At Peaceful Water, we like to offer
people tea. We use tea bags for convenience but we have a good range
from sencha to Oolong to Puerh. A lot of people are curious to know more
about tea, so I decide to write a bit about tea.
CAMILLIA SINESIS
I will first clarify. When I talk
about “tea” here, I mean the dried leaves of the “tea plant”
camillia sinesis. Rooibos, yerba mate, mint and
chamomiles are perfectly good tisane or infusion. Only “tea plant”
produces tea.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEA
Tea can be different because of
different cultivars or different terroir (borrowing some wine
terminology here...). But usually when we talk about different types
of tea, we are talking about how tea is processed after it's picked.
The moment a tea leaf is picked, it starts to go through enzymatic
oxidation. In another word, it starts to wilt. Similar to when an
apple is cut and left in contact with air, the apple will turn brown.
The bright green tea leaf will wilt and turn brown.
The enzymatic oxidation can be stopped at any point by applying heat.
If you don't let the tea oxidate at
all, you will get green tea.
If you let the tea oxidate completely,
you will get black tea (called “red” (紅)
tea in Chinese for the color its liquor, to differentiate it from
“black” (黑)
tea, such as Puerh, which steep to a thick brown liquor, sometimes as
dark of soy sauce!)
Anything in partially oxidated is
green-blue (青)
tea, best known as Oolong, usually roasted to some degree.
Post-fermented tea, best known as
Puerh, is unoxidated or partially oxidated tea dried at low
temperature, pressed into cake, then left to age in a warm humidified environment, until the tea undergoes microbial
fermentation and further oxidation, transforming the flavor and
mouthfeel of the tea. Or the aging process can be artificially sped
up in an controlled environment before pressing the tea in to cake.
Less common variations are white and
yellow tea. White tea is very lightly oxidated then dried. Yellow
tea, is briefly fermented in an anaerobic environment before drying
TASTE OF TEA
When I was living in Toronto, tea had
became fashionable and there were many tea shops. They usually carry
hundreds of different blended and flavored tea. To sell their tea,
they let you smell them. They usually smelled fabulous. Vanilla,
spices, fruit peels, flower, ginger. (Notice how they never smelled like “tea”?) Drinking those teas were always disappointing.
They usually taste flat and bland. As if people believe tea to be
scented hot water and nothing more!
I do like to smell my tea. But I like
my tea to have flavors too.
I believe that good tea should have
depth of flavors that reveal itself in stages. First, the liquor
hits your tongue. You might taste the vegetal, seaweed flavor in
sencha; the honey, fruity tones in Darjeeling; or the floral quality
in Anxi Tieguanyin. Then, the liquor travel through your mouth. You
might feel the astringency of a
Oolong; or the velvety mouth feel of a Puerh. Lastly, after the liquor had
gone down your throat, a new wave of sweetness arise from the back of
your throat. Jinxuan's creamy taste might yield to a sweetness
reminiscent of sugarcane.
A good tea should give you all these
stages, and maybe more.
CURRENT NOTABLE TEABAGS
Right now we have a couple interesting tea bags.
This Oolong teabag is actually made with whole leaves, as opposed to the broken, crushed, or sometimes dust leaves in regular tea bags. It takes a while longer for the leaves to open, but it has solid flavors and can be steeped multiple times.
This is Ume Konbucha, made from plum (ume), sea kelp (konbu), sugar and salt. It's technically not a tea and is an acquired taste. There are theories suggesting the trendy fermented sweet tea beverage "kombucha" got its name from konbucha due to the similarities between their sweet & sour flavor, or the appearance of the thick bacterial growth to sea kelp.
So, That's it for today. Next time when you come to Peaceful Water, have a cup a tea!
