Tuo Cha Brewing and Quality Questions
On Jan 22, 2:29*am, Balt wrote:
On Jan 19, 6:17*pm, Swede wrote:
I found a round green box of tea with a 100 gram bowl
shaped brick of green tea. The marking on the box are "Yunnan Tuo cha
Yunnansheng Xiaguan *Chachang Chupin". It is wrapped in a tissue with
a crane type bird in red among some foliage. A small paper inside the
box says it is Grade A prepared from superior large leaf green
tea...stout sprout and rich white tips, etc. I asked someone at the
store about this tea, and they said it was "tree tea" and not to drink
it a night because it was strong and would cause inability to sleep.
I have brewed some of this, and it is pretty good. One website said to
use 1 gram per ounce of water, but that seems a little strong.
Any brewing advice on getting the most out of this tea? It was only 95
cents per 100 grams, and I can get much more; is it worth stockpiling
some of this tea?
Hi Gregory,
the tea you are describing isn't green tea, but it is pu-erh, exactly
to say raw (sheng or green) pu-erh. The difference between green tea
and pu-erh is, that while you prepare green pu-erh tea with boiling
water, for green tea you have to use much less temperature.
You should use 5-8 grams of tea for 1.5 dcl of water, start with shor
steep times (10-20 sec) and then gradually prolong them. Good pu-erh
can be brewed 10-15 times.
More about brewing pu-erh can be found herehttp://www.pu-erh.net/sections.php?Choice=How_To_Brew
About that tea is written here, toohttp://forums.travel.com/tea-forum/261525-strage-tuocha.html
have a nice day
Tomas
tuochatea.blogspot.com
Tomas,
Thank you, this is very helpful. I am drinking a cup now. About two
days ago, I brewed some using about 2 teaspoons (I don't have a gram
scale) per 10-12 ounces water, and by the fourth infusion the tea was
much clearer-a beautiful color. At the first infusions there was some
astringency, but the last two cups (3 and 4 infusion) the tea was very
nice with a sweetness, especially the aftertaste. And the leaves in
the pot were almost whole and up to two inches long. Very interesting
to see this mass of compressed leaves resurrect into whole leaves!
BTW, I like your blog
Thanks,
Gregory
|