Learning to steep the perfect cup and train your taste-buds
Gaining experience with loose leaf tea may take a few tries when it comes to steeping the perfect cup, for those who are new to loose leaf tea. In fact, you won’t even know what the perfect cup tastes like yet, especially if you’ve been drinking bagged tea and sweet tea all of your life. When it comes to steeping your first oolongs and greens, don’t expect your tea to give off a dark infusion (as seen with bags) – it’s normal to find that your brew is a mild honey or butter color, sometimes more gold or pale green, depending on the type of leaves. You should never have to steep an oolong for longer than 5 minutes, or a green more than 3, and keeping the temperature at a default 180 degrees is usually a safe bet.
Still think you’re doing it wrong? Using the same type of cup, compare your steeped tea with plain water, to give yourself a visual perspective on the difference in color your tea is from clear water. Go ahead and smell the difference between the cups, and once you’ve done yourself that favor, go for a sip. Do this a few times with different teas, and do it often. This will help you distinguish the difference between water and tea with a kick-start, as it takes most individuals 1-2 weeks of daily tea drinking to build tea-sensitive taste-bud adaptation. After this 2 week trial, you should find that you’ve become keen on identifying the true essence in tea, as your taste has grown into being able to receive the real taste of tea through this training – developing your palette.
Make sure you’re putting enough tea leaves in when steeping – this makes a huge difference. I actually use a lot more than most people, as I like to get a strong cup, without having to steep longer than 2-3 minutes or so. When adding leaves, imagine the amount of tea used in a traditional teabag. Now, at least triple that amount and add water. This should be a minimum for obvious flavor and color infusion needed to satisfy any of you who aren’t too sure you’re steeping your loose leaf tea right. Keep an eye out for future posts we have prepared on Tea Hacker, dealing with tweaking your tea drinking and interesting steeping styles.
Good stuff Stephen. I still do not brew loose leaf tea as much as I would like. Thanks for the tip on not steeping green tea for more than 3 minutes. Really good to know!
Yes, over-steeping green tea oftentimes results in foul-tasting and astringent flavor – taste-buds don’t always like this!
Thanks for the comment, Ralph-
-Stephen
[Yes, we share the same name and love of tea!] Remember, bag tea is almost dust! Nearly all of the leaf is exposed. A little bit goes a long way. Loose leaf is the whole leaf. Only the surface is exposed to the water. You need a lot more volume of leaf to get the same exposure. By the way, bag tea is usually made from “fannings”. Tea, being dry leaves, makes a lot of dust when handled. You don’t think that they just throw away that dust when they sweep the floors and clean the machinery, do you?
Just got that eerie Twilight Zone feeling – Nice name!
Great points on the contents of most teabags, Stephen.
Fannings / ‘tea dust’ can be purchased cheap from tea plantations and wholesale opportunities. When buying tea bags, you’re mostly paying for the fact that companies had to come up with ways to package the tea and the packaging materials itself. It is worth the added level of convenience to some people, especially when they may not have enough time to steep loose leaf tea.
…and advertising. The Tetley people always made me laugh with their “tiny little tea leaves”, as did the Lipton people with “over 20 different teas in this little bag”, all for that wonderful cardboard flavor. For a long time, Lipton held a patent on the “flow thru” bag. As an engineer, I find the flow thru design interesting as I can see how adaptable it is to high speed manufacturing (and saving cost?). I do use bags a lot for convenience, especially away from home, but good tea in bags is quite expensive and they do detract from the whole experience of tea. The best tea is never put into bags, though