A tea afficianado will tell you that it takes time to learn to brew great tea. True, but its also fairly easy to learn how to brew good tea. Just learn the Five “T”s of brewing good tea, Tea, waTer, Temperature, Time and Taste, and you will be brewing outstanding tea in no time! Let me walk you through the five Ts.
1) The first “T” is “Tea”. This may sound silly, but really, more than 90% of the quality of the brew is going to depend on the quality of the tea that you select. Fortunately today it is easy to buy outstanding tea. Compared to the yesteryears, when you had to be in a big city like Philadelphia, New York or Boston to get really good tea, today in North America there is almost a rennaisance in the tea culture, and you can find really outstanding teas just by going online.
In your vendor selection, try to be very selective about who you choose for your tea purchase. Read the reviews, email the owner and learn as much about the vendor as possible before buying from them. Be aware that there are two types of vendors, A speciality tea vendor that specializes in tea from certain parts of the world - China or India or Celon etc, or a general vendor who sells every thing under the banner of tea, including the crazy fruity blends to Yerba Mate to Roiboos. Generally speaking, the specialist vendor tends to know more about their tea and will in fact point you in the right direction rather than try to sell you a lot of different types of tea. So select the vendor carefully and with a good tea, you are already on the way to making an outstanding brew.
2) WaTer: The second biggest factor that influences tea brew is waTer. Heavily chlorinated water from the tap completely destroys the flavors in tea, so avoid the chlorinated tap water. Distilled water is fine, but in my experience tea tastes better with spring water than distilled water.
Beware though, that not all spring waters are created equal. My advice is, buy four or five different types of spring waters and brew the teas in them separately to see which one brings out the tea flavor the best. You may even want to test the “filter” water from one of the home filter companies. These filters not only filter the water, but also add some trace amounts of salts, and do a pretty good job in brewing tea. Bottom line, avoid chlorinated tap water and choose filtered water or spring water.
3) The third tea is “Temperature”. The general rule of thumb is, lower temperatures for Whites and Greens, and higher temperatures for Oolongs and Black teas. Mind you, the puritans go crazy over this “T” buying a kitchen thermometer and being really precise about it, but brewing good tea is not about precision, its about enjoyment. So follow this simple advice. If you are brewing a green tea, bring the water to a boil, turn the stove off, and wait for 4-5 minutes before pouring it on the green tea. For Oolong, wait 2-3 minutes, and for black tea, use boiling water. This should take care of “temperature”, but feel free to experiment around with the wait times and I am sure you will arrive at the temperature that is right for you!
4) “Time”. In my opinion, this is the most flexible “T” that you can work with. Again, the general rule of thumb is, lowest amount of time for “Green teas and Oolongs”, and most amount of time for “black tea”. So, start out with 30 seconds for green tea, and increase it in 30 second increments to arrive at the right time. On the other hand, for black tea, start with 2.5 minutes, and experiment it by going up till you come to the right amount of time.
5) And the final T is “Taste”: When we started selling teas in United States, one of the most common complaint we heard was that our teas were too astringent. I found that very surprising, because in India and other countries like Germany the astringency of tea is found to be quite welcoming! Slowly we learned that Americans prefer mellow and sweetish tea. So, when you are buying tea, be sure to ask the vendor about the astringency profile of the tea. If it is very astringent and you prefer sweet tea, you might be better off selecting a different tea.
On the other hand, you will realize that if you modulate the first four “T”s correctly, almost any tea will produce a satisfactory brew - even the most astringent one.
So, there you have it, five “T”s to help you prepare an outstanding tea. Easy to remember, easy to implement - Tea, Water, Temperature, Time and Taste. Its really not that complicated!
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Article Title: Five “T”s of Brewing Good Tea
Author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi
Authors website: http://www.jayateas.com
About the author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi is the President of Jaya Teas, LLC. Dr. Pareek grew up in India in a family steeped in tea industry and tea lore. Many of Dr. Pareek’s uncles and cousins are involved in the Indian tea industry and so, although a medical doctor by profession, Dr. Pareek decided to use her family connections for the benefit of US tea customer, by starting a tea company . Jaya Teas, which specialises in teas from India, has been open for business since 2004. Dr. Pareek invites readers to contribute their comments on her blog Chaiwalah, which can be found at http://www.jayateas.com/blog/
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