Adapt your brewing to the tea

High Mountain Oolong

One of the great challenges of tea brewing is to obtain a cup that reflects the character of the leaves. Each tea necessitates this fine tuning of amount of leaves, which vessel, how to pour the boiling water, how long it should brew... Brewing parameters that work well with raw old arbor puerh won't work with Tie Guan Yin. This explains why it's hard to switch from a type of tea we brew often to one we brew seldom.

We encounter a similar problem when it's not the type of tea, but the age or the quality of the leaves that changes. This also requires some fine tuning. A better grade of tea often can be brewed longer without turning bitter. This means we can use fewer leaves and a longer brewing time. But the essential question to ponder is what is the character of the tea? What types of flavors do we expect in this tea? Fragrance or aftertaste, lightness or depth, freshness or aged scents? Are the leaves buds or mature or a mix? How strong is the roast?

I remember that when I first started to brew tea, before taking classes, all my fresh Oolongs tasted similar. It didn't matter if they came from lower altitude or high mountain, I always had a strong, but very rough taste of Oolong. I have now learned that with great tea, less is often more.

Shan Lin Xi Hung Shui Oolong

By the way, I would like to announce my Fall Specials: 20 high quality teas with nice discounts! Enjoy these good deals while inventories last.