Water Quality

Just as important as the quality of the tea itself is the quality of the water you use to brew a certain tea. Brewed tea is 98% water, so it makes sense that the water you use will affect the taste of the tea immensely. At this point without the disposal of a lab and scientists capable of testing water for chemical composition, I cannot tell you which minerals add or take away flavor.

Which minerals give favorable or unfavorable tastes to the tea is still a mystery to me. I know from my own basic research that the quality of the water affects everything involved with the taste of brewed tea.

For example, a tea I had brewed with water in California tasted light years better than the same tea brewed with my inferior Boston area water. Not only that, but the brew time and color of the liquor are totally different.

One thing that seems to help out a lot is using very soft water. When I say soft, I mean 20-40 parts per million mineral content. Most bottled water has a much higher mineral content. It is clear when you brew tea with water that has 200 parts per million mineral content, that there are some good and some possbily negative minerals in water. If you really pay attention and taste the water itself you can taste the sweetness, and the minerality.

I mean, how can you expect to get the same type of extraction when you have 180 more parts per million already in the water? In nutrition you learn that certain vitamins and minerals stop each other from being absorbed into the human body. Could this be true with tea? Could the vitamin and mineral content of a particular tea effect the way that tea brews with certain water?

I have found San Francisco Bay Area water and New York City water tend to work well when brewing tea. I have also found Voss and Penta bottled waters to work well. Any bottled water with a high mineral content seems to make the tea taste bitter. At home I have a filter and softening tap that brings the mineral content of my tap water down to about 20-40 parts per million. This water still does not work as well as the water I had last time I went to the Bay Area.

A couple of weeks ago, I tasted tea with Mark over at MEM Tea Imports. We brewed 3 of the same teas with 2 different waters and the color of the brewed tea was drastically different. The taste was also incredibly different. Not only did one of the waters produce a fuller, sweeter taste, but it was also more complex in flavor.

There is still a lot to be learned and experimented with involving water, but just tasting the difference between tap and different bottled waters is mind blowing.

-Silas

Tea Growing Regions af China

First off, all the tea in China is grown in the southern half of China. Not only southern China the birthplace of tea (Yunnan to be more specific), but of course the climate is ideal. Northern China is simply too cold. Mainly due to European explorers tea has spread all over the world, but in my opinion still retains the most integrity when grown and processed in China or Taiwan.
Note: China seems to consider Taiwan a growing region of China, but because it is a separate country and has its own and unique ways of processing tea, I will not include it.

The divided growing regions of China are as follows: Southwest, North of the Yangtze (Gansu, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong), South of the Yangtze (Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang) and South China (Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan). The total area covered by these regions is 38 degrees east to west and 19 degrees north to south.

The Southwest district is comprised of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and the southern most part of Tibet. This region has a subtropical monsoon climate which is perfect weather for tea to thrive in. Yunnan is considered the birthplace of tea. Yunnan, the most famous province in the southwest district is made up chiefly red clay. The oldest living tea tree is an incredible 1700 years old and the oldest cultivated tree is 800 years old. Yunnan produces mainly black tea but also produces some white, green and oolong. Nearly all pu-erh is also made in Yunnan. Guizhou is famous for growing Yunwu, a rare and style of green tea that is hard to be found in the US. Sichuan produces mostly green as well as black and yellow tea. Tibet grows very little tea that is most often made into low grade pu-erh or black tea. The soil in these provinces is mainly yellow or brown.

The North of the Yangtze district refers to the territory north of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and includes Henan, Shanxi, Gansu and Shangdong. This region also includes the northern sections of Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei although many of the famous gardens in these provinces are not part of this region. This region produces mainly green tea and is not famous for quality. Tea in this region may suffer drought due to uneven rainfall. This means that there are micro climates that are great for growing tea and some that are not. The soil is chiefly yellow and yellow-brown. Liu An Guapian, Xinyang and Maojian are grown in the more favorable micro-climates here.

The South of the Yangtze district refers to the territory south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and includes Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Hubei. This region is the bread and butter so to speak of tea production in China. There are some incredibly famous gardens and micro regions here and the annual production totals about 2/3s of the entire crop of China. 4 seasons are clearly defined. This region produces mainly green, black and scented tea. This region is home to 5 of the 10 famous teas of China. The soil type is mainly red with some yellow and yellow-brown soil. 60-80% of the precipitation is concentrated in the summer and spring.

The South China district includes Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan an island off the south coast of China. The soil type is classified as old clay and red clay in other parts. This soil is very nutritious. This region gets a lot of annual rainfall and the period of growth for the tea trees is 10 months out of the year. Black/red, green and oolong tea are grown here. The most noteworthy of these types of tea is oolong. Anxi and Wuyi Shan, two of the most famous growing areas for oolongs are found here. Just north in Guangdong, Phoenix Mountain is found.

This is just some basic information I threw together to give a basic idea of what the growing regions of China are like. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot more than this until I go and see for myself.

-Silas

Read Your Tea Leaves

I love to learn about tea. Not just reading about it, but listening to the story that the tea tells. A good deal of information can be learned from studying your tea leaves.

Everything from what mistakes were made in the processing to what cultivar was used can be deduced just from looking at the leaves.

For example, looking at a green tea and seeing bits of brown in the leaves would indicate improper manufacturing techniques. For the most part this is done by looking at the leaves after they have been infused and have fully opened up therefore simply giving reason to the good and bad flavors of the tea. Consistency in size shape and color is very important as well as looking for defects such as brown holes in the leaves.

Now, just because a tea looks nice to the eye does not mean that it tastes good, but learning what to look for can determine what good tasting tea looks like. Now, I am no expert. I am still learning how to read tea leaves, but I do know certain parallels between looks and taste. Remember, most of the flavor is written in the leaves. Certain things like post processed aging are hard to tell simply by the looks of the leaves, but all you have to do is use your other senses and you will be able to tell that that tea has been aging. Learn how to use your senses and you will be able to read the story your tea tells.

Part 1: White Tea

Now according to almost everything I have read prior to about a week ago, white tea is simply just picked and dried. Now this is true, but what they don’t tell you which I learned from reading the leaves of certain white teas, is that white tea and specifically white peony is sometimes heavily and often times unevenly oxidized. I double checked this idea and sure enough, white tea is processed with the intention of being oxidized over a period of a few days.

In fact, according to Hong who is reading a tea processing book in Chinese (oh man I sooooooo wish I could read Chinese characters!) white teas are supposed to be oxidized as much as baozhong oolong tea. All you have to do is look at the leaves and notice that half of them are almost black in color. The book, "China the Homeland of Tea," says that all white tea is semi-fermented and honestly most whites really taste like it. There is a certain wafting sweet yet very off flavor that accompanies these teas. I have a hunch that this might be a quality brought on my improper processing or a flavor that is gained post-processing.

The first thing to notice is the color and consistency in color. Inconsistency in color means inconsistency in flavor. If one leaf is oxidized to a certain level and another leaf is oxidized to a different level, right there are two different flavors in the same tea. Another thing to look for is the evenness of oxidation through out the leaf. If one part of the leaf is one color and the other half is another color, this means unevenness in taste.

One thing you will often notice in white peony for example is that there are often 4 or 5 different colored leaves in one batch. You will notice tan colored leaves, light green, black, brown and white. The white is from the downy buds which have that white down when they are growing and are the reason for the name white tea.

As for the other colors, those are just colors given by the processing. Now you may be thinking that this could mean complexity. Well, one of the most evenly colored and shaped teas I have ever had was also one of the most complex. You don’t have to worry about inconsistency so much with silver needle. The most important question is what the best flavored and ideal color of leaf is.

Another thing to look for is consistency in size and shape. If it is a full leaf tea, but you find some broken leaves, this could mean a variety of things. First off, it steeps unevenly. Secondly, it usually brings unwanted oxidation and destroys the method in which ideal oxidation is achieved. Any broken bits of leaves that are not full are absolutely defects.

I cupped some white peony recently!

This one is actually a fairly good grade. There were lots of buds and only some second leaves. Keep in mind that this is actually better quality than most white peony in the United States. In the first cup (top left), it is all the dark oxidized leaves. The Bottom left is all buds. The other three are all not separated. These are all from the same tea and all tasted differently.

This is to show the incredible inconsistency in this tea. Here are the cupping notes:
1. (top left) Spicy, with a rancid honey taste and not very vegetal. This one I really didn't like!
2. (bottom left) The most mellow. Mild melon taste and a little buttery.
3. (top right) bean sprout and ferment sweetness
4. (middle) Similar but less sweet
5. (bottom right) Similar to the other 2 a tad more funky and off than the other 2. Hopefully you can see from the picture how inconsistent this tea is.

My thoughts about white tea have changed over the last couple of months. I realize now how delicate these teas are and hard they are to process correctly.

White teas are also incredibly hard to keep fresh, simply because they don't. Last spring I bought some white peony and by the end of the week it was starting to show its age. With that said, I know there are some excellent white teas to be found out there. I have had some good ones, but I will keep searching until I find the most even one and the lightest oxidation as possible.

Smell of the Flavor, Taste of the Aroma?

Ben C. gave me a pamphlet of information about the teas that Taiwan produces a while ago, containing one of my favorite tea related quotes. “Smell of the Flavor and the Taste of the Aroma” it reads, heading a blurb about tasting tea. Well, I would personally like to thank that crappy translator, because it brings up an interesting subject.

To me, tea is all about taste. Now when I say this, I really don’t distinguish between taste and aroma. Your sense of taste is far too connected with your sense of smell to separate the two. Tea is a sensory experience and if a tea has a wonderful aroma that is part of the tasting experience that that tea gives you. You don’t have to think of tasting tea as some big ordeal, just try to pay attention to the tea and learn to identify flavors. As with everything else, tasting takes practice. Not only do you need to develop you’re taste buds, but you also need to learn your flavors. Tasting is a consciousness that is dependent on sensory awareness. Tasting tea is not only about familiarizing yourself with different flavors in tea and the differences between them, but also about familiarizing yourself with tastes from other things. How could I say that a tea has an orchid-like aroma if I have never smelled a fragrant orchid? On the other hand, I cut brush on farm land one year that smelled exactly like an aroma I commonly smell in Darjeeling tea. There is knowledge to be gained that can be applied to tea from everything you taste. That is why tea is often compared to coffee and wine. Every time I sit down to eat or drink something, I pay attention to what I taste and try to learn about where those flavors are coming from and how much depth they provide. As I often say to people when talking about flavors in tea, I don’t just taste tea; I taste everything, even air.

~Silas

What Makes an Oolong so Oolong?

I love oolong teas. I love the mystery, the craftsmanship, the uniqueness and the wonderful complexity of an oolong. I love how the processing is so complex and painstakingly precise, yet it is still true to the inherent quality of the leaf. Before I start writing poetry and love letters about oolongs let me explain why oolongs are the best.

First off, what is an oolong? Oolongs are semi-oxidized teas. Green teas are not oxidized (ideally), black teas are “fully” oxidized and oolongs, generally speaking, are anything in between. It is not just the amount of oxidation that sets oolongs apart, but the plant cultivar, the firing process, the oxidation method and region. I still believe that true oolongs can only come from China or Taiwan.


Little information is available in the US about such an important factor in the crafting of an oolong. I guess this is not surprising considering the average quality of tea and the fact that we don’t grow any (commercially). The cultivar used to make a certain tea is at least equally important to the flavor of a tea as any other of the many factors that compose a tea. A lot of oolongs are made from cultivars that are used only for oolongs, some that do not grow outside of the region they are specific to. Da Hong Pao, Ti Kwan Yin, Shuixian, Maoxi, Fenghuang Danchong are some of the more famous oolong cultivars used in China. Taiwan numbers their cultivars 1-18, 18 being the most recent development used to make the only black tea produced in Taiwan. The first cultivar ever to be planted in Taiwan was a Wuyi cultivar said to have been Ti Kwan Yin. Each cultivar of course tastes different and is usually processed differently according to how the tea maker believes it should be done. For example, oxidizing certain cultivars darker or lighter can make a tea change from a light floral fruity taste to a tar like musty leather taste with darker fruit. The type of cultivar used to make a tea provides the base taste of the tea. In other words all of the flavor is in the tea leaf, it just needs to be brought out in the right way.


Oxidation is the most plainly obvious difference between oolongs and other kinds of tea. The amount of oxidation varies from very light (10-15%) such as a baozhong, to almost as dark as black tea, such as Bai Hao or Wuyi Yancha. Traditionally made Ti Kwan Yin is oxidized a bit heavier at 20-30. Baozhong is so light that it is sometimes put in a different category. Bai Hao is usually darker and more evenly oxidized than most Darjeeling first flush which is considered a black tea. Often, most semi-ball type oolongs that are dark in leaf color have a light oxidation with a heavier roast that makes them darker in appearance and taste. The techniques that are used to achieve a certain level of oxidation vary quite a bit and are often very labor-intensive. Repeated rolling, withering and firing are often involved. The oxidation for some Phoenix Mountain oolongs is very interesting, creating a final product where the leaf is almost half olive green and half brown. Technically this should be a flaw and this is evident in the taste. It creates an extremely fruity but also a hollow, soapy bitter taste that is unique to Phoenix Mountain. If you find a phoenix mountain that is not bitter yet also very fruity and sweet, you have found an excellent tea.

Oolongs are either pan-fired or roasted. Firing or roasting an oolong too much is the best way to ruin a good oolong. On the other hand, it is the best way to make an oolong of poor quality better. The roasting process is slow and done at very low temperatures. It seems that with Taiwan Oolongs, the ideal flavor from a roast is a sweet cinnamon flavor present in the rinse and first steeping. Often it will taste more like roasted grain and when roasted too dark, smoke and sour dough bread are also present.

Region is another character that makes oolongs unique. The region provides the base for growing these wonderful teas and in some cases the climate and soil is so unique that certain cultivars will not grow outside them. Oolong tea is really only grown and processed in southeastern China and Taiwan. Taiwan has many micro regions that produce fantastic oolong and all are unique to one another. Li San, San Lin Shi, Ali San, and Wen San are some of the more famous mountains and quality producers of oolong. In China, the Fujian and Guangdong provinces produce most of the Chinese oolong and are grouped with Hainan and Guangxi as the South China region. Fujian is home to Wuyi and Anxi, the most famous micro regions that produce oolong. Guangdong is home to Pheonix Mountain which produces a oolong like no other. India is producing a very small amount of oolong but it is usually processed incorrectly and of commodity quality.

The Cereal Box Method

Freshness is the most important thing when it comes to keeping your tea flavorful. There is a widely circulated myth that tea can be kept for long periods of time without losing flavor. This is completely untrue. All teas, but especially white and green teas must be kept as fresh as possible and used as fast as possible. Tea must be kept away from light, heat, moisture, and air in order to be kept fresh. For light, all you need is an opaque bag. For moisture and air, all you need is an air tight seal on whatever packaging you keep your tea in. Heat however, can be tricky. One solution to this problem is to store your tea in a good climate controlled environment. This is a great way to solve this problem if you have access to a climate controlled room, although I would assume most people do not. For people like me who do not yet have access to this type of environment, I would recommend keeping your tea in ceramic to minimize the damage done by heat.

This is why I believe in 'The Cereal Box Method.' The idea is to have an air tight and in someway re-sealable bag in side of a light and heat resistant container making it the same basic concept as a cereal box. Putting this inside your cupboard will help even more. For this reason I never store my tea in metal. Metal allows the temperature of the tea to fluctuate easily, therefore making metal less than desirable. Also, never keep your tea in the refrigerator or freezer. Storing tea in a freezer for long periods of time in an airtight container is OK, but once you take it out, don't re-freeze it. Temperature fluctuation will ruin the tea, so if you do freeze your tea, just keep it in the cupboard after you use it for the first time.

Not storing your tea properly will ruin it. Depending on how recently the tea was harvested, it can lose its freshness within a week if in is not kept in an air tight container. I have lost perfectly good tea this way. Allow your tea to provide you more drinking pleasure; treat it like cereal because it won't stay fresh any longer.

-Silas

Leaf Appearance

Photos by Ben Kaminsky

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Left: a photo of a single unfurled leaf. Right: A quarter next to a rolled/unbrewed tea pearl with a brewed unfurled intact leaf/stem underneath.

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Leaf appearance is a critical observation when judging the quality of a tea. Just like green coffee to a certain extent, you can judge the quality and the degree of precision in processing just by looking at the leaf.

In China and Taiwan, the teas are sometimes named after their dried leaf appearance. In many cases, the leaf appearance cannot tell you exactly what kind of flavor it has, but it can certainly tell you all about the processing, and from knowledge of the processing you should be able to tell where the flavor is coming from.

According to the Tea Research and Extension station in Yangmei Taiwan, “As a matter of fact, it is a good quality tea, as long as it looks good.” The idea behind this theory is that the people who are judging the tea train themselves to detect flaws in appearance that parallel those in taste.

When judging a tea by leaf appearance, one must look for several things.

In the dry leaf, consistency, degree of oxidation, and roast or firing is evident. Also the skill with which the tea was handled and sorted is evident by the shape and consistency in size.

The post steeped leaf can tell you how consistant the grading was and reveal flaws in the oxidation. For example, things I look for in a Semi-ball type Poachong tea (the tea in the photo) are consistency in size, shape and color. The color tells you how heavy the oxidation and roast are. Size and shape tell you how well sorted the tea was, and also how the leaves were manipulated in the processing.

In the wet leaf(after it is steeped), I look for evenness of oxidation, color, and how intact the leaf structure remains. A good semi-ball paochong should have very few broken particles when brewed and for the most part, the leaves should stay intact through the duration of the steepings. If the oolong leaf shows too much brown, this is a sign of too much oxidation and is contributing to the bitterness and astringency of the tea.

Judging what a tea should look like is different with each tea, and should be judged according to what the tea manufacturer was trying to get. In the end, cupping a tea's taste is the deciding factor, but leaf appearance helps explain how and why the tea tastes a certain way.

-Silas

Tea Processing

Jaime has been talking a lot lately about the processing involved with coffee. It is interesting to apply this to Tea.

Essentially when you roast coffee, you are bringing out the flavor; making it palatable. When you get to a certain point however, you start to kill the flavors by bringing the oils to the surface and scorching them. When you do this with a very flavorful coffee you are simply scorching the flavor, but when you do this with a less flavorful coffee you create a taste with the roast, simply because the bean has little inherent flavor.

Now the question I am posing in regards to tea is this: Does processing a tea, whether withering, oxidation, or firing, impart bad flavors, take away flavors, or add additional pleasant flavors without killing the flavors inherent in the tea leaf?

Is it only certain processes such as heavy firing that impart or take away flavors in an extreme way? Do they shorten the life of the tea?

Obviously the flavor is heavily affected by the processing and the degree to which it is taken, but at what point are you taking away from the flavor or manipulating it to a point where it has become less desirable?

This is a hard question to answer, because there are so many different tastes and opinions on what tastes good. This is a way in which tea is different than coffee. Tea is steeped in so much tradition and ages of thought, that it is hard to say exactly what is good and bad from an objective stand point.

When you take an opinion however, you could be simply ruling out a whole different world of taste different than yours. If you processed all the different varietals from the different places that fine quality tea is grown into white tea, would get the “true flavor” of the tea leaf, or would you just get a single expression of that tea?

Processing tea is an art and a science, as is coffee roasting, so is it my job as a taster to judge and simply express my opinion and expression by selecting teas that I like?

Is my job to choose teas based on the criteria for that single type of tea?

As a tea server is my job to serve tea in a way I think is correct or is my job to serve tea as a way of expressing the taste of the person to whom I am serving?

I think the key to understanding the flavor in tea, is what type of processing is done as opposed to how much is done. The taste of green tea is dependent on the way it is processed, but also on the varietal used.

The main difference in taste regarding tea processing can be highlighted in the difference between Japanese and Chinese green tea. The Longjing green tea is the same varietal as the green tea in Japan, but they are processed very differently. Longjing is pan fired; whereas Japanese greens are typically steamed. Japanese green teas are usually very fresh, grassy, and sometimes sweet, whereas Longjing is more fruity, nutty and a much smoother flavor overall.

The best teas that I have ever tried are Oolongs. They are processed just enough to bring out the flavor without changing it too drastically. Oolongs are very specific and often complicated in processing.

The truth though is that white, green, yellow, and Oolong teas all have their specific tastes and are all good in their own right. Black and Pu-erh teas usually have their fair share of flaws because they are processed so heavily. Because of this they have created a certain taste based on their flaw, much like coffee that is too darkly roasted or coffee that is fermented in processing the green bean.

-Silas