The measure of my tastes (March, 2013) - On brewing and drinking tea.

Sitting in the lobby of a posh British hotel at teatime is a good time to meditate on the reason why tea is one of the most sophisticated drinks on the planet.  And it is not just the British who have a monopoly on its appreciation.  There are many cultures which celebrate life and friends and the passing of time with them, over a pot of tea.  This celebration ends up being refined to what might appear as extreme as in the case of the Japanese tea ceremony, or as simple as a desert nomad preparation of a pot of water and tea over a fire of a bunch of broken-up twigs while the cold wind howls all around.  Even now, as I sip an excellent grade of gyokuro Japanese tea which is served in elegant British porcelain china cups, I learn the simple etiquette that a guest may have as many pots of as many different teas as they wish (although British sensitivities would probably preclude asking for more).

The chandelier of the Corinthia lobby in a cup of gyokuro - November 2012

Drinking tea, as I have observed in several contexts involving ceremony or not, is as easy as pouring hot water over some tea leaves and enjoying the resulting brew.  This approach makes tea accessible to a large worldwide population of tea lovers. However, as with all good things, tea is available in a very wide range of choices ranging from rustic to the extremes of the esoteric.  The fundamentals which affect this wide range of choices are as varied as those in any other popular beverage such as coffee or ginger ale or wine.  In order to reduce this complexity, different systems of evaluation have evolved over time.  My interest in tea - and this may surprise many reading my blog - is mostly as an investment.  I started early in life trying to amass wine as a hobby, but soon learned that this is not a viable way to invest - maintenance of wine bottles over time requires additional and ongoing application of various and very expensive resources.  Storage of tea is much less demanding requiring few if any additional resources and in the long run, has much higher return potential.

But back to the appreciation of the drink..... my personal system is based on what I believe to be the important fundamentals which (in order of importance to me) are:

1. The ages of the trees/bushes from which the tea is made
2. The location of the trees/bushes from which the tea is made
3. The species/type of tea
4. The harvesting and processing methods used to obtain the final product
5. The way that the final product is stored (this includes the environment as well as how long it has been stored)
6.  The quality of the water used to brew the tea.

Finally, and to a lesser extent, whether the tea is in whole leaves (particularly important for tea from China) or in specific parts of leaves (as normal for those teas which are from Japan).  I generally find that the price of tea is irrelevant to the quality, as there are some very expensive teas that are not particularly worth the price charged (someone has to pay the cost of marketing these, I suppose). Of course there are some very rare teas whose price per ounce is well beyond the reach of mere mortals (sometimes reaching several hundred US dollars per ounce), to those which cannot be obtained for love of money. If you are used to collecting bottles of Chateau Petrus, I recommend good tea as a viable alternative.

Disk of 2009 puerh (Naka mountain, Yunnan)

The age of a tree from which the tea is picked, seems to have a direct impact on the quality of the final product.  Ancient trees which are in the range of several centuries (you read that correctly) with larger leaves, seem to produce teas which can be aged for a considerable amount of time.  The ability to store tea without it turning into dust is particularly important to those who want to store tea as a potential investment.

The second factor is the location of the trees.  Tea trees which grow on farms or plantations are generally treated with fertilizers and/or pesticides (some of which may be organic).  Some trees are left to grow on their own (after all they have survived for 300 to 400 years without too much help from human hands), and produce strong healthy leaves which again provide assurance of being able to retain their shape and flavor over time.

The third factor is the species of trees.  This is a very complex subject, and is not easily simplified.  I only share my own classification in the hope that it may help others who are not experts in the varieties of camelia sinensis (and with the hope that those who are experts will help correct any mistakes I make in my essays here on tea).  I do not believe that there are any teas outside of the Chinese, which are worthy - at the present - of investment and storage.  Those teas which are worthy, are generally Puerh from the Province of Yunnan and Oolong from several other provinces.  Any Chinese species which are large leaf varietals and are processed into high-quality Oolong may be stored for extended periods and develop good flavor and price over time. For drinking, however, the Japanese and Indian teas are dependent on the species used.  A Japanese "yabukita", for example, is suited for a particular final product while "gokoh" may be better suited for another type of Japanese tea.  Basically, it is best to leave the choice of such varieties to the grower - and not worry too much  about the species if you are going to drink the tea within one year or so of harvest.

The fourth factor which is the harvesting and processing of the tea, results in what the final product generally looks like.  This makes the dry tea interesting to look at, and it has as many different outcomes as there are tea makers.  One of my favorites is the Chinese "Green Snail Spring" (Bi Luo Chun) which as a mottled mossy appearance - light and fluffy - in its dry form.  Pu-erh has the classic paced form which is produced by compressing the leaves.  Depending on the pressing method used, the tea can take on several visual aspects.  High compression using hydraulic presses results in disks that have sharp, well defined edges which gradually become less sharp over time, while other methods produce round forms called "tuo".  Oolong - which is a method of processing results in darker colored dry leaves and a darker colored brew - amazing in that it tastes of other flavors such as honey, or almonds, or flowers more than it tastes of tea!

Storage, especially over long periods of time, has been known to dramatically affect the flavor and aroma of brewed tea.  Two key factors are temperature and humidity.  Humidity, of course encourages growth of mold and mildew - which destroys tea, but it also helps tea age "gracefully" (somewhat like human skin) over time.  Generally tea that is stored over very long periods of time, lives the earlier part of its life in more humid locations and is then moved to less humid ones as it ages.  One of the unavoidable facts of aging is that the tea needs to "breathe" during this time.  Insects get into the tea, paper wrappers disintegrate, and all sorts of environmental damage may occur.  Unlike corked wines, however, these signs of age are generally accepted and even appreciated in aged teas.  Buyers will often praise the torn and tattered and insect-bored holes of puerh wrapers with much appreciation.  After all they are the indicators of time past.

Finally, at time of consumption, I believe that the single most important factor in brewing tea is in the quality of the water used.  A tea that has waited for one or more decades could be ruined by highly chlorinated or other tainted water.  In order to appreciate the best tea, it is important to use as pure water as is possible to obtain.

Once these factors are understood, the enjoyment of a cup of tea can be heightened.  Most good teas are made by pouring hot water (of various temperatures depending on the type of tea) over the tea leaves in a teapot.  There is a waiting time of anywhere from about 10 seconds to 4 minutes after which all the liquid is poured out to drinking cups.  Good tea often develops in the drinking cup for a further 5 to 10 minutes, changing color and flavor over this time.  Some teas change from colorless to light greenish yellow, others from light orange to dark brown, yet others from light green to deep green.  My enjoyment of tea is partly in seeing these color changes.  Drinking tea "hot and piping" is generally reserved to those time when I am having tea prepared with milk and/or spices.  Plain unadulterated tea is best when drunk semi-cooled. I drink Puerh every morning.  It starts out with boiling water poured over "washed" tea leaves in my teapot.  after steeping 10 seconds, the first mug is poured.  Then, over about 10 minutes of cooling and letting myself relax into the sounds of the morning, I wait for the tea to be ready.  The morning light enters and the first sip wakes me up gently.  Thus begins another cycle with all of us aging one more day together.