Approaches to brew non-CTC Assam black tea

[LeoFox]

Typically with plenty of milk right?

But what about other ways? Milk seems to kill 90%+ of what the tea has to offer, for better or worse...

As one quickly realizes, even the highest grades are quite broken, and tends to dump the flavors relatively fast along with astringency and bitterness..and so milk..or...?

The gongfu option:
Having played around 5g/150 ml boiling water starting at around 10-15 seconds. The soup is malty, bright and sweet as long as the leaves are not tooo broken. If they are, then have found flash infusions to be acceptable.


Sencha approach
Been playing with this method more recently. Again 5g/150ml but keeping temperature at 75-80c and doing 50s, 15s, 50s, 1min 20s, 2min30s, then boiling 2 min, etc.

I'm finding this to be quite good- the initial steep is nothing to write home about (weak) but from 2nd one on, I feel it is highly aromatic, smooth and comfortable. Perhaps not as bright as using boiling gongfu- but the complex aromatics along with smooth mouthfeel really shine.

[Teafortea]

Typically with plenty of milk right?

But what about other ways? Milk seems to kill 90%+ of what the tea has to offer, for better or worse...

As one quickly realizes, even the highest grades are quite broken, and tends to dump the flavors relatively fast along with astringency and bitterness..and so milk..or...?

The gongfu option:
Having played around 5g/150 ml boiling water starting at around 10-15 seconds. The soup is malty, bright and sweet as long as the leaves are not tooo broken. If they are, then have found flash infusions to be acceptable.


Sencha approach
Been playing with this method more recently. Again 5g/150ml but keeping temperature at 75-80c and doing 50s, 15s, 50s, 1min 20s, 2min30s, then boiling 2 min, etc.

I'm finding this to be quite good- the initial steep is nothing to write home about (weak) but from 2nd one on, I feel it is highly aromatic, smooth and comfortable. Perhaps not as bright as using boiling gongfu- but the complex aromatics along with smooth mouthfeel really shine.

Very interesting. I just had some assam and finally with the sencha method it tasted very smooth. I want to try blending it with some ceylan and see if I can get that breakfast taste without the milk component. I have some Japanese blacks that work well the sencha method but did not think to try assam this way. And that teapot, is that the purion from Lin's? I had purchased mine through rishi tea long time ago and I don't know what to do with it. Nothing tastes OK. I call it the eating flavor teapot as it seems to kill any flavors of tea. What have you tried that works?

[LeoFox]

Typically with plenty of milk right?

But what about other ways? Milk seems to kill 90%+ of what the tea has to offer, for better or worse...

As one quickly realizes, even the highest grades are quite broken, and tends to dump the flavors relatively fast along with astringency and bitterness..and so milk..or...?

The gongfu option:
Having played around 5g/150 ml boiling water starting at around 10-15 seconds. The soup is malty, bright and sweet as long as the leaves are not tooo broken. If they are, then have found flash infusions to be acceptable.


Sencha approach
Been playing with this method more recently. Again 5g/150ml but keeping temperature at 75-80c and doing 50s, 15s, 50s, 1min 20s, 2min30s, then boiling 2 min, etc.

I'm finding this to be quite good- the initial steep is nothing to write home about (weak) but from 2nd one on, I feel it is highly aromatic, smooth and comfortable. Perhaps not as bright as using boiling gongfu- but the complex aromatics along with smooth mouthfeel really shine.

Very interesting. I just had some assam and finally with the sencha method it tasted very smooth. I want to try blending it with some ceylan and see if I can get that breakfast taste without the milk component. I have some Japanese blacks that work well the sencha method but did not think to try assam this way. And that teapot, is that the purion from Lin's? I had purchased mine through rishi tea long time ago and I don't know what to do with it. Nothing tastes OK. I call it the eating flavor teapot as it seems to kill any flavors of tea. What have you tried that works?

Assam works. The clay is like milk

viewtopic.php?p=43714#p43714

[Teafortea]

What have you done? :lol:now I got the itch for more tea ware. those teaset display in that link topic are mind blowing...
So many beautiful teaware!!!