A Tea Addict's Journal

The result

May 31, 2008 · 6 Comments

The experiment, I must say, was not conclusive. Of course, that’s probably predictable right from the get go — almost no tea experiment is conclusive. However…. having tried pouring my water quite hard and fast today, I must say that it seems as though the tea came out a little more sour, and a little more bitter, without as much aroma…

Could it be that different?

Well, I think there are a few things that a high, slow pour will do, some of which have been mentioned by comments in yesterday’s post. The first is, of course, temperature — a higher pour means the water is ever so slightly colder. Also, the water is in touch with tea a little longer — of course you can time yourself so that your fast pour stays in the pot just as long, but the combination of slightly lower temperatures and longer time… might be interesting.

There’s something else too. If you pour harder, it distrubs the leaves and potentially change the way the tea brews. When I prepare a pot for tea, I always shake the pot a little so that it settles down — the leaves will be more tightly packed. When I do the slow pour, the leaves move very, very little. If you move the leaves around, it changes the tea — I think anybody knows that. So, the movement might also have something to do with it.

Of course, all this might be placebo and I’m just kidding myself. Blind test might be better, but that’s quite hard to achieve….

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6 responses so far ↓

  • tenuki_igo // May 31, 2008 at 8:30 pm | Reply

    glad to see you blogging more lately MarshalN.

  • MarshalN // May 31, 2008 at 11:36 pm | Reply

    Obviously too high on tea, usually, to realize I’m talking to myself πŸ™‚

  • Phyllo // May 31, 2008 at 11:47 pm | Reply

    “…to realize I’m talking to myself :)”

    Not really.  We are here…listening to you talking to yourself.  πŸ™‚

  • mama_jess // June 1, 2008 at 12:00 am | Reply

    I usually find that if I disturb the leaves too much while brewing, I get more tannic bitterness in the final product. I brew in a Chatsford with a filter, and I find that the tea that comes from the filter after decanting is way more bitter than the tea in the pot…

  • Anonymous // June 1, 2008 at 10:18 pm | Reply

     
    Pouring water onto the tea should always be done to maintain harmony with the tea that is being brewed. Green teas and Oolongs emit cool energies so a high(er) long(er) pour is in harmony with these teas. A high long pour allows for the water to cool as it travels through the air and creates bubbles which allow for the constitutes of air into the water. A young Puerh has both cool and warm energies so it would make sense that a higher, longer pour is appropriate. As Puerh ages it takes on warming energies so a shorter, faster pour is best to maintain harmony.

    Peace

  • Anonymous // June 3, 2008 at 2:21 am | Reply

    sometimes i like to pour from high up – as i’m thinking about how the water stream SMASHES into the leaf …maybe bruising it a little …cracking the leaf,
    that’s part of my ‘experimenting’ with the tea – to see where it can go…
    but rarely i find it tastes different (maybe on fresh greens/green oolongs)
    also it does splash πŸ˜› so…. its not a frequent happening

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