Many people love tea-drinking across different countries, especially in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Poland, the United Kingdom and Turkey. There are many categories of tea leaves. Different people in different places have their own culture about tea. Basically, to prepare a cup of good tea, there are 6 factors that affect the quality and aroma of the tea. They are quality of tea leaves, water, water temperature, set of utensil for tea brewing, the people and the ambience.
Tea quality
To judge whether the tea leaf are good enough, we can observe the appearance of tea leaves, scent the aroma and taste it.
Utensil for tea brewing
What utensil we use for brewing tea up depends on what tea we drink. For black tea, like pu’er, zisha teapot is a choice. For oolong tea, its pleasant aroma is noticeable so zisha teapot is also the choice. Why? Zisha teapot can keep the tea a number of temperature for a long while and hence the aroma can be kept.
Fresh green tea is great to brew in glass tea utensil as well as ceramic cup. Ceramic can also keep the water temperature for a relatively long while and heat can transmitted fast. The aroma can be kept for a longer time.
Utensil also depends on who taste the tea because old people may like zisha teapot while young people may like glass utensil.
Water
There are 7 options for water used in tea-brewing. Mountain spring water, tap water, distilled water, well water, mineral water, rain water and snow water.
Water temperature
The tea taste depends on variety of elements. Even though the tea leaf is the same, the tea taste can vary by different people brewing it up. Besides, water temperature of boiling water is another element that makes taste different. The lower the water temperature, the less the solubility, the lighter the tea; the higher the temperature, the greater the solubility and the stronger the tea.
- Green Tea: Recommended water temperature – 75 oC to 85 oC
- Black Tea: Recommended water temperature – 95 oC to 100 oC
- Oolong tea: recommended water temperature – 85 oC to 95 oC
- Yellow Tea: Recommended water temperature – 75 oC to 80 oC
- White Tea: Recommended water temperature – 75 oC to 85 oC
- Black Tea: Recommended Water Temperature – 100 oC
Ambience
In a busy city, the space for living is limited. To enhance the ambience of tea-tasting, we may be required to keep eye on any great environment for tasting activity. Basically, there are 4 types – dining room, in park, study room, and tea room.
At home, some friends gather together, with tea-tasting and chatting. We also can appreciate flower and the natural environment with great tea in park. Book may enhance the feeling of tea-tasting. Some people may brew the tea with traditional tea-brewing method. Whatever tasting way is carried may boost the sense of tea-tasting to next level.
Note: Reference from “The Science of Spice” by Stuart Farrimond, published by DK. Image by Pixabay
