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| Our Tea Tips
Making a Perfect Pot
Time: The finer the grain, the quicker the brew time as the surface area of the tea exposed to the hot water is greater. Nearly powdered teas are ready to go in about two minutes or less, while large leaf varieties may need more than five minutes. The general rule is three to five minutes, blacks longer than greens. The longer a tea steeps, the more likely it is to become slightly astringent or "bitter" to the taste. Some tea lovers prefer a bit of astringency, while others recommend putting the tea into infusers or paper filters (rather than directly in the pot) as the leaves can more easily be removed from the pot after the prescribed steeping time, which also preserves a bit more "virtue" in the leaves if the intent is to reuse them to brew a second pot. Temperature: With black teas, the hotter the water the better. Bring it just to a boil and let it back off a couple of degrees. Green teas are usually a bit more delicate and do better in water that is in the 160 to 185 degree range, so it may make sense to let the water cool a bit before brewing the tea in this case. If you don’t want to get out the thermometer, just bring the water up to a boil as usual and then take it off the stove, allowing it to cool for five minutes or so before pouring it on the green leaves. Making a Pretty Good Second Pot Remember that you can get a second pot out of just about any tea type. If the tea is loose in the pot, first pour off the cold excess liquid through a filter and return the leaves to the pot. Fill the pot about 3/4's full of fresh hot water. If desired, add a bit more fresh tea. Let this pot steep a few minutes longer than the first. If the tea is in an infuser or paper filter, simply put it back into fresh hot water as above. It is a lot easier to add a bit more fresh tea if you are using a filter rather than an infuser. Caffeine is highly water soluble, so it is one of the first constituents of the leaf to be extracted in the steeping process. Usually 80 percent or more of the tea's caffeine content is released within the first 20 to 30 seconds of steeping. You can enjoy any tea virtually caffeine-free (with little sacrifice of flavor) by discarding the water after the first 30 to 60 seconds of steeping and adding fresh hot water to the now largely decaffeinated leaf. Obviously, using a T-sac tea filter or an infuser when decaffeinating in this manner is far more practical than adding tea directly to the pot. Tea has been used as a dye, so obviously it can also stain fabric. If you ever need to remove tea stains from your clothing or linens, chlorine bleach remains the place to start. Add 1 tablespoon of bleach to 2 cups of cold water. It is best to test the colorfastness of the fabric in an inconspicuous spot. Wet the stained area with cold water. Position the stained area over a glass or bowl and put several drops of the bleach solution on the spot. Wait 5 minutes and repeat, several times if necessary. When the stain is gone, rinse well and then wash. Although some people think that black teas are "cooked" and greens are not, the reality is actually the other way around. There is a naturally occurring enzyme present in the tea plant that causes the leaves to turn dark brown or black after they are harvested. To keep a tea leaf green, therefore, requires heating the leaves to destroy the enzyme. In China, green teas are traditionally heated on a hot wok, while in Japan they are usually steamed. In Taiwan, where oolong teas are preferred, the oxidation process is allowed to begin before firing (heating), thereby creating a tea that is more or less half way between green and black. Most people are surprised to find out that all true teas come from the same source and the differences in processing account for much of the variety. It is said that for more than two centuries, the Chinese were able to keep this secret from the early European traders, who didn’t know that that black and green teas came from the same plant. The original tea plant, Camellia Sinensis Sinensis to you Latin fans out there, is principally native to Southern China, and tea has been made from its leaves for thousands of years. A close relative, Camellia Sinensis Assamica was found growing wild in India in the early 1800's and became the foundation plant for the huge Indian tea industry. Indeed, since the Assamica variety has somewhat larger leaves (therefore more tea) and grows faster, the Indian variety has been transplanted to most of the world’s tea growing regions even though the Chinese plant is more winter hardy. Essentially an evergreen bush, tea can grow as high as thirty feet tall but when planted with harvesting in mind, is generally pruned to a height of no more than five feet or so to make picking easier. What we might call tea estates or plantations are generally referred to as tea "gardens," even if they cover hundreds of acres, which certainly sounds more romantic. From three to ten times a year, depending upon soil and climate conditions, the new growth leaves are picked. This is still generally done by hand although some machinery is creeping in here and there. Once picked, the leaves go through several processes, including withering, rolling, oxidation and firing. During the withering process, the leaves are spread out in the sun for several hours, just until they become flaccid. Green teas then go straight to firing. Black teas are rolled, usually in a machine these days, for thirty minutes or so to break up the leaves a bit and bring the juices to the surface. During oxidation, the leaves are exposed to the air and then darken, much as what would happen to a sliced apple if left exposed to air. After oxidation, the leaves are "fired," or heated up to stop this process and reduce the moisture content in preparation for packing.
The second leaf from the bud is the "orange pekoe" leaf. The third, fourth and fifth leaves from the bud are the Souchong leaves. Below the Souchong are the maintenance leaves, which should never be picked at all. The more mature the leaf, the less flavor it contains. One theory about how the word "orange" came to be associated with pekoe leaves comes from the fact that many of the earliest Dutch traders marketed their China teas under the label Orange Pekoe, over 300 years ago. Adding "orange" to the title may have been a clever way to try to connect to the "House of Orange," the ruling kings and queens of the Netherlands for many years. As far as we know, there was never a Royal Patent issued, which would make this recognition formal. Others think that Orange Pekoe came from the marketing efforts of Britain's Thomas Lipton, who used the appellation on most of his teas. The manufacturing process for black teas starts with the use of rolling machines to bruise and crush the withered leaf, followed by oxidation and drying. The end product consists of all sizes of leaf and leaf particles jumbled together. Because finer particles steep more quickly than the larger ones, the different sizes must be separated. The tea is therefore sifted into different sizes. This step is called leaf grading and the names are derived from the size of the leaf, not the quality of the tea itself. "Orange Pekoe" is the name given to the largest leaf grade and indicates a complete, unbroken leaf. Anything smaller falls into the various broken leaf grades, all the way down to the "Fannings," or dust. What is ironic is that the Fannings are used for inexpensive bagged teas, of which Lipton is one of the better-known examples. One will never find Orange Pekoe grades in tea bags, for the simple reason that whole leaves don't fit! |
Technically, Orange Pekoe tea is not a type of tea at all but rather a size of tea leaf. When tea is harvested by hand, what is generally picked are the bud at the end of the stem (an unopened leaf) and the next two leaves inward from that bud. The first leaf is the youngest and is called the "pekoe" leaf (pronounced "peck-o"), a term derived from the Chinese word for white hair because the tea leaf is often covered with a silvery down for 48 hours or so after opening.| Home | What's New? | Contact Us | View Cart/Checkout | Shipping/Gift Wrapping |
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