Tea Drinking Part II

There are many types of tea but basically they are classified into green tea (e.g long jing, bi luo choon), white tea, yellow tea, oolong tea (e.g tie guanyin), red tea, black tea (e.g pu-er) and flower tea(e.g jasmine, camomile, rose, forget me not).  Green tea, white tea and yellow tea goes well with seafood and dim sum.

Through the use of tea bags I always thought that we can just leave the tea leaves soaked in the hot water and drink and refill as you like but that is the wrong way to have a good cup of tea.  Tea leaves should only be soaked in the hot water for around 1 min for the first round and about 1 min to 1 min 30 secs for 2nd and subsequent rounds.  Usually good tea leaves can last you for around 3 rounds with the tea still tasting good.

Temperature is another important factor in brewing the perfect cup of tea.  For example pu-er tea should be brewed with very hot water (around 95 degrees celsius) hence using porcelain tea pot to maintain the temperature.  While for long-jing we use water around 85-75 degree celsius and usually a clear transparent tea pot is used.  But at home we can just use 1 teapot, I prefer to use a transparent one as it looks better in a comtemporary setting, so i use the lid when brewing pu-er and without led and lower temperature water when brewing long-jing.

So far I have only really tried long-jing and pu-er excluding those which I drank at chinese restaurant.  For long-jing the longer you keep it the more it depreciates in value, while pu-er appreciates in value with time (for sure keep it in the right environment is crucial).

Long-jing is classified into ming qian (before early april) and yu qian (after early april).  For yu qian long jing its has quite a wide range also with those near early april costing alot more as they have more of this 'sprout' which leave in their early stages which is white.  You will find alot of these 'white leaves' if you buy ming qian long jing.

For pu-er it simpler the longer and older it is the more valuable it is.  They have the 'cake' type which you need to break them down and store properly they usually cost less than loose tea leaves which you can use immediately.  But as I prefer convenience I bought the loose tea leaves which cost about $50+ for 500g.

So after learning so much decided to ditch the tea bags and start appreciating quality tea.