Tea can be the best beverage you will ever drink when you brew it properly. However, brewing it without knowing the proper way can results in a bitter and undrinkable cup.
Brewing tea properly can level up your café. It can improve customer’s mood and soothe their mind. Brewing tea actually requires simple steps consist of boiling the water, brewing the tea, and then serving it. However, behind those simple steps, there are many aspects that should be met in order to achieve the flavour we want.
Tea leaf is delicate and fragile, but it has many ranges of flavours. We can smell unique fragrance and taste distinguished flavour in every different kind of tea if we brew it properly. However, brewing tea incorrectly can make it bitter and even undrinkable.
Here are the aspects you need to pay attention before brewing tea.
Types of Water
Before boiling it, you should make sure that you choose appropriate kind of water. Mineral water is good as it enhances tea flavour. On contrary, using distilled water is not recommended since the lack of mineral will cause the tea tasted flat and dull.
The water used for making tea should be cold at first and heated right before brewing. Preheated water tends to be over-boiled and have the reduced level of oxygen. It also causes the tea to taste flat.
Temperature
Different teas need different temperatures to bring up their maximum flavours. They depend on oxidation level of the tea. Highly oxidized tea needs higher temperature. The less it is oxidized, the less high temperature needed.
Full-leafed white tea and Chinese green tea needs 80-85oC temperature to extract while Japanese green tea needs lower temperature, 70-80oC. Oolong tea is brewed in wide-ranged temperature according to its varieties, from 85-95oC and black tea, the fully oxidized one, has to be brewed in boiling water.
Before pouring water to tea, make sure you heat the cup first by swirling hot water inside it then pouring it out. This step is crucial in order to prevent the temperature lowering down quickly when tea is brewed.
Infusing Duration
Duration of brewing tea is different between one to another kind of tea. Besides, it also depends on whether we use tea bag of full-leafed tea. Tea bag has smaller particles of tea since the leaves are broken. Thus, it needs shorter time to boil.
Brewing tea too long can also results in bitter-tasted infusion. If you want to make tea taste stronger, add more tea, not the duration. One teaspoon of tea is good for one cup of water, but adding more tea to deepen its flavour is fine.
Full leafed white tea needs 2-3 minutes while the tea bag only need 30-60 seconds. However, full-leafed green tea needs 2-4 minutes while its tea bag needs 1-3 minutes. Full-leafed oolong tea needs 5-7 minutes and the tea bag needs 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, the duration for brewing black tea, whether it is full-leafed or in a bag, is the same, which is 3-5 minutes.
Material
According to the different temperature a cup of tea needs, teapot material can affect quality of the tea. Porcelain and glass is good for releasing the heat, but metal and heavy material is good for retaining it. Use porcelain and glass to brew tea that needs to be cooler such as white and green tea. On the contrary, use heavier material that retains high temperature such as iron and yixing to brew tea in high temperature, like black tea.
Now you know how to brew tea into perfection. Always serve the proper-brewed tea to your customer. Let those tea-lovers enjoy the complexity in these simple cups of goodness.
Tags: how to brew tea properly, brewing tea, tea.