It’s funny sometimes when you drink a cup of half cold tea, and notice something that’s entirely different from the cup of hot tea you had a few minutes ago. Sure, one infusion apart, but I think in such cases, much can be chalked up to the temperature of the tea (and what that means for your tongue) rather than the actual tea changing.
I was drinking my biyuzhu today, and one cup, when drunk almost cold, tasted somewhere between a hongcha and an odd green tea. It’s a strange combination of tastes, and certainly not something that I would find if I had drank that cup hot.
I know people who, when drinking old puerh, will drink half a cup hot, and then let the other half cool down a bit and drink that. YP, among others, does that sometimes. It enhances certain aspect of the tea and can actually make you more aware of the aromatics of a certain tea. When it’s too hot, many such things go unnoticed. It’s the same thing as when one drinks a cup of iced tea (no dilution — only fridge treatment) versus a cup of the hot thing at the same strength, only this way it’s a little more subtle.
Yes, throw in yet one more variable to the never ending series of things you have to look out for when you brew tea.
1 response so far ↓
Wesli // May 9, 2008 at 12:06 pm |
Temperature is definitely a huge variable. I do almost all my tastings at whatever temperature it is when I can comfortably hold the cup. If it’s too hot to hold, It’s too hot to drink.
The flavor that lends itself to the temperature change most is bitterness. If I get a tea that bitters up quicker than most, and can taste that in the “hot” phase, I make sure to gulp it down. Because the bitterness only becomes more pronounced as the temperature cools.