Comparisons: '17 vs. '18; various temperatures, etc.

Post Reply
Ethan Kurland
Vendor
Posts: 1026
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:01 am
Location: Boston
Contact:

Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:39 pm

I watch television much too much; so, I decided to spend yesterday with the tv off & devote myself to tea. 2 of my sisters joined me for part of the research. Some observations:

I have been told 2018 has been a better year for teas from Taiwan than 2017 (especially Spring vs. Spring). Tasting gaoshan that is hardly oxidized (green; green oolong), I found: 1. The shanlanxi that I sell as "Perfect" is the same for both years unless one stacks the '18. Combining 3 infusions of '18 Perfect produces a wonderfully smooth brew w/ sweetness greater than the note of sweetness of '17 Perfect. 2. The taste of the Foushoushan of 2018 seems the same as the year before; however, one can use slightly less leaves. 3. Black tea seems very much the same but somehow I do like '18 better & so did my sisters, though we could not say why.

I have been using water from 90C to 98C for my teas lately which now seems stupid. Perfect & the FSS do well for that whole range, but it is clear that 96 +/- a degree, is ideal. Competition, medium roasted gaoshan, is hurt by water hotter than 96C. Black tea needs 99C or a full boil to get all of the flavors that leaves contain.

Amounts of leaves: 1. Hardly oxidized gaoshan produces good flavor with a minimum amount of leaves, perhaps very light yet still good. Starting from that, I have found it does not take many to get a fully flavored & bodied cup. 2. Roasted leaves produced brews that seemed unlike tea when too little or too many were used. 3. We found no reason to get far from the best amount of leaves for black tea.

Steeping times: We found no benefit to steep > 30 seconds for green teas; the roasted needed 20 - 40 seconds; the black needs 40 - 60.

The biggest observation is about myself, not the teas. I have often thought testing seriously to somewhat pretentious; now I think it is a way to be less wasteful. Some of the times that I was not enjoying tea as much as hoped, was taken to be a matter of what I had eaten recently or some event that doomed a tea session. But it is clear, that being very casual can lead to mistakes combining, such as wrong amount of leaves, time, & temperature =ing a bad brew.

Last note: Differences in teaware was not noticeable or hardly noticeable. Cheers
Post Reply