hei cha brewing methods
Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:34 am
I've been revisiting my ideas/methods of gong fu and how to best brew what I am drinking, and I think a lot of the discussion around brewing methods tends towards the side of what is favorable for things like sheng, oolongs, greens, and that many hei cha might not necessarily shine their brightest using similar methods. Part of what has been bringing me around to this was that I felt certain characteristics I would expect from particular teas was missing or more subtle than I expected, but also while on the never ending pot hunt that a lot of the clay that seems best for brewing dark teas tend to be a bit bigger, particularly compared to the typically desirable ever smaller and lightning fast pour shui ping.
The typical 5g/100ml and flash steeps with slowly rising times is the old tried and true, adjusting temps/times/leaf ratio form there to dial things in for a particular tea but probably not expecting a huge deviation from the norm. It makes sense particularly with sheng and oolongs that you don't want to stew your leaves, invite astringency, or just generally make things unpleasantly strong. And while some teas, particularly much older ones, like Liu Bao may brew up fine that way the average grade aren't going to necessarily go for 8-20 steeps - and if you try and stretch them that way you'll find the results pretty bland/disappointing. To my taste at least the main issue with brewing a lot of hei cha isn't accidental astringency/stewing, but rather that leaves can often be so compressed or so dry they can't really open up properly with flash steeping - missing out on the richer, sweeter, or more varied notes different styles have to offer. A 5 second steep won't offer much if a leaf needs a good 10-15 second boiling wash just to get going. Not to mention your probably want pots with a very different style of heat retention for such brewing.
My move lately has been going for slightly more leaf and upping my vessel size and brew time - say more like 5-8g depending on the tea for a thicker clay pot around 175ml and going for longer steeps, 20 seconds starting time and up from there with larger increments. There are of course always exceptions, but since trying this out with some teas I know fairly well I feel like I am starting to find more depth of flavor, more notes that were lacking or not even present before. An added bonus that it also seems a bit more favorable to semi-distracted or casual brewing.
So - how do you brew your liu bao, tian jian, liu an, etc? Do you treat it the same way you would an oolong, or do you approach it completely different?
The typical 5g/100ml and flash steeps with slowly rising times is the old tried and true, adjusting temps/times/leaf ratio form there to dial things in for a particular tea but probably not expecting a huge deviation from the norm. It makes sense particularly with sheng and oolongs that you don't want to stew your leaves, invite astringency, or just generally make things unpleasantly strong. And while some teas, particularly much older ones, like Liu Bao may brew up fine that way the average grade aren't going to necessarily go for 8-20 steeps - and if you try and stretch them that way you'll find the results pretty bland/disappointing. To my taste at least the main issue with brewing a lot of hei cha isn't accidental astringency/stewing, but rather that leaves can often be so compressed or so dry they can't really open up properly with flash steeping - missing out on the richer, sweeter, or more varied notes different styles have to offer. A 5 second steep won't offer much if a leaf needs a good 10-15 second boiling wash just to get going. Not to mention your probably want pots with a very different style of heat retention for such brewing.
My move lately has been going for slightly more leaf and upping my vessel size and brew time - say more like 5-8g depending on the tea for a thicker clay pot around 175ml and going for longer steeps, 20 seconds starting time and up from there with larger increments. There are of course always exceptions, but since trying this out with some teas I know fairly well I feel like I am starting to find more depth of flavor, more notes that were lacking or not even present before. An added bonus that it also seems a bit more favorable to semi-distracted or casual brewing.
So - how do you brew your liu bao, tian jian, liu an, etc? Do you treat it the same way you would an oolong, or do you approach it completely different?