How to prepare your brew? : eBay Guides

In order to bring out and enjoy the best of tea, one should adjust the brewing approach according to tea. Because different teas mean they also differ in the processing of tea leaves, the species, and the fermentation degree, they require different attention on the brew. Here we offer a few guidelines for your reference, hoping that, together, we can all find our cup of tea to enjoy.

■ Do not use re-boiled water: It has become common sense among tea lovers not to make tea from re-boiled or over-boiled water. The reason being, the longer/more boiled the water is, the less CO2 there is in the water. Many tea drinkers assimilate this to an open bottle of soda without gas. Water as such naturally also has hindering effect on the tea. The best way is always to simply boil as much as you need and use only freshly boiled water for your tea.

To bring the best out of your tea, it's worth paying attention to adjusting the temperature of water according to tea.
Here are some general brewing hints:

*category         /    *teas                                  /  *fermentation    / *suitable brewing temperature
unfermented   /   green tea, white tea, sencha    /   0%-5%          /  70℃
semi-fermented /   Dong-Ding Oolong             /   30%               /  85℃
                          Tie-Guan-Yin                      /   40%                /  95℃
      
fully-fermented  /  black tea, Lapsang Souchong, etc / 90-100%   /  90-100℃

And a few other things:
 
■  Avoid boiling water for tea with tender leaves, such as Dragon Well  (Long-Ging) or Muchake White Tea. For the tea leaves may be ‘over-cooked’ and therefore lessens the tea’s aroma and freshness. With this kind of tea, water of 70℃ is sufficient.
 
■ No matter what kind of tea, do not leave the brew for more than 5 minutes. A brew of 3 to 5 minutes time is enough for most of the tea. Especially with boiling water, the longer (over 5 minutes) the brew is, the more tea tannin would be released and therefore the bitterer and more astringent the taste would become.
 
■ Of course, one should also feel free to be casual about preparing one’s brew by simply throwing some tea leaves direct into a mug instead of using a teapot. This way is perfectly fine, too. Just remember the same: do not leave the tea leaves in hot water for too long as this would affect the taste of your tea. Using a teapot in Chinese tea drinking doesn’t suggest it has to be ritual then. Although it does also have a practical purpose of helping one control better the brewing time, thus preventing unnecessary bitterness from being squeezed out by hot water and allowing the tea to present its utmost quality to you. 

Enjoy your cup of tea! :)

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