Boiled tea flavour

[Bourder]

I remember that when I was boiling tea in my stainless steel pan, it would always turn out different than when brewing in a gaiwan or in a thermos. The taste was strong, all right, but it was always kind of equalized, minty, not very interesting. Good when you want to extract the leaves quickly and make a lot of tea, but not quite the way to do the tea justice. I'm talking heicha and shoumei.

I've heard that people use clay kettles to boil (or simmer) tea. Is it possible that stainless steel is not very suitable for boiling tea, just like silver teapots rarely enhance it?

[OCTO]

I've heard that people use clay kettles to boil (or simmer) tea. Is it possible that stainless steel is not very suitable for boiling tea, just like silver teapots rarely enhance it?

I personally stay away from stainless steel with the exception of boiling water. I would use either porcelain or Yixing pots to simmer my tea by very slowly bringing my tea to a boil. I would only use old tea leaves. Most old PuErh or HeiCha would be pretty light to the tastebuds. Hands bringing them to a simmer or boil would extract more flavours out from them. They are to me borderline medicinal in taste and character.

Cheers!!

[Bourder]

Yes, medicinal is the right term. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Cheers!

[mbanu]

Supposedly this is related to the boiling of the water. When water is boiled a long time, it loses its aeration, which changes the taste of tea made with it. Thus, in many tea traditions where boiling tea is common, there is an aeration step before serving, such as the repeated pouring of the tea in teh tarik or West-African ataya, to re-introduce air to the boiled tea.

Some people are skeptical of this cause, even though they do identify as you do that boiled tea tastes different. Part of it may be that it is treated as an all-or-nothing thing, as though water that has been boiling for just a bit longer than necessary will be the same as water that has been simmering in a kettle all day. However, there are many differences between the various tea styles, which makes it hard to compare a boiled tea with a non-boiled tea.

[aet]

It is common in some Yunnan villages , boiled or baked first then boil.
It does "flatten" the taste in some way. Like if you try Cha Gao shu puer for example , that's the way how tastes boiled shu ( cha gao is made by boiling out / extracting , so it makes sense ) .
My wife boils quite often shu , adding some chen pi , it's not bad morning drink. It , as @Bourder said here , equalizers the taste. Shu looses it's earthy notes for examle .
I had boiled sheng huang pian, it was very nice. Sometimes we make white tea with old chen pi .
This kettle you can also buy on Aliexpress ( normaly used for hei cha ).
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1tY2nRI ... BiNWFlZA==

[wave_code]

I've always had pretty unfavorable results from literally boiling leaves, especially in metal pots. When still mild there wasn't much to it, and it seemed to either come out that way or over-brewed with the mentioned nasty metallic notes. For getting everything I can out of old or nicer spent leaves I've found moving them to a larger pot, usually glass but also experimenting with others, and doing the old fashioned tea candle stand trick works much better. I'd advise using a beeswax tea candle though if you can get them - the cheap ones can smell pretty nasty.

[Bourder]

@mbanu
I can't really tell the difference between freshly boiled water and water that's been boiling for a while. But I try my best to aerate the tea when brewing.

@wave_code
Perhaps the metal restrains wood (the tea) in the Five Elements sense. I actually have been looking into bigger pots recently, since heicha seems to like bigger vessels (and I like heicha).

Thank you all.

[DailyTX]

This kettle you can also buy on Aliexpress ( normaly used for hei cha ).
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1tY2nRI ... BiNWFlZA==

@aet the product looks like a percolator. Do the tea leaves touch the boiling water when boiling tea?

[Baisao]

I remember that when I was boiling tea in my stainless steel pan, it would always turn out different than when brewing in a gaiwan or in a thermos. The taste was strong, all right, but it was always kind of equalized, minty, not very interesting. Good when you want to extract the leaves quickly and make a lot of tea, but not quite the way to do the tea justice. I'm talking heicha and shoumei.

I've heard that people use clay kettles to boil (or simmer) tea. Is it possible that stainless steel is not very suitable for boiling tea, just like silver teapots rarely enhance it?

Silver does enhance tea but most enthusiasts of East Asian tea find that the brightness of flavor novel but not entirely welcome.

I can taste the difference between boiled unboiled water but I cannot explain why there is a flavor difference. Apparently, it isn't dissolved oxygen as that returns to normal within seconds of leaving a boil so I don't know what it is. It is pretty obvious to me which is which. As such, I tend to not boil my water but keep it below boiling.

There is a historical tradition of simmering tea. In fact, sencha, means "simmered tea". At this time in Japan tea was seed grown and did not have genetics from assamicas that contribute to aromatic but more bitter teas. A hillside might be picked at various times from bushes of various genetics, resulting in a mild tea that could withstand simmering. We now call this kind of Japanese tea zairai. It is uncommon these days.

If I simmered a sencha with assamica genetics (inzatsu) it would be extremely bitter. If I steeped it at a temp below 80°c it would be fragrant and nice. However, I could simmer a zairai sencha and have a refreshing tea though without the extraordinary fragrance of the inzatsu-types. Steeping a zairai would result in a still enjoyable tea but lacking compared to briefly simmering it.

[bentz98125]

There is a historical tradition of simmering tea. In fact, sencha, means "simmered tea". At this time in Japan tea was seed grown and did not have genetics from assamicas that contribute to aromatic but more bitter teas. A hillside might be picked at various times from bushes of various genetics, resulting in a mild tea that could withstand simmering. We now call this kind of Japanese tea zairai. It is uncommon these days.

If I simmered a sencha with assamica genetics (inzatsu) it would be extremely bitter. If I steeped it at a temp below 80°c it would be fragrant and nice. However, I could simmer a zairai sencha and have a refreshing tea though without the extraordinary fragrance of the inzatsu-types. Steeping a zairai would result in a still enjoyable tea but lacking compared to briefly simmering it.

Thanks. Keep waiting for my ignorance of interesting tea facts and history to exhaust itself. I anticipate a long wait but do you know of any particularly good specifically Japanese tea history resources?

[Baisao]

@bentz98125 - I suggest Florent’s blog.

https://japaneseteasommelier.wordpress.com/