As last week’s focus on Ti Kuan Yin made clear, I’m focusing quite heavily on oolong tea this year. Along the way, I’ve improved my brewing technique through trial and error, so I thought I would share some of the lessons I’ve learned.

Before we get started, one very important note: Experiment! Take my advice as a starting point, not the ultimate authority.

1. The vessel

There is an extensive array of vessels you can use to brew oolong tea (or any tea, for that matter). Personally, I prefer using a yixing teapot or a gaiwan.

A gaiwan is a simple three piece brewing device, most often made of porcelain or glass. You can pick them up online for about $10 – $15, or try your local Asian grocery store to see if you can find one there.

Yixing teaware is renowned for its superior quality. It’s porous, which means that it absorbs the flavours and aromas of the tea; for this reason, it’s a good idea to devote a yixing teapot to a specific type of tea.

If you have another type of teapot, you can still make a great cup of oolong tea. The trick is to give the leaves plenty of room to expand; if your teapot has an infuser basket, make sure it is wide and tall enough. If it doesn’t come with its own infuser, you can just place the leaves in the bottom of the pot, but be sure to drain the pot completely after steeping the leaves — if you leave the leaves sitting in water, they will continue to steep, so you won’t get as many steepings out of them.

Gaiwan

2. Heat before use

I highly recommend heating the gaiwan, yixing or other teapot before using it. Not only will the heated vessel keep the tea hot for longer, it will also stabilize the temperature of the teapot before you start steeping, so the water won’t cool down as rapidly after adding it to the vessel.

Also, if you heat the vessel and then place the dry leaves in it, you can take in the aromas of the tea before steeping. Trust me: You’ll be amazed at how much more you can smell when the tea sits in a heated vessel.

All I do is pour a little boiling water into the vessel, give it twenty seconds, and then empty it.

3. Water temperature

Most people will tell you to use near boiling or boiling water for oolong tea. Personally, I prefer to use slightly cooler water for teas that are less oxidized and higher temperatures for more heavily oxidized oolongs. After all, the less an oolong has been oxidized, the closer it is to a green tea — hence, it makes sense to me to use cooler water temperatures, as you would for green tea.

4. Leaf quantity

When I’m using a gaiwan or a yixing (which are smaller than your average teapot), I cover the bottom with leaves. I know, I know. That’s terribly imprecise, but it yields good results.

If you’re working with a larger teapot, the cover-the-bottom strategy might not work. In this case, what I would recommend is to start off with 2.5 teaspoons of tea leaves for every 250ml of water.

You can also use less leaves and allow for a longer steeping time, though you won’t be able to get as many steepings out of your tea in the long run. Depending on your purposes, that might be ok.

5. Timing

The length of your steepings is directly related to the amount of leaf you’re using. If you’re using the cover-the-bottom strategy, or using 2.5 teaspons of leaf for 250ml of water, you need to use shorter steeping times that you might be used to. You could try this rough guide:

• 1st steeping: 0:30
• 2nd steeping: 0:30 – 1:00
• 3rd steeping: 1:30 – 2:00
• 4th steeping: 3:00
• Add a minute for each subsequent steeping.

Let your taste buds guide you. If your 2nd steeping at half a minute was a little watery, allow for a longer 3rd steeping (perhaps two minutes).

If you need or want to use less tea leaves, increase the amount of time you allow for steeping the tea. For example, if you’re using the traditional one teaspoon per person approach, I would suggest having 90 seconds to 2 minutes for your first infusion, adding a minute or more to subsequent infusions.

Above all, experiment. Making tea isn’t a one-size-fits all sort of thing: you might prefer stronger or weaker tea than I do, or the oolong tea you’re brewing might need a longer or shorter steeping time than I’ve suggested above. Experimentation is key.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | How to Make Oolong Tea: 5 Ways to Brew a Better Cup of Oolong | 3 comments |
Post categories: Oolong tea
Post tags: gaiwan, how to make oolong tea, how to make tea, Yixing Teapot

Just a few weeks after reviewing Chicago Tea Garden’s Golden Bi Lo, I turn to Teas Etc’s Bi Lo Chun Reserve, a delightful green tea with a remarkable nose.

Bi Lo Chun is a specialty of tea makers in Jiangsu Province, China. This particular sample from Teas Etc (a free sample, by the way) features lovely white downy leaves, indicating that the leaves were harvested at a young age.

Teas Etc’s notes on this tea suggest that the aroma is “unassuming”, while Mary Lou and Robert Heiss describe Bi Lo Chun’s aroma as “deceptively soft and mild”, yet I find that this tea has a remarkable dry aroma of rich dark chocolate. It’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of drinking this tea.

Given the sweetness of the dry aroma, it’s surprising how little sweetness there is to the flavour. This is a very savoury tea, with strong notes of vegetal flavours and a milder hint of something like sweet potato or yam. There is a little bit of astringent bite to the tea, but it’s nicely balanced (provided you don’t oversteep it).

The Story of Tea describes Bi Lo Chun as the Darjeeling of green teas — they have that briskness and demanding character of Darjeeling teas, but they’re well worth the effort. I’m inclined to agree. You need to take special care not to oversteep this tea, or its astringency will make it nasty, but if you’re careful enough it’s a rewarding, unique and delicate tea.

Bi Lo Chun is available from Teas Etc.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Bi Lo Chun Reserve from Teas Etc | No comment |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Bi Lo Chun, Pi Lo Chun, Teas Etc

This review, the final one in my series of ti kuan yin reviews, comes at an opportune time: Chicago Tea Garden, the suppliers of this final ti kuan yin, officially launched yesterday. Congratulations to Tony and his partner Erin — all the best of luck to you both!

Now, the tea.

This is a competition-grade ti kuan yin from Anxi County in China. It’s lightly oxidized, presenting beautifully with lush green leaves tightly rolled and intermingled with darker shades.

It’s nose is quite sweet and floral, though it isn’t as heavily aromatic as the Serenity Teahouse ti kuan yin, which is the ti kuan yin I find it most comparable to. Like the Taiwanese oolong, it has a nutty flavour, though this is hardly as pronounced as in the former tea.

What amazes me is that, despite the sweetness of its dry aroma, the tea’s flavour is almost completely savoury, with barely a hint of the sweetness that my nose detected. It reminds me quite a bit of rhubarb; there is a tarty character to its flavour. This became much more prominent in the second infusion, both in the mouth and in the nose.

One things that struck me about this tea is just how energizing and refreshing I found it. None of the other three ti kuan yins really left me with that feeling (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). There is something implacable about this tea that makes me feel ready for the day.

Competition Grade Ti Kuan Yin is available from Chicago Tea Garden for $17.99 for 50 grams.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Competition Grade Ti Kuan Yin from Chicago Tea Garden | No comment |
Post categories: Oolong tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Chicago Tea Garden, ti kuan yin

A line from Little Yellow Teapot’s review of Chicago Tea Garden’s Golden Bi Luo has stuck with me this week:

The sign of a great tea is when the leaves look great before and after steeping.

How true.

Unfortunately, it’s a sentiment that doesn’t favour Orange Tea Co.’s ti kuan yin, which comes out of a steeping looking rather worse for the wear. The dry leaves are attractive enough, with a nice consistency of darker green rolled leaves; but after steeping this once, I can see that many of the leaves are broken. There are a few full sized leaves, but there are also quite a few broken bits. Granted, I was at the bottom of a sample, so you are always going to end up with some smaller leaf particles; but there was too much of it here for my liking.

Appearance aside, this is still a pleasant tea. It reminds me a little of those plums that straddle the line between sweet and sour. I picked up a hint of pepper, both in the nose and the mouth, which struck me as interesting — neither of the previous ti kuan yins I have reviewed had that. The tea wasn’t as fragrant as either the Serenity Teahouse ti kuan yin or the Tea Trekker ti kuan yin; but I suspect that both of those teas were much more fragrant than your average ti kuan yin.

Iron Goddess is available from Orange Tea Co.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Ti Kuan Yin from Orange Tea Co. | No comment |
Post categories: Oolong tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Orange Tea Co, ti kuan yin

It is remarkable just how markedly different two teas of the same style can be. Yesterday’s ti kuan yin, a Taiwanese one, had a sharp nutty character and a wonderful dry aroma. Today, we’re drinking a ti kuan yin produced in Fujian Province, China, and there’s not a hint of nuttiness. But it still smells lovely, as its name suggests: Clear and Fragrant Style Ti Kuan Yin from Tea Trekker.

This is one of several ti kuan yins sold by Tea Trekker, one that they describe as being less oxidized and more fragrant than traditional ti kuan yins. Yet this is more oxidized than yesterday’s ti kuan yin. Clearly, there is quite a liberal range of possible oxidation levels for ti kuan yin teas.

Like other darker oolongs, this ti kuan yin has a nose dominated by the deep aroma of stonefruits. Think plum or peach. It reminds me a little of the jam in hot jam donuts: rich, fruity sweetness. A note of cabbage-like vegetables is fairly subdued; on the whole, this tea comes across as more fruity than vegetal.

The second infusion reveals a tangy, acidic flavour, especially as the tea cools. But already by the third, this is becoming less dominant as the tea seems to smooth out. So far, I have had four great infusions, and I’m guessing I’ll get at least another two or three.

Clear and Fragrant Style Ti Kuan Yin is available from Tea Trekker.

Like my artsy fartsy photo?

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Clear and Fragrant Style Ti Kuan Yin from Tea Trekker | One comment |
Post categories: Oolong tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Tea Trekker, ti kuan yin

The first in my series of ti kuan yin teas is the only one from Taiwan.

Highly aromatic teas seem to be the hallmark of Taiwanese tea producers. This ti kuan yin might not be as aromatic as some of the other Taiwanese oolongs I’ve tried, but it still bears a lovely nose of sweet, almond-like nuttiness. One of the best things you can do with a tea like this is to warm the gaiwan or whatever teapot you’re using first, place the tea leaves in there, and then just suck in the aroma. You’ll be amazed at how much you can smell.

This is quite a green ti kuan yin, suggesting a shorter than normal oxidation process. It steeps into a light-coloured brew of green and gold, still bearing a remarkable sweet aroma, which now has fruitier notes (strawberries and sweet green grapes came to mind). The flavour profile isn’t nearly as sweet. Instead, it has a nutty sharpness (it’s quite drying on the tongue), with a hint of something vegetal, like a juicy steamed zucchini.

With the second and third infusions, I find that the sweetness of the aroma recedes, as the nutty character develops. I also notice a slight tartiness reminding me of rhubarb.

In the end, I find that this tea gives about five good infusions before it starts thinning out. I’ll be very interested to see how that compares with the other ti kuan yins I’m tasting this week. Stay posted for tomorrow’s edition!

Oh and by the way… Serenity Teahouse has a website here, but I’m not sure whether they ship beyond Australia. If you live around Melbourne though, I definitely recommend stopping in at their shop in Box Hill or on Russel Street in the CBD.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Ti Kuan Yin from Serenity Teahouse | No comment |
Post categories: Oolong tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Serenity Teahouse, ti kuan yin

It’s going to be a week of ti kuan yin here on Tea Finely Brewed. Over the past few months I’ve accumulated a nice little collection of ti kuan yin teas from different merchants, so I thought it would be interesting to review them all in the same week.

At a glance, here’s what I’ll be reviewing:

• A Taiwanese ti kuan yin from Serenity Teahouse
• Tea Trekker’s clear and fragrant-style ti kuan yin from Fujian Province, China
• Orange Tea Co.’s ti kuan yin, pictured above
• Chicago Tea Room’s Competition Grade ti kuan yin

If you hate ti kuan yin, check back next week:)

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | A Week of Ti Kuan Yin | 3 comments |
Post categories: Oolong tea
Post tags: Chicago Tea Garden, Orange Tea Co, Serenity Teahouse, Tea Trekker, ti kuan yin

My fellow tea blogger, Tony Gebely of World of Tea is starting Chicago Tea Garden, an online tea store that’s just days away from launching. He sent me samples of two of his teas a few weeks ago, one of which is this Golden Bi Luo, a rare black tea from Yunnan Province, China.

Golden Bi Luo is made in the style of Bi Luo Chun, a green tea that is the specialty of tea makers in Jiangsu Province. Like Bi Luo Chun, Golden Bi Luo is rolled into little balls, but it has a lovely golden tint. This tea scores very highly on the attractiveness scale. It’s beautiful to behold.

The tea infuses into a very subtle little black tea, with a mild nuttiness and sweeter notes, like caramel. Something about it reminds me of a first flush Darjeeling, though I can’t quite place what.

Like many fine black teas, this one can easily be re-steeped for multiple infusions. I’ve been experimenting with preparing it in a gaiwan, with two small spoons of leaves; on the first infusion, I give it about a minute, and then allow about a minute and a half on the second and 3-5 minutes on the third. As with any steeping directions, one piece of advice holds true above all others: experiment.

As I said, Chicago Tea Garden hasn’t opened its doors yet, but if you’re based in the area, be sure to get on their mailing list. When it’s available, the Golden Bi Luo will be sold at $12.99 per 50 grams.

Update: Chicago Tea Garden has now launched! You can order Golden Bi Luo here.

Browse more tea from Yunnan Province in the Tea Finely Brewed marketplace.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Golden Bi Luo from Chicago Tea Garden | No comment |
Post categories: Black tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: bi luo chun, Chicago Tea Garden, golden bi luo, Yunnan

Just a few weeks after I received the Travel Buddy tea mug for Sinterklaas, the folks at Copco sent me the latest addition to their Total Tea range: a stainless steel tea thermal mug.

There are a few things I really like about the Copco thermal tumbler, but there is one definite standout feature: the twist-to-stop steeping feature, a device that allows you to control how long your tea steeps for. It’s simple, intuitive and shows that Copco understand tea drinkers’ needs.

Unlike the Travel Buddy, the Copco thermal mug stays cool to touch, even if you have boiling hot tea in there. That’s a good thing, though I must admit I burned my tongue the first time I used it — in a way, the fact that the Travel Buddy is so hot to touch acts as a warning to be careful when you drink from it. With the Copco thermal, the walls are made with plastic on the inside and stainless steel on the out, giving it a sturdy feel. A silicone grip around the center of the thermal makes it easy to hold onto.

My main complaint about the Copco thermal mug is how small its infuser actually is. It’s roughly half the size of the Travel Buddy’s infuser, which I already found to be quite small. As with the Travel Buddy, the small size means that you’re limited in which kinds of teas work well in it — I tend to stick with small-leaf green teas and black teas.

At $14.99, the Copco thermal is surprisingly cheap (considering how much some other travel mugs cost). Click here to buy it on Amazon.com.

For an overview of some other cups for drinking tea on the go, see my guide to travel tea mugs.

I have also added Copco’s teaware to the Tea Finely Brewed marketplace — they have some interesting stuff!

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Copco 16-Ounce Stainless Steel Thermal Mug | No comment |
Post categories: Tea cups and teapots, Tea reviews
Post tags: 16-ounce travel mug, Copco, stainless steel thermal mug, travel mugs, Travel Tea Mug

My Father’s Day mug.

Do you like my mug? It was a Father’s Day present — my first ever — from Benedict.

Of course, Father’s Day was way back in September, so why the recursion into the past? Truth be told, my camera has a flat battery, so I don’t have any photos of today’s tea. Instead, you’ll have to make do with some choice pictures of the almighty mug I drank it from.

Today’s tea is Keemun Panda #1 from Orange Tea Co., who sent this to me as a free sample. Further disclosure: Orange Tea Co. have advertised on Tea Finely Brewed in the past.

This is one of those teas you start the day with, when what you’re after is a nice kick of caffeine and a tea with a bit of verve. The perfect tea to have in a big, hulking mug like my Father’s Day mug.

It’s a balanced, well-rounded tea. The flipside of that is that it doesn’t have anything that really jumps out at you; there are no surprising or unexpected flavours here. It’s just pure black tea, with that smoky quality that you would expect from a keemun, and some nice notes of honey as the tea cools.

The dry leaf, which consists of needle-thin, mostly broken leaves, suggests to me that this is a lower grade keemun. It’s on par with the keemun from Narien Teas that I reviewed in this post, though the Teas Etc keemun I reviewed in that post still trumps them both.

Keemun Panda #1 is available from Orange Tea Co. for $10.95 CA for 50 grams.

Browse more keemun tea in the Tea Finely Brewed marketplace.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Keemun Panda #1 from Orange Tea Co. | No comment |
Post categories: Black tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: keemun, Orange Tea Co