How To Brew Oolong Tea
How To Brew Oolong Tea
In Taiwan, making good Oolong or also known as Wu Long tea is a centuries old tradition and a delicate art.
I will do my best to explain to you how to make a good Oolong tea using loose leaf in the traditional Taiwanese way.
What do you require?
1. The obvious is a good quality Oolong tea leaf. Taiwan produces the finest Oolong tea in the world.
2. The second and not so obvious is good quality water. Soft water such as spring water is the best to use. You can also use filtered water if you dont have spring water.
3. Utensils – a kettle, a teapot (clay preferred), a serving pitcher, a strainer, small ceramic tea cups, a tea scooper to pick up the tea leaves, a tray to put underneath to capture spillage, prongs to remove used tea leaves from the teapot and a bucket to rid of liquid waste. In a traditional Taiwanese set, the tray will have a drainage tube attached to the bucket to allow the excess liquid to flow from the tray to the bucket.
How to prepare
Boil the water. For different teas, different temperatures are required. For Oolong tea, the preferred temperature is 85-90 degrees celcius. The temperature is important for many reasons. One being that more caffeine would be released causing bitterness if the temperature is too high. Wu Long tea is a semi-fermented tea which has a slight natural sweetness with less bitterness. A good tip for not getting the water too hot, is to remove it as soon as the bubbles in the water become big due to boiling.
For re-steeping the tea leaves, keep the kettle on heat, but not at a boiling point until needed. It is also important at this point not to allow the temperature of the water to decrease too much, either.
Warming up
1. First, heat the teapot, the serving pitcher and the tea cups by pouring some of the hot water (only water) into them.Pour enough water to cover or even spill over. When they feel warm, you can dump out the water. I use this step only as a cleansing process because i will heat them up again before drinking as i will describe shortly.
2. Put your tea leaves in the teapot. Quantity is also important. As a general rule, 1 teaspoon (5 grams) for every 500cc (17 oz) of water. But the finer the tea leaves, the less quantity you will need. Personal taste is also a big factor.
3. Pour the water into the pot until full. Cover it. Allow the leaves to absorb the water and they begin to open up. After about 10 seconds, pour out the liquid through the strainer into the serving pitcher. You should not leave any liquid in the teapot at this point. You want to replace it with new water.
Then use the serving pitcher to pour the liquid into the cups and empty out the serving pitcher.. Dont be afraid to let the liquid overflow to allow everything to heat up evenly and completely.
This process does several things. It prepares the leaves for a quality infusion. It cleans the tea leaves before drinking the tea and it heats up the pot, server and cups.
Making the tea
Refill the teapot with new hot water until full and cover it. As the tea is steeping, use the liquid from the cups to pour over the top of the closed teapot. This is done to draw steam through the hole.
For the first steep, i suggest 1 minute. The next steep should be about 40 seconds and any steep after that, add 10 more to each steep. Steeping time requires some knowledge of the leaves but practice and adjustments will help you in achieving the perfect balance and flavor that you will enjoy.
Pouring the tea
Align the cups close to each other. Pour the tea through the strainer into the (now empty and warmed) serving pitcher. Then pour the tea using a continuous circular motion into the (now empty and warmed) cups. This will allow for identical color and flavor in every cup. I will emphasize again, “Dont be afraid to have spillage when pouring.”
You are now ready to enjoy your wonderful tasting, aromatic and healthy cup of Oolong tea.
Practice and enjoy this wonderful art!
For more information and to find great deals on Oolong Tea, visit Green Oolong Tea
Article from articlesbase.com
Categories: Tea Articles Tags: Brew, Oolong
Introduction To Jasmine Tea
By: Joan Shine
One of the tea blends you simply cannot miss is Jasmine tea. If you’ve never tried it, you’re missing a real treat. Much of the world has already discovered the fragrance and flavor of Jasmine tea. In fact, it is the most popular Chinese flavored tea.
What makes jasmine tea so special is its special blend of high quality loose tea leaves with jasmine petals. The jasmine petals impart a delicate yet very aromatic fragrance to the tea. The jasmine petals also impart a slightly sweet flavor to the tea.
Jasmine has been produced in China for at least 700 years. The original production of jasmine tea included plucking the jasmine blossoms just as they are beginning to bloom and adding them to the tea leaves at night to ensure the best infusion of the aroma and fragrance. In most cases, the tea was scented twice – using two different sets of jasmine blossoms to ensure that the tea is properly infused.
Jasmine tea is most often made using green tea. Jasmine green tea is one of the healthiest teas you can drink. Green tea has been shown to have more health benefits than black tea because of the way that it’s processed. Green tea does not go through a fermentation process. The fermentation process that happens to black tea converts the natural anti-oxidants to other compounds. So, while black tea is a healthy beverage, it is not as healthy as green tea, whose anti-oxidants are left in their natural state.
Anti-oxidants are important to protecting our health. Anti-oxidants help to neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are oxygen containing molecules that are created as a by product of converting the food we eat into energy. Left unchecked, these free radicals damage our cells and DNA, leading to aging and disease.
A diet rich in anti-oxidants keeps these free radicals under control. And, green tea is one of the best sources of anti-oxidants around. Including green tea in your diet along with other plant based products like fruits and vegetables can help protect your health.
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In recent years, a lot of research has shown some very specific and interesting things about drinking green tea. We’ve learned that green tea has the power to prevent many types of cancer, including breast cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer. In addition, long term green tea drinkers tend to have a lower body weight and are more successful at losing weight.
Green tea can also help prevent heart disease by helping lower cholesterol and preventing blood clots, which are the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes. In addition, green tea may be helpful at regulating insulin naturally.
So, if you like the idea of adding green tea to your diet, then jasmine green tea may be a great way to enjoy a wonderful fragrance and flavor and protect your health at the same time.
If, however, you’re not a green tea drinker, you can find jasmine tea in other forms. Oolong jasmine tea is also a very popular blend. Oolong teas are also processed a bit differently than black teas. Oolong teas are semi-fermented, meaning that they are fermented, but for a shorter period of time than black teas. To produce a good oolong tea, fermentation must be stopped when the leaves are 30% red and 70% green.
It is the ability to stop the fermentation at precisely the right time that gives oolong teas their distinct flavor. Most oolong teas are also dried using charcoal, giving it another distinct dimension. Oolong jasmine tea has the typically smooth and fruity taste usually found in oolong teas combined with the fragrant sweetness of jasmine.
Jasmine tea can be made from white tea, too. In fact, today, white jasmine tea is becoming quite popular. Sweet and light white tea combined with the subtle scent of jasmine makes for a very delicate and refreshing beverage. It’s one of the mildest jasmine teas you’ll find. And, drinking white jasmine tea will provide all the health benefits of drinking green jasmine tea.
Finally, there are also a few black jasmine teas. Because black tea has a bolder flavor, you’ll find black jasmine teas to have a more subtle jasmine flavor, as the jasmine scent and taste does not stand out as much when combined with black tea as it does when combined with lighter green and oolong teas.
As you can see, jasmine is a favorite for blending with tea, making jasmine tea one of the easiest tea blends to find. Because jasmine tea is so common, however, it’s important to ensure that you’re choosing only the best quality tea when you purchase your jasmine tea.
The best jasmine tea is made using real jasmine petals combined with the highest quality loose leaf teas. In jasmine green tea, you’ll often find that some of the best and most flavorful jasmine teas use tightly rolled green tea pearls mixed with jasmine petals.
In addition to teas mixed only with jasmine, you’ll also find jasmine teas mixed with other flavors as well. Because jasmine imparts mostly fragrance and only a subtle flavor to the tea, it mixes easily with other flavors, as well.
You’ll find jasmine tea flavored also with vanilla, rose and orange. All of these have the delicate aroma and sweet flavor of jasmine, but include a second, complementary flavor to add dimension to the taste of the tea.
Whatever form of jasmine tea you choose, you’re sure to love it. Jasmine tea, whether in green, oolong or black form is one of the most traditional of all Chinese teas and certainly one of the most fragrant and enjoyable.
Joan Shine – About the Author:
Information on mexican traditions can be found at the Knowledge Galaxy site.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/introduction-to-jasmine-tea-4641599.html
Categories: Tea Articles Tags: Introduction, Jasmine
Green Tea Purity – White Tea vs. Green Tea ? Difference and Benefits of Drinking White or Green Teas
Be it natural green or white tea, they can be delicious, strong and robust and rich in antioxidants, flavoured, and enjoyed hot or iced. Sipping teas has probably never been so fashionably healthy as they are in the present age. Then again, the nutrient-laden beverage has been around for thousands of years. From being a favoured drink of emperors, teas have become one of the preferred drinks of health conscious individuals of varying, occupations, and cultures. There are different types of teas, and for the uninitiated, a quick comparison of white tea vs. green tea may come in real handy.
Note that there are special varieties of white teas that have been minimally processed, and hence, come in the purest form. The leaves of white tea are harvested while they are still young. Thus, the tea tends to have much higher antioxidant content than other types of teas (including is green relative). As far as taste is concerned, many cite white tea’s sweet taste that’s conducive for relaxing versus its green counterpart.
In terms of caffeine content, white tea is known to be lower than the green type. Yet two cupfuls of green tea contain vitamin C equivalent to a large glass of orange juice. As far as the green type of teas is concerned, polyphenols known as EGCG trigger the body to burn calories. If you care to go for tea’s natural weight-reducing and protective properties, there’s a quality innovation in the market called Green Tea Purity which is ideal not just in serving as a fat fighter but also in warding off disease
As the white tea vs. green tea debate rages on and on, those who benefit in the end by opting to have stocks of both varieties are the end consumers. You too can start enjoying all the natural health benefits of drinking green teas or its white counterpart, by taking the Green Tea Purity free trial sample tour online today. Just visit the link in the next paragraph to find out how to get your free trial offers online before it’s too late!
Fredrick N.I – About the Author:
Let the debate go on and on concerning white tea vs. green tea! Visit this site right here: Free Green Tea Purity Trial Sample to find out how to get your free natural purified green tea Purity free trial sample right now before their trial offer promotion runs out!
Categories: Tea Articles Tags: benefits, difference, Drinking, green, Purity, teas, White
