Green Pekoe and Some Knowledge

I haven't updated in a few days, and I have at least some reason for that. After my last entry, I thought maybe I should start a cycle so I don't have the same tea too many times and keep revisiting it here, without enough other teas between. My next tea class in line was Black. I wasn't satisfied. But I may know why. But for now, I'll get to the tea!

Tea: Green Pekoe from Adagio
Leaf: 3g
Vessel: ~8oz (240ml) ceramic pot
Water: Variable per infusion.

The dry leaves have a very light aroma, but a nice fresh smell. It's not grassy at all, really. It's a deeper scent than that. They range in color from dark green to light, and some yellow-ish, and they're covered in a fine fleece of fibers.


With the first infusion, I had a full kettle. I turned it on and waited until I heard the grumbling boil at its heating element. Somehow I had convinced myself this meant the whole pot was boiling. So i proceeded to decant to my fair cup to cool it before I poured into the tea pot. (I like the little pitcher I found. It's really just a large ceramic 'creamer,' but it does the trick, and it holds my strainer quite nicely!)


I measured the temperature of the water after a few seconds. It only read 125ºF. Most people claim a drop to 170º to 180º from boiling. This caught my attention, but I proceeded.

Three minutes later, I poured the tea into the small pitcher (to catch renegade tea leaves in the strainer). The pouring tea looked clear. But this is a Green, so that didn't much bother me. The color was a predictable yellowish green, as expected, but the aroma wasn't so much there. Upon opening the tea pot to pour the second infusion, the grassy aroma, uncovered by the long wash, poured from the top of the vessel. There really wasn't much flavor besides the strong grassy presence.

The second infusion was basically a copy of the first, to test any development in the flavor, and mostly 'just to see.' The water in the kettle had cooled to right about 130º, so I just poured it straght into the pot. And really, nothing had changed. I knew something wasn't doing right with this tea.

Infusion number three was an eye opener. I let the water continue in the kettle, measuring carefully, until it reached 170ºF. I steeped for four minutes, considering I had steeped twice before already. The color during the pour was noticeably green, but the color in the cup didn't significantly change, but it became richer. The grassy prevalence was replaced by a much rounder tea flavor with grassy notes. I was reminded very much of the dry leaves. The entire tea seemed to change significantly. Suddenly, there was more to the tea than aroma and flavor and liquid goodness. There was emotion in the cup.

A sip has become almost a wash over the senses. The liquor is thicker, somewhat. Less like water. There's a slight bitterness, but it's only a direct player when the sip rests on the tongue momentarily. The sense of this tea permeates, much as many other teas have. This is the impression I like to get from tea.



Fourth Infusion brings this to a close. It's a lot of water, but it will never be enough tea! I guess the tea pot I've been using is a little more than 8oz, since the kettle is nearly empty. So I get more water. And I decided to basically reproduce the previous steep.

This time, however, since the tea pot had more time to cool, I watched the thermometer until the water reached 180ºF. After pouring into the tea pot, I measured (through the spout, the lid on the pot) and saw the temperature had dropped to 160º on the nose.

Four minutes later, I poured. the flavor was a little grassier, and a touch more bitter. Still, after every slow sip, the tea withdraws like a wave on the beach leaves traces of itself behind for a moment.

The wet leaves were nice to look at. Most of the leaves remained curled, but they all reconstituted nicely. They showed their age, without a doubt. With small exception, most of the leaves remained naturally curled.


Black Tea Conundrum

I found that my kettle does not heat the water completely evenly, especially when it's not filled with four cups of water. Usually, the temperature variance is about 10ºF from just over the heating element, to the outside edge of the kettle. When I hear the grumble begin, the overall water temperature is about 140ºF. Basically, when I've been saying, "Just off boiling," I've been using very cool water. This isn't good. I'm very glad I bought a thermometer!

So this leads to part of the problem with black teas. I've definitely been brewing too cold.
Black tea needs slightly hotter water than many, and near boiling at that. I've also been reading several recommendations that say black teas aren't so good with gongfu. So next time, I'll see about brewing some of the black teas I've been disliking, in the way of the West (basically). I'll see if slowing down will make any of it better.

Maybe in stead of just Western brewing, I'll do a side-by-side gongfu test, just to see. And maybe I'm using too much leaf. I may just have to back it off a touch.

But that's for a later time. I'm definitely grateful for teh thermometer and my timer. That is except that the timer is so stinking noisy! I know I've pressed the button when the display reflects the change i made. It doesn't need to 'beep' every time, to let me know. But that's a small issue.

Next time? Perhaps a white tea, perhaps a black tea review. I haven't decided yet.

Good night.