people talking about cold-brewing tea. Putting leaves in cold (not remotely warm) water and waiting until the leaves naturally steep into some delicious goodness. You can do that? It works? I’m here to tell you that it does.

Those of you that already know this are going to think it’s a non-story. Of course it does. Why wouldn’t it? Now I know that…but it was somehow beyond my understanding. My mother made sun tea when I was a child. In her case it was tea bags in a container of water that was set out in the sun. After several hours, the warmth of the sun had brewed up a really strong tea (that people ruined with ice cubes and various forms of sweetener), but that’s because of the heat. Right?

If you want to make tea, you need either hot water or you need to add some sort of heat. Isn’t that correct?

Not necessarily. Why have I been sitting on this since summer? Well, it’s simple actually. I had to try it. I had to know it was true before I went off half-cocked about it (I know that’s not my normal way-I’m well-known for going off half-cocked). And once I got started experimenting with cold-brewing tea, I couldn’t stop. It became a sort of obsession.

That’s why it was so timely when in the comments of a recent post Tea Trade Peter mentioned drinking white tea cold. Here’s how he said it:

‘Let’s start with why does tea have to be drunk hot? I like white tea, but when it is hot, I find that I cannot appreciate the flavors, but when it is just warm, or at a temperature just slightly above the room temperature so you still get the aromatics (though, I think they still come through at room temp). I’ve gotten to the point where I’d rather let my white tea cool off before I drink it, it just seems better that way.’

Now, he’s talking about brewing it hot and letting it cool. It’s not the same thing. But when I read what he’d written, I had unintentionally been doing exactly that with various white teas. After I got as much out of the leaves as I could with hot water, I went on and soaked those same leaves in cold water overnight. With astounding results.

It’s not the same as tea brewed with hot water. There are times when the result is something like faintly-scented water. It’s subtle…a lot like what I’ve recently written about white tea in general. There are also times that I’ve left leaves in cool water, forgotten about them entirely, and after a day or so, the resulting tea was as strong and flavourful as any hot-brewed concoction.

Here, let’s move in a little for a closer look:

Don’t actually drink the leaves, ok? Pour these through some sort of filter.

My question is: Have you tried this? What were your results? Though I don’t think I’d do this with any black tea, it’s had unbelievable results with Oolong, green tea, and white tea. How about you? Any experience?

21 comments

does white tea intimidate you?


2011
12.16

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Posted in white tea | 21 Comments »

an entirely unrelated plant that reminded me of white tea



Like I said last week, I’m going to keep bringing up the topic of white tea until I feel like I have a better grasp of how to make it more accessible for tea newcomers and the tea curious. I’ve mentioned the Google+ Hangout before, and this last week I asked the others taking part about their take on this topic.


Got a lot of positive feedback for even bringing the topic up, and I wanted to share a few of the ideas that  I liked. First of all, no matter what other information is gleaned, the early favourite for ‘best introductory white tea‘ is clearly Pai Mu Tan (or Bai Mu Dan or White Peony, as it’s sometimes called). 


The general consensus is that, for a white tea, this is a much more accesible tea than some other possibilities. I can certainly agree with that. Actually, David Galli from the Portland Tea Enthusiasts’ Alliance had an interesting perspective, and it helped reinforce what I’d already thought about this type of tea. He said he was introduced to them as an intimidating tea, and avoided them for the longest time. Now he drinks them as much as any other teas. 


He suggested trying a Tai Mu Ye Sheng white tea from Jing Tea, which you can find here: Tai Mu Ye Sheng. I can’t personally recommend it, because I haven’t tried it. Nevertheless, the description has made me very thirsty.


But the fact that white tea intimidates some tea drinkers is exactly why I keep coming back to this topic. There’s absolutely no need to let the mere thought of white tea freak you out. I’ll be going into more detail about brewing it in a later post, but it’s really not a big deal. If I can do it, anyone can. Really.


Another opinion that some members of the hangout had, which I think it’s important to voice here, is that the ridiculously high price for some white tea makes it hard to rationalise buying the stuff. More than one person said, ‘If I’m going to spend that sort of dosh, I’d rather get an above-average Oolong or decent Matcha.’ I can see their point. I don’t necessarily agree, but I do understand that position.


May-King Tsang (of May King Tea) said that she found that people who were already accustomed to drinking green tea transitioned more easily to white tea. She also suggested a Silver Needle white tea with a bit of jasmine in it. I might actually try that when I introduce people to this type of tea in person. As long as the jasmine wasn’t overpowering. 


And finally, Laine Petersen said that she’s noticed women gravitate more easily to white tea. She insisted that she didn’t want to perpetuate any stereotypes. The opinion that a few shared was that some men already had enough of a grudge against the assumed femininity of tea drinking. That a woman was more likely to go for such a subtle tea. Again, I can definitely see this.


We keep coming back to that. The subtlety of white tea. Like David said: the way in which white tea was talked about made the whole topic intimidating. I’d like to try and help counteract that. Any ideas about how I might help make that happen?