Gathering around a Teapot, having heartfelt conversations, and listening to the sound of boiling water can be an extremely cozy experience. However, many people still have misconceptions about cooking tea. Let's take a look at some things to avoid so that your Tea drinking doesn't turn into an embarrassing situation.
01
Cooking Tea Directly in an Iron Teapot
Generally, iron Teapots have pores and are “breathable.”
When cooking tea leaves, iron reacts with tannic acid in the tea, forming ferric tannate, which is also a component of blue-black ink. As a result, the tea broth turns bluish-black.
While not toxic, it can irritate the stomach lining, causing nausea, vomiting, and digestive issues.
Suggestion: Iron teapots are suitable for boiling water, but for cooking tea leaves, clay or glass teapots are recommended for better taste.
02
Any Type of Tea Can Be Cooked
There are generally two types of tea suitable for cooking. The first is heavily fermented teas like ripe Pu'er, Liu Bao tea, old tea heads, old tea leaves, aged white tea, and aged Tieguanyin.
The second type is aged teas, such as aged white tea, aged Pu'er, aged Wuyi rock tea, and aged Tieguanyin.
On the other hand, teas like green tea, which should neither be steeped for long nor subjected to high temperatures, are not suitable for cooking. Their characteristics often include clear broth and green leaves with strong astringency.
High water temperatures can easily destroy Vitamin C in the tea and cause caffeine to leach out, turning the tea broth yellow and making it taste bitter.
Especially for high-grade green teas, where the buds and leaves are delicate, water that is too hot should not be used; instead, water temperature should be controlled around 80°C to 90°C.
Suggestion: There are two methods for cooking tea: direct cooking and cooking after initial brewing.
Teas with lighter flavors, such as aged white tea and aged Tieguanyin, are suitable for direct cooking in the teapot. For teas with stronger flavors like Pu'er, it is recommended to brew them five to six times before cooking, so the tea broth isn't overly concentrated.
03
Tea Leaves Can Be Repeatedly Cooked
The time for cooking tea shouldn't exceed 3 to 5 minutes.
This is because no more beneficial components will be produced by the tea leaves after they've been in the pot for a certain amount of time, and the quantity may actually decrease.
Therefore, we suggest reducing the amount of tea leaves to 2/3 of what you would normally use for brewing, and then adding 2/3 water to the cooking vessel.
Heat the water until it starts to bubble slightly but hasn't yet boiled, then add the prepared tea leaves to the cooking vessel. Once it boils, the tea is ready to drink.
In this way, you can cook the tea again after drinking 2/3 of the water, rather than repeatedly boiling it.
The number of times a particular tea can be cooked really depends on the specific tea.
Suggestion: Many experienced tea drinkers prefer to brew their tea first and then cook it.
A good tea can release its internal substances evenly through successive brews.
At the end, you can cook a pot of tea, which allows the full content of the tea to be completely expressed in different forms.
Source: Shenzhou Tea Melody. Information is shared for educational purposes. If there are copyright issues, please contact us for removal.