Recipe Tea: What are you steeping these days?

Holy shit, I finally translated this...I got a 6 canisters of this for my birthday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tieguanyin

 

Ah, Iron Buddha...Iron Goddess of Mercy. I love this tea. It's my regular oolong. I just bought some on Monday.

Though the stuff I get is probably 2nd or 3rd grade. (It's pretty cheap...but good!)

 

It's one of my favorite teas.

 

In pursuit of tea's Sebastian talkin about white teas.

 

I still need to post Sebastian's tea talk from last week, but tonight I broke out the

鐵觀音 or Iron Goddess of Mercy. It's amazingly good. ​

see all the photos here​

http://photobucket.com/best_teas​

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Settie I have to do the same, except for me it is soda. I dropped it for a few months and only drank tea. I have to get back to doing that. Today will be a soda-less day.

 

Most coffee drinkers won't like green or white teas, mostly because it has no mouth or body to it in comparison to coffee. I'm not such a fan of green, tastes too much like grass. White is okay but I also find ti too grassy most of the time.

Try a lapsang souchong (light smoke or dark smoke) or a Pu-erh. They are very full bodied.

 

What cynthetiq said. White, green, and oolong teas are quite a departure from coffee. Full-bodied black teas are much closer to coffee in terms of robustness and caffeine content.

I do think certain varieties of tea comes down to an acquired taste. I wasn't all that much into green tea in the past; now I think it's the best. Also realize that there are regional differences. For example, there are characteristic differences between Chinese green teas and Japanese green teas. Dragonwell is different from gyokuro or sencha.

Also: Did you steep the green/white tea for only 2 or 3 minutes? I know the British like to steep the shit out of their tea leaves, but I'm not sure how they typically approach green tea, which becomes bitter if oversteeped. Unlike many black teas, green tea shouldn't typically be bitter. White tea in particular is the most delicate type and shouldn't be abused in water that's too hot or by oversteeping.

If you like tea without milk and sugar, try Darjeeling. It's a bit milder than most black teas, but it's wonderful on its own. It's one of my favourite black varieties.

Matcha definitely is an acquired taste. There are also a few different ways to prepare it (i.e., water-to-tea ratios). There are different grades that offer different levels of sweetness. Some mix better than others. I tend to use 1 tsp of tea in 1/3 cup of water. I enjoy a cup of matcha first thing in the morning.

 

No, that's about right. But you should definitely try some higher grade greens, such as the Chinese Dragonwell and Japanese gyokuro, the latter of which is basically sencha tea that is shaded a few weeks before harvesting, giving it a unique flavour. It's very rich. I love simply smelling the dried leaves. (A cheaper alternative is kabusecha, which is similar but shaded for a shorter period. It's also very good.)

There is such a difference between how green tea leaves are processed. This is partly due to the tea being more delicate than black tea. You get different characteristics with steaming vs. frying vs. roasting, etc. This is why it's good to try a variety of greens to see if you find one you like more than others.

Atta boy!

In defence of Earl Grey (and to defend teh Settie's honour), there is a world of difference between common Earl Grey with "natural flavouring" and high quality black tea leaves with actual bergamot oil!

I know your wife is British and all, but have you actually tried the good stuff? Or do you just not like citrusy tones in your tea?

 

Heh. In many ways it's more complicated. I find that coffee is less forgiving in terms of making it: roasting, freshness, grinding, freshness, brewing, freshness, etc.

Tea, on the other hand, seems to have so much more going on in terms of the leaves and how they're grown, harvested, and processed. There's much more to navigate in terms of products out there.

I view this as a semantic question rather than a culinary one. The answer is yes. Coffee can be considered a type of tea if you consider that you can make a "tea" of anything you make a hot drink out of by infusing it. Consider beef tea.

 

Glory's Sun: You might also want to try hojicha. I find it is a wonderful, less caffeinated alternative to coffee. It's roasted bancha green tea. It has a completely different flavor because of the roasting.

I also agree with what Baraka said about the difference between Chinese greens and Japanese greens--I like Japanese green teas, and my husband loves Chinese greens (you will pry that tea out of his cold, dead hands). He drinks far more green tea than I do, though--I prefer oolong or white in the afternoons. In the mornings, I enjoy a cuppa of breakfast tea (but only if I'm out of coffee).

 

I have a can of pepsi on my desk. I have not opened it. Instead I had a lipton bag of tea... I feel dirty.