Getting Started with Chinese Teas

This section is some tips for folks who drink coffee or drink primarily black teas (with or without milk and sugar) and are curious about other types of tea.

Most of the Chinese teas will taste like water to you at first!!

The flavours are much subtler and without sugar, many of the friends tried my teas and remark that there is not much taste. However like wines, and many foods and drinks, your palate will become accustomed to differences in flavour with repeated exposure. 

To this end I believe being able to try a lot of different teas in the first sitting will be helpful to you. It was for me. Lets start with some general rules for beginners, applicable to any teas, wether loose leaf or in a bag:

• The tea leaves should not be left to stew indefinitely as it will ruin the flavour. Each brew is from 2-5 mins depending on the tea and your personal taste.
• Its very important for white and green teas that the water is not too hot, certainly not boiling and in many cases maximum water temperature of of 80C or 170F
• When in doubt about timing the brews, experiment and err on the side of a shorter brew at first. You can always put the leaves back in if you like it stronger but there's no going back on an oversteeped tea.
• Master the rules so you can break them :)

Note that normally Chinese teas having several “brewings”  and the higher quality teas will reveal subtle differences on different brewing. By this, I mean that leaves of good quality can be reused over and over, there are often differences in taste as the leaves are reused. This is a rudimentary version of the GungFu Cha style of drinking tea, however that is a complex ritual that I can not hope to describe, let alone master.

Brew Zero:  Take your leaves and “wash” your leaves briefly with hot or warm water and throwout the water

Brew One:  Leave the leaves in the water for some minutes and then pour out all tea in the pot. This brew will often have a stronger smell of the tea but a subtler flavour.

Brew Two:  Using the same leaves, add water and brew again. Often this is my favorite brew of the tea as any floral notes will be more evident.

Brew Three:  Again use the same leaves and brew again, often different from either for the first two brews

Most decent teas will give 4 brews (i.e. about 4-8 very small cups), the very high quality teas will give up to 8, you will be able to taste when there is no longer flavour in the leaves. Note that one brew gives roughly 150 ml of tea, depending on the size of your teapot you will need to regulate the amount of leaves used. 

I've noticed my Chinese friends tend to use a lot of leaves and brew for a short time rather than vice versa, and consequently reuse the leaves many times. I have a cute teaset which I use when I have several people visiting but for everyday use really like my tea-maker. Its simple push button design allows me to easily control the length of brewing. Except for those days when I forgot I've made tea, and forget to push the button :-o