Kind of puzzled as to why western black tea blends were always so astringent to me. Is it that their brewing instructions say to use boiling water and steep for up to 5 minutes? Is the tea much lower quality? Is black tea just more suited to gong fu-style brewing?
Well, who knows, maybe I’ll experiment with that more now that I’m being turned around on black tea. Or am I just getting all the best black teas and everything else is still a disappointment? Questions, questions.
This one was so nice and creamy sweet. Dried fruit and cherry, wood, honey, some grapes and apricot, really a whole bunch of fruits, some malt, leather and tobacco throughout. Love the complexity from steeping to steeping. I envision this being a good one to start the day with as there’s so much to appreciate.
Flavors: Apricot, Blueberry, Cherry, Dried Fruit, Grapes, Honey, Leather, Malt, Plum, Smoke, Smooth, Sweet, Tart, Tobacco, Wood
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When I first got into tea, the “boiling for 5 minutes” thing always made shit cups of tea for me. Also, they usually always recommended a lot more leaf than I found I prefer. Now I just ignore any provided “instructions” and brew the way I know I like it.
Ahh this is making me want to experiment right now with some leftover earl grey and breakfast tea. It’s not like I need sleep. /s Do you have any initial suggestions for temperature and time?
I personally use https://octea.ndim.space/#/ for my leaf-to-water amount ratios which work well for me. I usually brew blacks at 205F for a 3 minute steep, and drop the steep time to 2 minutes for CTCs.
This is very useful, thank you, I appreciate it. That’s also good to know about CTCs.
When I first got into tea, the “boiling for 5 minutes” thing always made shit cups of tea for me. Also, they usually always recommended a lot more leaf than I found I prefer. Now I just ignore any provided “instructions” and brew the way I know I like it.
Ahh this is making me want to experiment right now with some leftover earl grey and breakfast tea. It’s not like I need sleep. /s Do you have any initial suggestions for temperature and time?
I personally use https://octea.ndim.space/#/ for my leaf-to-water amount ratios which work well for me. I usually brew blacks at 205F for a 3 minute steep, and drop the steep time to 2 minutes for CTCs.
This is very useful, thank you, I appreciate it. That’s also good to know about CTCs.