Methods for preparing dough using tea leaves. Classic tea production technology

Before fresh tea leaves are processed, they go through a pre-sorting stage, during which dirty, diseased, etc. are discarded. tea leaves.
Sometimes, at the same stage, the highest quality flushes for elite teas are selected.
This sorting is carried out only manually.

Withering

The main purpose of the withering stage is to dehydrate the tea leaves.
During the withering process, the sheet loses up to 55% of its moisture.
Tea leaves are usually withered in the shade, in a well-ventilated area (or under canopies), but some varieties are also withered in the sun.

Withering of tea can be natural, and then it lasts from 10 to 24 hours, or artificial, and then in special dryers, the withering time is reduced by 3-5 times compared to the standard one.
The wilting time largely depends on the environmental conditions (air humidity, temperature, wind, etc.) and on the variety that we want to obtain.

In addition to simple dehydration, at the withering stage, another very important thing happens: cellular turgor (pressure) decreases, the leaves become more elastic and less brittle.
In addition, the juice of tea leaves becomes more viscous and thick.

All these processes guarantee further high-quality rolling and fermentation.
The quality of withering is usually determined by the degree of weight loss of the feedstock, but standards vary in different regions.
For example, in northern India, 40% is considered good weight loss during withering, and in southern India and Ceylon - 50%.

For withering, tea is usually laid out in a thin layer (up to 12 cm) in baskets, or on special pallets, which can be multi-story, such as whatnots.
In modern withering technologies, synthetic nets are used to lay out tea, which are set in motion (the tea is shaken for more uniform withering), in addition, artificial air injection is used desired temperature and humidity, etc.

To wilt, freshly picked leaves are scattered in a thin layer on special lattice racks in a warm, ventilated room and left in this position for 8-10 hours until they become soft (wither). Throughout the drying process, the leaves are turned over by hand, thereby partially disrupting the cell structure of the tea leaves, allowing air to penetrate inside, and creating favorable conditions for the fermentation process.

Treatment

The processing of tea depends on what they want to achieve. The best varieties are handcrafted by skilled tea farmers, whose skills are honed and passed down from generation to generation. Immediately after the tea leaves are picked, they undergo a process of oxidation and change color from green to brown. The degree of oxidation, or, as it is correctly called, withering, depends on what kind of tea we ultimately want to get. In each method, the tea master’s talent lies in releasing the required amount of catechins and flavonoids, which, due to their antioxidant properties, determine the taste characteristics of the future tea.

After withering, the tea leaves are shaken in bamboo baskets to lightly press the edges. Then they are shaken alternately and laid out to dry until the surface of the sheet turns slightly yellow and the damaged edges become slightly rusty (as a result of reaction with oxygen).

Easy grinding

CTC (Crush Tear Curt Fully Fermented)

During the manufacturing process, CTC class tea goes through three stages of machine processing, which are reflected in the name Cuts Tears Curls, which translates as “press, grind, curl.”
The rolling of tea by machines, labeled "CTC", clearly illustrates the process of making teas from low quality leaves, usually machine processed.

Most tea connoisseurs are disdainful of CTC teas, as this process is fundamentally the opposite of the careful handling of high-quality tea during its preparation.
But CTC has an important role in tea production: since it is a completely mechanized process, which allows it to be produced very quickly a large number of tea, and also allows you to process raw materials that were previously thrown away.

In addition, CTC technology has a certain advantage, allowing the production of the strongest teas with a high caffeine content even from leaves of mediocre quality.
The machines quickly press wilted tea leaves, squeezing out most of their juice; then they greatly crush (cut) the leaves and, at the final stage, tightly roll them into granular balls that closely resemble instant coffee in appearance.
After this, the tea granules are dried in ovens or dehydrated (dehydrated) in any other way.

Fermentation

The term "fermentation" was first used in 1901 as a name for the oxidation process initiated by tea enzymes.
The fermentation process accounts for the bulk of the chemical transformations that occur during the production of tea.

The biochemistry of fermentation is quite complex, but in short, it can be described as the oxidation of a mixture of tea polyphenols and tea enzymes that activate the process.
The result of this process is the formation of theaflavins and thearubigins (which give black tea its characteristic red-brown color).

For direct fermentation, the tea leaves are transferred to large, cool, damp, dark rooms where they are laid out on a flat surface in layers approximately four inches (10 cm) thick.
The surface should not react chemically with tea phenols, and aluminum sheets or specially treated wood are usually used for this.

The ideal combination of conditions for high-quality fermentation is to combine the lowest possible fermentation temperature (about 15°C) with the highest possible air humidity (about 90%).
This is not as simple as it seems, because... in the places where tea grows, such a low temperature - 15°C - practically never happens!

Fermentation can last from 45 minutes to (3-5) hours.
This depends on a combination of many conditions: the initial temperature of the tea leaf after rolling, the degree of its humidity after withering, air humidity and ventilation characteristics of the fermentation room, etc.
During the fermentation process, the color of the leaves darkens significantly (turns brown), and from the fermentation and drying of the “squeezed” tea juice, the characteristic aromas of black tea appear - ranging from floral to fruity, nutty and spicy.

It is important to remember here that the fermentation process must be stopped precisely at the moment when the aroma of the tea reaches its optimal condition.
To stop fermentation, we proceed to high-temperature drying.

Partial fermentation

Partial fermentation is achieved by quickly drying the green leaves immediately after harvest or by slowly withering them at low temperatures. To stop the oxidation process, Oolong and Black tea leaves are crushed and rolled to achieve semi-fermentation or complete oxidation. Light teas are considered the most delicate and light, because they have undergone partial fermentation, which is otherwise called semi-fermentation.

Complete fermentation

Complete fermentation is achieved by keeping the tea at the lowest possible temperature (about 15 ºС) and fermentation with the highest air humidity (about 90%) for a long time. This is not as simple as it seems, because... in those places where tea grows, such a low temperature (15 ºС) practically never happens! Fermentation can last from 45 minutes to several (3-5) hours. This depends on a combination of many conditions: the initial temperature of the tea leaf after rolling, the degree of its humidity after withering, air humidity and ventilation characteristics of the fermentation room, etc.

Let us also add that along with classical fermentation, when tea is aged until an expert comes and says “Enough!”, there is also conveyor fermentation. With conveyor fermentation, the time is standardized - the tea moves very slowly along the conveyor towards the dryer.

During the fermentation process, the color of the leaves darkens significantly (turns brown), and from the fermentation and drying of the “squeezed” tea juice, the characteristic aromas of black tea appear - ranging from floral to fruity, nutty and spicy. It is important to remember here that the fermentation process must be stopped precisely at the moment when the aroma of the tea reaches its optimal condition.

To stop fermentation, they switch to high-temperature drying.

Consolidation

An important stage in tea production is drying. It is necessary to interrupt the biochemical processes occurring during fermentation in time and consolidate the achieved desired properties of tea.

Steaming

Steaming is used primarily in white tea production to stop the fermentation process. Usually this kind of “calcination” lasts about 1 minute.

Pan

Panning is typically used to inhibit fermentation. This process is commonly used to make oolongs. In this case, preliminary drying is carried out at a temperature of 250-300 degrees for 15 minutes. The panning process can be repeated, if necessary, several times, alternating it with the twisting process.

Baking

Roasting (or high temperature drying) is used to stop fermentation. This is the only way to prevent tea from molding and rotting under the influence of its own juice.

The roasting process is very delicate, since under-dried tea quickly deteriorates, and over-dried tea becomes charred and acquires an unpleasant burnt taste. The ideal drying result is dry tea raw materials that contain no more than 2-5 percent water.

Traditionally, in ancient times, tea was roasted on large baking sheets, grates or frying pans over an open fire. Since the end of the 19th century, closed ovens with air blowing have been widely used. The standard firing temperature is about 90 degrees Celsius, but in modern equipment the firing temperature can reach several hundred degrees. In this case, the firing time is reduced to 15-20 minutes.

An important condition for proper tea production is also the rapid cooling of the tea raw materials immediately after removal from the oven (like any organic substance, tea can begin to smolder and “burn out” even after removal from the oven). So, the leaves are dried in large ovens in a stream of hot air under the influence of high temperatures. The tea juice released during rolling and the aromatic ingredients it contains essential oils firmly “stick” to the surface of the leaves and retain their properties for quite a long time, being extracted only under the influence of boiling water at the time of brewing.

Yellowing

Yellowing is used mainly in the process of producing yellow tea, the technological chain of which includes a simmering stage, during which the tea leaves gradually turn yellow under the influence of moisture and heat.

Steaming

The tea leaves are fixed by steaming at a temperature of 95-100 ºС for 5-10 minutes. The steaming method involves placing a basket with a hole in the bottom filled with leaves for half a minute at some distance from the surface of boiling water. This operation is carried out very carefully, since insufficient steaming can affect the aroma and other properties of the tea.

Shaping

Shaping the tea leaves should occur immediately after roasting. It is important to remember that the temperature should not drop at all, i.e. not a single second should be lost. This often requires the interaction of more than one worker. There are 2 ways to roll tea leaves: machine and hand. When using a machine, twisting is done in special devices - rollers. Curling technology varies significantly depending on the quality of the raw material and pre-processing. At the same time, the quality of the tea itself is significantly influenced by the degree and method of rolling. A lightly rolled tea leaf brews rather weakly, while a strongly twisted leaf produces a strong infusion. Each manufacturer independently determines the number of twisting stages. One stage takes on average 40 to 45 minutes. Typically the entire shaping process lasts about 2 hours.

For the proper development of oxidative processes accompanying twisting, a special temperature (22-26 degrees) and humidity (96-98%) regime is established in the rolling shops, and ideal cleanliness is maintained. If the production uses the river method of shaping, the tea leaves are promptly placed on wicker bamboo trays with edges. To give the “rou nian” shape, the leaves are rolled out onto a tray and massaged, as it were.

Shaping the tea leaves is necessary for several reasons. Firstly, it helps the leaves dry in a curled form, which is both beautiful and saves space for packaging. Secondly, friction of the sheet against an uneven woven bamboo surface disrupts its cellular structure.

Together, the twisted shape and damaged structure will result in the slow release of essential oils, revealing the flavor and aroma when brewing tea. The taste, depth and aroma of tea, all this should gradually unfold in the same way as tea leaves unfold in a teapot. Crushing changes the oxidation process of tea during the remaining stages of production, as well as when the tea is ready.

The purpose of rolling is to squeeze out as much tea juice as possible from the tea leaves.
In addition, it has been established that when twisting, tea polyphenols are mixed with tea enzymes, which is a prerequisite for normal fermentation.

Rolling can be done by hand, and such tea is called orthodox (labeled “orthodox tea”), or by machine.
Tea rolled by machines is labeled as “CTC” (cuts, tears, curls), which is translated as “press, grind, twist” and clearly illustrates the process of preparing teas from low-quality leaves, usually machine-processed.

Hand twisting, perhaps an even more labor-intensive process than manually picking tea.
The procedure is as follows: take a “cake” of withered leaves, about a centimeter thick, into your hands, roll it into a “sausage”, and begin “rolling” it.
The most suitable analogy here is rolling out dough, for example, for dumplings.
Rolling is rarely done by weight, more often along the walls of vats/baskets, or on special tables or boards that resemble wavy washboards.
Twisting (also known as rolling) should continue until the leaves turn from green to dark green, i.e., they become wet and saturated with their own juice.
This task is quite difficult.

Tea obtained by light twisting gives a weak infusion when brewed, while tea from strongly twisted raw materials has a rich, strong flavor.

Rolling into balls

The rolled tea is rolled into a small ball by hand, after which it becomes like a pearl. The more tightly the ball is twisted, the more extractive it is.

Molding / Pressing

According to the form of pressing, teas can be tiled, brick and tablet. Tea in the form of tiles should have a smooth surface without cracks or broken edges and corners, and sufficient fracture strength. Its humidity should not exceed 9%. Depending on the variety, the caffeine content must be at least 2.2% in the highest grade, and at least 1.8% in the 3rd grade. Accordingly, the tannin content must be at least 9.1 and 8%. Thanks to pressing, which limits the free access of air to the contents of the tiles, pressed tea retains its original properties longer during storage and is convenient for transportation.

Black slab tea is produced only in Russia and China.

For the production of brick tea, the raw materials are coarsened and old leaves and shoots collected in late autumn or pruned in spring. The production technology includes two stages: preparation of a semi-finished product - laocha (translated from Chinese " old tea") and pressing brick tea from it. Classic technology Laocha production is characterized by an extremely long production cycle (15-20 days). Pre-steamed laocha is pressed using hydraulic presses under a pressure of 8 MPa. At the bottom of the mold, which holds 2 kg of laocha, first, steamed facing material is placed - 3rd grade tea leaf (200 g), then the mold is filled with internal material containing at least 70% of the leaf and no more than 30% of green and woody shoots (total 1600 d), and the facing material (200 g) is placed on top of it again.

The tea pressed into bricks cools in molds for an hour, and then it is dried at a temperature of 34-36°C and a relative humidity of 50-55% for 15-20 days to a humidity of 11-12%. Finished bricks have a standard size of 35.75x16.15x3.6 cm and weigh about 2 kg. Each brick must have a clear imprint of a trademark or production mark. When released from tea pressing factories, bricks are wrapped in paper and placed in standard boxes of 20 pieces. in each. Tablet tea is a type of slab pressed tea. Its peculiarity is the low weight of tablets (3-5 g) and the high quality of raw materials - tea crumbs from the highest grades of tea, ground into fine powder. Sometimes this powder is not pressed, but placed in small bags made of non-soaking porous paper for one or two brews.

Mostly black tea is tableted. They also produce tablets with fillers - milk, sugar, lemon or food additives.

Drying the tea leaves at high temperature is the only way to stop the fermentation process.
If this is not done, the tea will simply mold and rot.

This process is delicate, because if the tea is not completely dried, it will quickly deteriorate in packs; if it is overdried, it will simply char and acquire a disgusting burnt taste.
The ideal drying result is dry tea raw materials that contain no more than 2-5% water.

Traditionally, in ancient times, tea was dried on large baking sheets, grates or frying pans over an open fire, as if “fried.”
Since the end of the 19th century, closed ovens with forced air have been widely used.
The standard drying temperature is about 900°C, but in modern equipment the drying temperature can reach several hundred degrees.
IN in this case Drying time is reduced to 15-20 minutes.

An important condition for proper tea production is also the rapid cooling of tea raw materials removed from the oven.
The leaves are dried in large ovens in a stream of hot air at high temperatures.
The tea juice released during rolling and the aromatic essential oils contained in it firmly “stick” to the surface of the leaves and retain their properties for quite a long time, being extracted only under the influence of boiling water at the time of brewing.

Firing

Heat treatment

The heat treatment process is different, which brings a pleasant variety to the taste of tea. There are three different types teas depending on the method of thermal influence on the freshly picked leaf:

• Roasted teas. The most famous roasted teas are Long Jing and Dong Ting Bi Lo Chun.
• Teas that are dried in an oven or in a special device like an oven. Of these, the most famous are Huang Shan Mao Feng and Tai Ping Hou Kui.
• Steamed tea that is steamed and then rolled. Teas produced using this technology are distinguished by a delicate aroma with floral and fruity notes and a mild taste (Spindle Jade, Spiral Jade, Xue Hua).

Natural aging

The method of natural aging is that the prepared tea leaves are collected in a heap and left for a long time (on average up to 10 years) in ventilated areas with high humidity and stable temperature conditions. Over time, tea juice begins to be released, and the leaves, under the influence of moisture and produced substances, undergo natural fermentation.

Wet styling

Wet stacking (used mainly for Pu-Er) means storing tea in a “wet warehouse” for a long time. This method also achieves the effect of natural aging. And the tea acquires a specific dampish taste.

Mixing with flowers and fruits

Mixing tea with various herbs, flowers and fruits is carried out in a special mixing (blending) drum. According to strict recipes, tea is prepared here that meets the standards of a particular variety.

Cooling

After the tea has been dried and cooled, it is sorted, labeled and packaged.
Sorting of ordinary teas is usually carried out by machines (based on the principle of conventional sifting), while quality teas can be sorted manually.
After sorting, the tea is assessed by tea testers and labeled.

It should be noted that this is only a preliminary estimate of the size of the finished tea, however, it does not take into account its taste at all.

In China, the birthplace of tea and tea traditions, the craft of producing this drink has been honed for more than a thousand years. Today, hundreds of varieties of tea are produced in this and other countries: from white to black, which differ in taste, aromatic and medicinal properties and, of course, manufacturing technology.

Classic tea production technology

In the process of making any type and variety of tea, there are common stages that make up classical technology.

Tea production is a complex process, including mechanical and biochemical processing, transforming regular sheet camellias into valuable and tasty raw materials for preparing a drink of global importance.

Today on the market you can purchase the following, which are divided into tens and hundreds of varieties:

• black;
• white;
• green;
• yellow;
• puerh;
• oolong

Each of them can be flavored, packaged in bags or sold in leaf form. Which one to buy is a matter of taste.

The classical technology for the production of long black tea includes the following steps:

• collecting leaves;
• withering;
• grinding;
• fermentation;
• twisting;
• drying.

The production of other types of tea consists of similar stages with the addition of others or the exclusion of existing ones. Below is more detail about each of the stages.

Collecting leaves

In most regions it is done manually, but there are also special machines that are used in Ceylon. Collection is carried out at the time and period of the year indicated in the technological map. In China, up to 6 harvests of tea leaves can be harvested per year.

Each specific variety requires special raw materials. Thus, only the youngest shoots with buds are suitable for white, yellow and elite green tea.

Finished products from camellia leaves from the spring harvest can be of high quality. For black tea and pu-erh, fully developed, large tea leaves with a coarse structure can be collected. They contain more tonic alkaloids. The collected leaves are immediately sent for sorting.

Sorting

This is done manually. Its goal is to remove low-quality, diseased and damaged leaves from the total mass, as well as to select the highest quality raw materials. This stage is not mechanized in any region.

Withering

May occur in the shade or in the sun. The raw materials are laid out in a thin layer on a flat surface for several hours. The goal of the process is to remove up to 50% of the moisture from the leaves and make them softer. It will take about 15-20 hours for the raw materials to wilt naturally.

Withering in the sun

To speed up this process, some factories use drying equipment, which reduces the time of the technological stage to 2-6 hours. Properly withered leaves lose turgor, become tender, soft and are easier to curl in the future.

Treatment

This step involves chopping or rolling the dried tea leaves. It can be done by machine or manually, which is typical for elite varieties of products. At this stage, in addition to giving the leaf shape, it is prepared for the next process - oxidation, or fermentation. When rolled or crushed, the leaf releases juice rich in plant enzymes. They will be responsible for the quality of fermentation in the future.

Fermentation

This is a complex biochemical process involving dozens of reactions. In a simplified form, it is the transformation of polyphenols contained in the leaf into compounds of varying complexity under the influence of natural enzymes also found in the leaf.

Natural fermentation

It can be complete or partial, but for pu-erh it lasts tens of years and is an almost endless process. Active oxidation requires a certain temperature and humidity level. On average it is +15°C and air humidity is 80% or higher. In such conditions, twisted raw materials can be kept from 45 minutes to 20 hours. During this time, the leaf darkens and acquires a certain aroma from fruity to spicy. The intensity of this aroma is a signal to stop oxidation.

Drying

Fermentation is stopped by drying at high temperature in an oven. Under the influence of high temperature, the action of the enzymes stops, and the resulting result is fixed. The output is raw material ready for packaging and preparing the drink.

The production of different types of tea has its own boundaries and rules. Thus, green tea undergoes only an initial degree of fermentation, and therefore retains the natural color of the leaf and a light herbal aroma. just wither, steam and dry. White is fired at high temperature, then rolled and dried.

In China, each province has its own small deviations from classical technologies. This may take into account the time of day when collecting leaves, the material of the baskets in which the leaves are collected, the period of exposure to the sun, the use of special wood for steaming, and so on. That is why in the most modest tea shop in China you can count hundreds of types of this product. There is no such diversity anywhere else in the world.

Herbal teas

At home, you can prepare delicious, healthy and aromatic tea from herbs, flowers and leaves collected in the garden, forest or meadow. Production technology has been used in Rus' since ancient times. Not far from St. Petersburg, in the village of Koporye, there was even a factory for the production of fireweed tea, which was supplied abroad in huge quantities.

Without special equipment, but knowing the stages of the technological process, you can make homemade tea from the following raw materials:

• apple, cherry, currant leaves;
• fireweed leaves (Ivan-tea);
• medicinal plants.

Later, you can add fragrant dried flowers and crushed fruits, for example, rose hips, apples, citrus zest, to the finished tea. Koporye tea has long been made this way. First, whole fireweed leaves and flowers were collected. They were laid out on a flat surface in a ventilated room for 7-10 hours so that they would wilt and lose turgor.

Next, they were crushed and twisted by hand to squeeze out the juice and give shape. Usually twisted into flagella. After this, the raw materials were placed in several layers in a deep container, preferably aluminum or wood, covered with a damp cloth on top and sent to a warm room for fermentation.

As soon as the leaf began to emit a bright floral and fruity aroma, it was placed in an oven and dried, followed by packaging. This is exactly how the famous Russian tea is made today in mini-factories and in households for personal use. Why is he so popular? Because it is rich in vitamins, minerals and does not contain caffeine. This drink, cold or hot, has a lot of beneficial properties and is not contraindicated for people with hypertension, insomnia, heart and stomach diseases.

Pu-erh production

It stands apart from other types of products. For its production, mature large tea leaves are used, which contain a lot of catechins, minerals, resins, tannins and, of course, maximum amount theine alkaloid, famous for its tonic and stimulating effect on the human body.

The manufacturing process involves the following steps:

• collection;
• withering;
• steaming;
• twisting;
• pressing;
• drying;
• storage for natural fermentation.

The longer pressed pu-erh is stored, the more complex compounds are formed in it, the deeper its color and aroma, and the more expensive it is.

To prepare such tea, break off a small piece from the compressed form, pour it over hot water and only after that do they begin the actual brewing. Pu-erh is considered the most tonic tea of ​​all known types.

No matter how the tea is produced, it has billions of fans around the world. Its taste and aroma create a picture of an ideal morning for both residents of Europe and Asia. This is the most popular and favorite drink, which has a lot of useful properties. And it is very important that even at home you can also make tasty and healthy food from grass growing in a meadow. tea drink.

11/10/2011

Tea making technology.

The taste, aroma and many healing properties of tea depend on the correct preparation. True, every nation familiar with tea uses its own brewing method.

Russians traditionally brew tea in the following way.

Rinse the clean teapot with boiling water and dry slightly. Put tea in it at the rate of one teaspoon per glass, pour boiling water, cover with a napkin and put on the samovar for about 5 minutes. You can put a piece of sugar in the teapot. This promotes the unfolding of the cups and the release of their extractive substances.

When the tea is steeped, it is poured into a glass and diluted with boiling water from the samovar.

In general, tea should not be brewed with boiling water. You need to let the water boil and, as soon as it stops boiling, pour it over the tea. It is for this reason that the most delicious tea is obtained from water boiled in a samovar, where it cannot boil over.

Properly brewed tea forms foam on the surface, which should never be removed.

Tea is whitened, as we have already said, with raw cream and raw milk. Unbleached tea is served with lemon, fruit jam and other sweets.

Elena Molokhovets in her book “A Gift for Young Housewives, or a Means for Reducing Household Expenses” offers a more economical way of brewing tea. Here is what she writes: “Whoever has a large family, or many guests, or a meeting of students, and the like,

you need to do this: instead of a kettle, have a small, clean samovar, boil it, covering it with a lid. And as soon as the water stops boiling, then lower the samovar halfway, tea tied in a clean muslin, and a long thin ribbon attached to it, throw it over the samovar so that it is easy to remove this muslin.

Generally, a teaspoon is taken for every 4 people. After 1/4 hour, when the tea has steeped, pour it into glasses, adding clean boiled water from another large samovar. This way, the tea will be equally strong for everyone and less of it will go in than if you pour it into cups several times.

It seems that today this method of preparing tea can be adopted, especially since good tea trade does not spoil us.

Recently, the method of brewing tea in a mug or glass from which it is drunk has become quite widespread.

For obvious reasons, this method is most often used by knowledge workers at their workplaces. Well, this method of brewing tea is quite acceptable. Moreover, the tea turns out much stronger and more aromatic. However, you should not put more than 1 teaspoon of tea in a glass and steep it for more than 1-2 minutes.

In general, no matter how the tea was brewed, the main condition was its freshness. No wonder they say in the East: “Fresh tea is like a balm, and tea left overnight is like snake vinegar.”

If today you ask any resident of central Russia, the Russian North, Siberia and the Far East what drink he does not drink most often, the answer will probably be the same - tea. Indeed, tea has become so Russified over the last two and a half centuries that, perhaps, today the majority of the Russian population considers it their national drink.

However, it is not. Originally Russian are forest teas made from various berries and herbs: rose hips, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, stone fruits, linden, cloudberries, St. John's wort and other plants. In taste, color and aroma they are not inferior to traditional premium teas. They do not contain caffeine, but they contain a lot of vitamins, microelements and other substances.

As for tea, which we habitually brew today several times a day, it was brought to Russia only in the 17th century.

In 1638, the Russian boyar Vasily Starkov brought rich gifts to the Mongol Khan from Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. The Khan received the Pals well and, in turn, gave them various precious gifts for the Russian Tsar. Among the famous Mongolian atlases and sable furs lay neat bundles of unknown grass.

What is it? - the Russian boyar asked the khan with offense, pointing with disgust at the unremarkable packages.

“My most expensive gift to the Russian Tsar,” answered the Mongol ruler, smiling.

While visiting the Khan, Starkov tried a drink made from this potion and did not like it terribly.

In an effort to get rid of the useless cargo, the ambassador wanted to throw away every single bag of tea, but remembering the khan’s words about an “expensive gift,” he did not do this. So, among other gifts, tea came to Moscow.

There are different versions about how the Tsar appreciated the Khan’s gift. According to one of them, having tasted an unknown drink, the sovereign wiped his thick beard with a brocade sleeve and said: “More!”

However, according to another version, the king did not like the drink. Otherwise it can be explained this way. The tea trade in Moscow began only 36 years after the events described.

The next time, a new batch of tea was brought from China, and again the royal palace delivered it to Moscow. And in 1679, Russia entered into a trade agreement with China for the supply of tea. Of course, the inhabitants of the eastern regions adjacent to the Mongols and China were familiar with tea long before this treaty.

In the beginning, tea did not have much success among the population of the European part of Russia and was very expensive. Therefore, they drank it only on major holidays and mainly in taverns. The tea was bought mainly by the Moscow nobility, who used the foreign herb mainly as a medicine, since it was noticed that the drink prepared from it “turns us away” during long church services and monitoring in the Duma; it was also believed that tea cleanses the blood .

However, one of the reasons for the slow spread of tea among the general public was rather poor awareness of the methods of preparing the tea drink. There were many jokes and even satirical couplets about this in Russia. One of these songs tells about an unlucky yard man who, according to orders, began to season the brew with pepper, onions and parsley. Having received a beating from the master for his tape, the servant in the field sincerely:

I thought for a long time, I was surprised,

What I couldn’t help but guess,

And then I realized

I forgot to add salt.

But one should not think that only Russians found themselves in such a curious situation. For example, there is a well-known anecdote about the mother of an English sailor, who, having received a pound of tea as a gift from her son, decided to treat her neighbors to an exquisite overseas dish. She boiled all the tea in a saucepan and, draining the bitter dark

brown water in a filthy bucket, put boiled leaves on plates,

seasoning them with vegetable oil.

Over time, Indian tea replaced Chinese tea. Wealthy townspeople preferred good varieties Indian tea and the so-called flower tea, which was made from the buds of the tea bush. Cheaper varieties were long leaf (black).

To save tea, Russian peasants added dried herbs, flowers, and berries to it, which, by the way, were used by the Slavs to prepare fragrant decoctions and infusions. Mint leaves, black currant leaves, raspberries, lingonberries, carrots, lilac leaves, apple leaves, and so on were especially widely used as additives.

Today, such drinks are called tea balms. They are incomparably tastier regular tea, but their main advantage is their exceptional benefits for the body.

Let us present the composition of several similar balms according to recipes proposed by Honored Doctor of the RSFSR, Doctor of Medical Sciences R.I. Khazanova. The numbers in the table indicate the number of tablespoons of 15-6 g. dry grass per 250 grams. black tea or a mixture of black and green.

Having thus prepared the tea balm, mix it thoroughly, pour into glass jar and store in a dry, warm place under a tight lid.

It is especially pleasant to drink balms on winter days, as they warm you well and remind you of summer with their wonderful aroma.

Tea became a truly popular drink only in the 19th century. It was during this period that many public tea establishments were opened in Russia. Huge multi-bucket samovars were constantly boiling in the teahouses.

Tea was served to the table in pairs: a small teapot with tea leaves was placed on a samovar or on a kettle with boiling water. By the way, this method of serving tea is a purely Russian invention; tea is not served this way anywhere else.

As a complement to tea, they usually brought bread: sweet pies, cod cakes, spikelets, and other flour and confectionery products. It was also customary to “whiten” tea with cream or milk.

Merchant families especially loved to have tea. Let us remember the paintings of B.M. Kustodiev with the copper bubbles of the samovars polished to a shine, the shiny faces of merchants and merchants’ women, softened by drinking glasses of tea.

Choice of brew

starts with the choice of brew. How can (and should) choose this very tea leaves?

• Firstly, you can choose a specific TYPE of tea.
• Secondly, you can choose tea from a specific COMPANY.
• Thirdly, you can choose tea for a specific occasion (reason) for DRINKING it.
• Fourthly, you can choose a specific tea based on advice, expert assessments and even tea RATING compiled by various good (smart) people ;-)))
• Fifthly, you can choose tea directly in the store, carefully looking at what is written on the PACKAGING.

I would like to immediately warn our readers that all of the above methods for choosing tea leaves are purely external and therefore unreliable, because It’s best to choose tea (infusion), so to speak, organoleptically - i.e. appearance, taste, smell, etc.

Let's assume that when choosing a brew, you relied on the company and the markings on the box. In principle, this method is quite reliable, but only in cases where we are dealing with a reputable and reliable company that guarantees stable quality of the product. If we are dealing with some kind of fly-by-night company that doesn’t care what to sell - be it tea or potatoes - then there is always a risk of running into unstable quality. I mean, the boxes (and the markings on them) will be the same, but the quality of the tea inside will be very different.

However, even in the case of reputable companies, there is always a risk of running into low-quality tea. The most common reason here is storing tea for too long. To put it bluntly, high-quality tea from reputable companies is not cheap, and therefore sells less well. Therefore, when choosing expensive tea, always pay special attention to the expiration date.

Let's assume that when choosing tea you rely on the advice of authoritative tea experts. But this method, by and large, is no good! For a very simple reason - in different cities (and in large cities - even in different areas of the city) there is different water, different brewing utensils, different brewing times, different brewing technologies, etc. and so on. Therefore, you can rely 100% on the opinions of experts about tea only when you sit next to him and sip tea from his cup;-))) That is why, as Khoja Nasreddin used to say, “halva tastes better than it sounds” . The same can be said about tea - trust (all advice and ratings), but check. In short, we returned to the question of choosing tea leaves based on our own experience, according to our own feelings.

Let's get started!

Choice of brew. We are considering

1) Color. Most black teas have an ideal color of almost black, green teas have a green (green-white) color, and oolong teas have a brown color (for more details, see the TYPES OF TEA section). Any discrepancy is bad. For example, the brown-brown “rusty” color of black tea is an indicator of average or below average quality (usually characteristic of CTC); For black tea, the gray color of dry tea leaves is also unacceptable. Browning of green leaves is generally a defect.

2) Shine. Dry tea leaves of high-quality black tea should have a “spark” - a dim reflection, shimmer. If the tea is dull, this is an indicator of average or lower quality. This shine is especially characteristic of high-quality Darjeelings.

3) Tips. High-grade teas usually have a high percentage of tea buds (tips) and tender, half-bloomed apical leaves. The buds and young leaves are covered with characteristic white (yellow) villi (“white cilia”; bai hoa). The more fibers there are, the higher the quality of the tea.

4) Uniformity of raw materials. Ideally in good tea all tea leaves should be approximately the same size; and their size must correspond to the standard indicated on the packaging (OR, BOP, etc.; see also the section on tea labeling). Teas of average and lower quality are characterized by the inclusion of the so-called. “flakes” - smaller tea leaves, fragments of leaves, dust, dust, etc. The opposite situation also happens, when tea contains many tea leaves that exceed the standard size indicated on the package (in the jargon of tea testers, this is called “fat” tea).

5) Foreign inclusions. In Russian people this is called “tea with firewood” (sticks, logs, etc.), tea testers use a similar jargon – “box tea” (Chesty Tea). Foreign inclusions can be not only pieces of wood, plywood, paper, foil, etc., but also fragments of tea branches. Of course, all this indicates low quality tea.

6) Twisting of tea leaves. As a rule, the more tightly the tea leaves are twisted, the better the fermentation, and the better the quality of the tea itself. Particularly cool varieties are called “wiry” in Titester jargon - these are thin, long twisted tea leaves, characteristic of high-quality large-leaf Darjeelings.

Choice of brew. We touch and smell

7) Degree of dryness. High-quality tea should contain approximately 3-6% moisture. It is believed that the more moisture in tea, the worse its quality; and at a humidity of about 20%, tea becomes moldy, becomes poisonous, etc. Of course, you can accurately determine humidity only in laboratory conditions, but some things can be found out by eye.

If tea overdried– it becomes too brittle. Just take a few tea leaves and rub them between your fingers. If they turn to dust easily, that's bad. Often the tea is not just overdried, but burnt, which can be determined by the smell (see below). Old tea that has been stored for a long time is often overdried.

If tea too wet, everything is more complicated here. The fact is that it is difficult to bring tea to such a level of waterlogging that mold appears. How to determine the degree of humidity? There is a simple test for large-leaf teas (it won’t work for small-leaf teas!). Open the teapot (it should be as full as possible) and press the tea firmly with your finger. Release your finger sharply and watch carefully what happens. Well-dried tea is elastic; it will begin to rise rather quickly, straighten out and take up the same volume, leaving almost no dent from your finger. If the tea is too wet, it will compress or expand extremely slowly.

8) Smell. Well-made, properly packaged and properly stored tea should smell good. In principle, each type of tea has its own characteristic smell. For example, green tea is “herbal” (“bitter”), black tea is “resinous-floral” (“sweet”), oolong is “earthy, smoky” (“bitter”). Although everything is more complicated here, because... There are many varietal shades. Therefore, it is always easier to identify the wrong smell.

Good tea should never smell:

a) Burnt, something burnt. This is typical for overdried, burnt tea, which is actually a factory defect.

b) Metal. This is a very specific smell - something between rapidly oxidizing copper and rust. This often happens due to poor-quality fermentation during the manufacturing process, or due to improper storage (no air in polyethylene). According to my observations, such “charm” is often found in Ceylon teas, for example, “Princess”.

c) Something foreign (gasoline, cosmetics, fish, etc.). These are all indicators of improper storage and crappy packaging.

These eight indicators are the main ones for choosing dry tea leaves “by eye”. In addition, you can take into account the five indirect indicators (company, advice, etc.) indicated at the beginning of the section. But, as you yourself understand, in order to learn how to accurately choose a really good brew, you need experience, experience and more experience (the son of difficult mistakes ;-))).

Water for tea. Impurities and hardness

Water is almost the key factor in cooking delicious tea. I will only point out the well-known fact that, for example, in China, high-quality water for brewing tea can sometimes cost more than the tea itself. And some varieties of high-quality white and green teas can only be brewed with strictly defined water from specific sources (for example, the true taste of Long Jing green tea is revealed only when brewed with water from the lake of the same name).

Chemically pure water does not exist in nature, and it is probably not needed for cooking (everything would be too bland and tasteless). Currently, various water quality assessment systems take into account up to 200 different components contained in water. Of course, we do not want to burden our readers with such details. The main indicators of water that determine its suitability or unsuitability for drinking are:

1) Mechanical impurities. These are quite large inclusions that are usually visible to the naked eye. They can be either organic (algae, rotting plant particles, mold, fungi, etc.) or inorganic (fine sand, suspensions of clay, peat, limestone, etc.). Water with big amount organic inclusions often have a musty smell (hydrogen sulfide); with a large amount of inorganic is perceived as cloudy, dirty, opaque. Any tea lover understands that organic impurities completely kill the taste and aroma of tea, while inorganic impurities greatly worsen its appearance (and it is simply impossible to drink, it crunches your teeth!).

2) Iron impurities. Iron is a very common macronutrient in nature, which water is often naturally rich in, but our water supply with rusty pipes is often to blame for the iron taste of water.

Excess iron in water has a very (very!!!) negative effect on the taste of tea. Firstly, there is a terrible metallic taste in the tea; and secondly, iron reacts very actively with tea polyphenols, instantly forming stable insoluble compounds. The tea seems to be “curdling”; If you brew very strong tea with obviously ferrous water, then brown flakes resembling rust will remain at the bottom of the cup. Of course, there is no benefit from such tea:-(((

3) Water hardness. Water hardness depends on many indicators, but mainly on the content of calcium and magnesium compounds in the water. These compounds are present in large quantities in limestone, gypsum and dolomite rocks.

(Damn, it’s just some kind of grief! Our Pskov rivers not only flow through limestone, but also through peat bogs. Not only is the water hard, it’s also brown in color, with all sorts of swampy suspensions and flavors!)

Hardness can be easily determined by eye by the following signs: the water has a barely noticeable bitter aftertaste, the water forms abundant scale on the walls of the kettle, soap lathers poorly in this water, and after boiling, a dull rainbow film forms on the surface of the cooled water.

Water for tea. Color, smell, taste, bacteria, sources

The pattern here is this: the harder the water, the worse the extract of the tea when brewing. In hard water, you need to put in more tea leaves, keep the brewing time longer, but still, there is no guarantee that you will fully experience the taste and aroma of this tea. The aroma of tea suffers most from hardness; tea essential oils are simply not released into the solution; and the taste of tea becomes rough, “empty”.

4) Color of water. The color and clarity of water is usually determined by inclusions of both organic and inorganic microparticles. Of course, for good brewing, the clearer the water, the better. Otherwise, the color of the tea will be like in English watercolors ;-)))

5) The smell and taste of water. The most obvious “pathology” of water is its bad odor. Most often you may encounter: a) a rotten smell (hydrogen sulfide, usually due to organic inclusions or excess sulfur in the water); b) musty smell (smell of mold; also due to organic inclusions, fungi, etc.); c) ferrous odor (due to excess iron in water); d) the smell of bleach (due to excessive chlorination of water in the water supply). Sometimes there are very extreme odors (for example, a pipeline with cognac burst not far from the city ;-))). In any case, water with a strong odor is unsuitable for brewing tea.

6) Bacteria. Actually, they don’t seem to be in tap water, because... It is in order to get rid of bacteria that water is chlorinated. But as soon as drinking water sits in an open vessel for a little while, they are already right there... Housewives say that the water “stagnates”, sometimes even that musty smell appears.

You can, of course, throw a silver coin into the jug for disinfection. But, in my opinion, it is always better to use fresh, clean water for tea, and not “meat broth” with bacteria.

Where does a simple tea drinker get water from? There can be three basic options: 1) from the water supply; 2) from natural sources; 3) drinking water in bottles or cans in the store.

More than enough bad words have already been said about tap water, but in different cities the sources of urban water intake are different, the purification systems are also different, so the quality of tap water can also vary from good to disgusting.

All critics agree on the main thing: 1) tap water smells of bleach (normally this should not be the case, it is only noticeable when there is an overdose of bleach, which often happens, for example, during the “water bloom” period in the summer); 2) tap water is hard and ferrous (due to old rusted pipes and excess scale, especially in hot water pipes).

Excess bleach can be treated relatively easily - you need to let the water sit for about 6-12 hours (sometimes up to a day is recommended). Excess calcium and iron salts are much more difficult to treat, namely, using special water filters.

Water for tea. Surface water

In general, any self-respecting advanced tea drinker prefers to brew tea not with tap water, but with natural water, freshly extracted from “their” treasured source.

All natural sources can be divided into two large groups: surface and groundwater.

Surface waters include almost all rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, etc. By the way, well water, if the well is shallow and/or dug in a damp, low-lying area (where there are rivers, swamps and other sources around) is also superficial.

The main advantage of surface waters: they are all soft, often there are microimpurities in the water that give it a unique, sometimes very pleasant, taste. The main disadvantages of surface waters: they contain a lot of mechanical impurities, both organic and inorganic.

Most often, the main problem with stagnant (as well as in rivers with weak currents) surface water is an excess of organic matter, which is why the water rots, acquires a musty taste and smell, contains a lot of bacteria, etc. You can get rid of organic matter by various methods: boiling, chlorination, iodization, ozonation, etc., but often after such treatment the taste of water does not so much improve as deteriorate:-(((Hence the simple moral: be especially careful and careful, do not take for tea water with a large proportion of organic impurities!

The main problem with flowing surface water (especially in fast-flowing rivers and streams) is an excess of inorganic suspended matter (particles of sand, peat, limestone, sandstone, clay, etc.). In most cases, it is not difficult to get rid of inorganic inclusions; sometimes it is enough just to let the water settle, sometimes this can be done even with the help of homemade carbon filters. Although here everything depends on the nature of the inclusions: the larger they are, the easier it is to get rid of them. Quite nasty, for example, are small peat particles that turn the water brown. They can only be gotten rid of chemically, using special coagulants.

However, of all surface waters, water from medium-sized rivers with fast flows and a sandy-rocky bottom, especially if they flow in forest-steppe areas, is considered the best. Water from large slow-moving rivers, especially if they flow in marshy, low-lying areas, is considered the worst for tea. It is also bad if the river flows in a bed made of limestone rocks - such water is usually hard.

Water for tea. Ground and purchased water. Our choice

Groundwater includes water obtained from boreholes, springs and deep wells. I want to warn you right away: be careful with springs - a really deep vein of water does not always come to the surface in the form of a spring!

For example, ancient Russian water explorers warned that there are “swampy” or “rusty” springs in which surface water is “squeezed out”, and which, by the way, sometimes tend to dry up (“leave away”). The water in such springs is usually not very good and has the same disadvantages as surface water.

By the way, I would also not recommend taking water from springs located within the city (or within a radius of 10 kilometers), because... any nasty chemicals excreted by humans are not filtered by the soil. Taking water from such springs is the same as drinking from under a sewer!

In general, deep (ground) waters are in all respects cleaner and better than surface waters; the main danger associated with them is excessive hardness (mineralization). But, as a rule, if it is present, it can be easily identified with the naked eye - by the specific bitter “mineral” taste of water or even by the whitish stains on the ground that remain after the water dries. By the way, unlike rivers, the best quality groundwater usually comes from wells drilled in limestone.

And further. Currently, there are a large number of “waters in bottles and cans” on sale. Sometimes buying them can be an alternative to using filters and traveling to get water (for example, in winter). So here it is. When choosing a canister, pay attention to three major details.

Firstly, the water should not be carbonated (this is trite, but comrade Shumakov twice, buying water in a hurry, grabbed bottles of carbonated mineral water and once even managed to give his guests tea based on it).

Secondly, the label should indicate that the water is natural and not purified (who knows what they purify there).

Thirdly, natural waters can be “spring” or “from a well”. The first ones are usually better. Because it's softer.

Let's summarize. Our choice: groundwater from deep wells or boreholes! And from springs, but only if they are the right springs.

Utensil. Kettle for boiling water

Here's what you need for professional ;-))) brewing of tea (we are considering “non-ceremonial” tea - read about tyanaya and gongfu cha in the relevant sections):

1. Kettle for boiling water;
2. Teapot;
3. A spoon for stirring the tea leaves in the teapot;
4. A napkin for covering the teapot;
5. All sorts of other tea gadgets.

1. A kettle for boiling water. Let's be honest - there is nothing better than an ordinary tin Russian-Soviet kettle for boiling water on gas (or any other open fire)!

Material: stainless steel or aluminum (usually duralumin); if it is steel, it is better if the kettle is not enameled. It is better not to use (even for foppish reasons - if this is antique dishes) brass, copper, etc. teapots. All of them are oxidized to one degree or another, which greatly deteriorates the taste of tea. For example, I prefer duralumin teapots, because... Our water is already quite ferruginous.

The volume of the kettle can be arbitrary, but empirically it has been established that 3-4 liters is best. “Better” precisely because with this volume at room temperature, the water in the kettle remains hot enough throughout the entire tea drinking session. The kettle can be bigger, but never smaller! Otherwise, you will have to reheat it every 5-10 minutes. The teapot can have any shape, but it is better if it is close to a ball (cube) or cone (base down ;-))). And further…

A) The spout of the kettle should be quite long (otherwise the kettle will “spit” boiling water) and slightly curved. This spout is a kind of resonator and gives the effect of a “noisy” teapot, which allows you to accurately determine the moment when the boiling water has reached the optimum condition for brewing.

B) The lid of the kettle for boiling water should have 1-2 holes for steam to escape. Otherwise, when boiling, the lid will rattle, boiling water will pour out over the top edge of the kettle and flood the fire. And these holes also play the role of a kind of ventilation, through which all sorts of odors escape.

C) The kettle should have a fairly long (high) handle so that it can be safely removed from the heat. It is better if the handle is not just metal, but is thermally insulated with wooden or plastic linings.

D) The kettle should not be washed (inside; outside - wash as much as you like)! In principle, the inside of the kettle does not get dirty, but another problem arises - scale. There are all sorts of inhumane recipes for descaling, from basic mechanical scraping, to using special detergents, boiling onion peels inside a kettle, boiling a mixture of vinegar and water, etc. Maybe you'll get rid of scale, but you'll also get rid of tasty water- Same! In short, it’s better not to actively fight scale, but to slow down its appearance, you need to not add water every time you put the kettle on the fire, but pour new water every time. At the same time, it is necessary not only to pour out the old water from the kettle, but also to rinse it thoroughly a couple of times before pouring new water. This will not radically solve the scale problem, but the taste of the water will not deteriorate.

Utensil. Death to bourgeois dummies

And now about the painful issue - the dominance of imported electric kettles. Here are 6 reasons why these kettles are complete garbage:

1) They are almost all long cylindrical in shape. Those. the water below has already boiled, the water above is still cold and often even retains a distinct “raw” taste. I understand that smart designers tried to make a compact thing, but a mixture of raw water and boiled water causes many people to have diarrhea... (Kettles that boil water somewhat better are those whose spiral is not horizontal, but vertical; and which are closer in shape to traditional ones) .

2) Many electric kettles have obviously poor automatic shutdown. Those. the automatic switches off the kettle not at 100 degrees, but, say, at 90-95. The result is clear.

3) In electric kettles it is almost impossible to detect the stages of boiling water (everything happens extremely quickly and the result remains on the conscience of the automation). Consequently, it is impossible to obtain optimal water for brewing (so-called “white key” boiling water).

4) Many electric kettles frankly stink of plastic (iron, burnt wires, etc.). Those. The aroma of tea is killed.

5) I, of course, am not a physicist, or even a chemist, but there is a suspicion that when water is heated electrically, something like electrolysis and something like magnetization of water are added to the thermal processes. In short, in the end we no longer get water, but some kind of water-like substance ;-)))

6) The sixth reason, of course, is the most important. Because the destructive effect of the first five can be compensated for by some super-duper electric kettle. But the sixth - no way.

Using an electric kettle, you deprive yourself of a fair share of tea harmony, introducing fuss into the thoughtful process of preparing tea. What does a decent person do while the kettle is on the fire? Right. He chooses tea, warms and dries the teapot, reflects on the meaning of life, sets the table, looks out the window into the darkness, falls asleep in a chair only to be woken up by the lid falling off, talks with guests - in short, does all those pleasant little things that turn tea drinking into an elegant one. pleasure.

Try to do all this in three minutes.

General summary: fly Aeroflot planes, boil water for tea in the aluminum kettles of our ancestors!

Utensil. Teapot. Facts and figures

2. Teapot

There is a huge variety of teapots, completely different in design style and purpose, but the most significant criteria for choosing a teapot are its size, material (from which it is made) and shape.

The size of the teapot... - whatever! It all depends on the number of people participating in the tea party. I have at least three teapots: one small “personal” one, which is enough for 2-3 cups (often, having brewed tea not very strong, I drink directly from this teapot “Uzbek style”, gradually pouring a little into my cup directly from teapot, or “in Chinese”, “rinsing” the tea leaves with boiling water several times and each time completely pouring it into your cup); the other medium is “family”, so that there is enough for everyone to have a couple of cups of tea; and the third is a “guest”, large, with which you can drink half a dozen avid tea drinkers.

Let's translate it into numbers: 1) the volume of a small “personal” teapot is 0.2 - 0.35 liters; 2) the volume of an average “family” teapot is 0.5 - 0.8 l; 3) the volume of a large “guest” teapot can reach 2-3 liters.

The teapot material is, of course, ceramics (clay, porcelain, earthenware), and in no case iron or glass (and not plastic)! They have a completely different thermal conductivity, and they greatly influence the taste. In a glass teapot, especially when exposed to direct sunlight, tea becomes cloudy very quickly and loses its taste. (Although glass teapots also have their advantage - you can clearly see how the brewing process occurs. Sometimes this is quite a beautiful sight.) In an iron teapot, tea often produces its favorite chemical reaction - oxidation and precipitation of polyphenols, which kills the taste of the tea completely, it becomes ferruginous and disgusting.

In summer it is good to use porcelain teapots, but in winter it is better to use coarser earthenware or clay. It is during the cold season that the walls of the teapot should not be too thin (something expensive porcelain sometimes suffers from), otherwise the brewing temperature will be disrupted.

As for the author, I prefer clay teapots most of all, because... clay is a porous “living” material that not only holds the brewing temperature well, but at the same time “breathes”, and over time becomes saturated with tea resins, which allows you to brew tea with better quality and taste. Clay has only one small drawback - compared to porcelain and earthenware, it is the most fragile and short-lived material.

Utensil. Fundamentally about teapots

The shape of the teapot is a fundamental issue. I tried different versions of teapots, and despite the opportunity to buy a teapot of any modern shape, I came to the conclusion that the ideal teapot that allows you to brew tea most deliciously is ROUND. I don’t want to attract the opinions of authorities and go into scientific research about the fact that a spherical surface evenly reflects energy flows, that they are focused in the center, that unique thermal effects occur, and so on. and so on…. I’ll just repeat: the best shape for the teapot is a BALL (or as close to a ball as possible).

Some more important points:

A) There must be a hole in the lid of the kettle. If it is not there, then when brewing the tea will “suffocate”, overcook, lose its aroma, and its taste will be “empty”.

B) The lid of the teapot should be tight and fit well. The inner edges of the lid should resemble a cylinder, which should fit quite deeply into the kettle. Otherwise, when the teapot is tilted, the lid will simply fall off. For example, I have already broken more than one beautiful (but incorrect!) lid in a similar way:-(((

C) Pay special attention to the spout of the teapot. Firstly, it must be high enough (at the level or even slightly above the top edge of the teapot). Secondly, it should be adjacent to the body of the kettle at an angle of approximately 30-35 degrees. If these conditions are violated (the spout is located low and/or at a large angle), then using such a teapot will be a real pain - water from the spout will gush with terrible force, pour over the edge (lid), it can only be filled halfway, etc. .

D) It’s good if the end of the teapot spout is quite thin (the tea flows in a thin stream); and in the place where the spout connects to the body of the teapot, there is not a solid hole, but a kind of lattice. These two design features will protect you very well from excess tea leaves getting into your cup.

D) Pay attention to the handle that the teapot is held by. Most often it is located on the side (in the East - sometimes on top, which is much more convenient) and has the shape of the letter “C”. Let us immediately note that the larger the teapot, and the more correct form handles (the closer it is to a semicircle or the letter “C”), the WORSE and more inconvenient it is to take the teapot. Remember: the most comfortable handles are always asymmetrical; Either the upper half (support for the thumb) or the lower half (support for the middle finger) of the handle should protrude much more strongly.

Let us also add that it is best not to wash the teapot, but only rinse it with water. For teapots made of clay (especially unglazed ones) this is acceptable (because it’s invisible ;-))), but porcelain and earthenware teapots quickly take on an untidy appearance due to the brown coating of “tea stone”, drips, etc.

In fact, a true tea lover should simply give up on all these untidiness, because... The correct taste of tea is much more important than the ugly appearance of the teapot. But if you still feel the urge to wash the teapot, then under no circumstances do it with soap or any detergents - the taste of the tea will be ruined 3 brews ahead! The only possible option is to rub off the “tea stone” with regular baking soda, and then rinse the kettle thoroughly, first with warm and then with cold water. And in general, the less often you wash the teapot, the better!

To summarize: a true believer in tea should have a set of correct round teapots of various sizes and from various materials for all occasions of his hectic tea life.

Utensil. Spoon and napkin

3. Spoon for stirring the tea leaves in the teapot
The main condition here is no iron! Traditionally, a wooden spoon is used (in the East) or a silver spoon (in the West; courtesy of the British). For example, I prefer silver. The shape and size of the spoon can be any (but if it’s made of silver, the bigger the better ;-))))

4. Napkin for covering the teapot
The purpose of the napkin is twofold: 1) to maintain a stable brewing temperature for the required time; 2) preserve the tea aroma (without allowing it to erode, and not letting in odors from the outside). Let us also add that a napkin is extremely necessary if you brew tea in a cold room during the cold season.

The napkin should be made of dense natural fabric, preferably linen, but you can also use regular cotton fabric. Of course, you can’t use synthetic fabric (or with synthetic additives), silk (it doesn’t breathe well), wool (it has its own smell and easily absorbs other people’s).

The napkin should be large enough, it should cover the entire kettle, so to speak, to the floor ;-))) If it is too small, it will not be enough to maintain the correct brewing temperature. In addition, if the room is cold, then a large napkin can be folded several times and then cover the kettle (although this is not a very good option, since there is a risk that the tea leaves will “suffocate”).

The napkin for covering the teapot must be clean, because... any dirt is foreign odors that kill the real tea aroma. The more often you change it (dirty to clean), the better. But this should not turn into paranoia; once a week is enough.

It is better to store the tea napkin away from strong food odors. Even a new (clean) tea napkin should not smell strongly, for example, of laundry scenting agents, washing powder, etc.

Let us also add that it is better not to use the so-called. "tea nesting dolls" “Tea nesting dolls” are decorative fabric dolls that are placed on top of the teapot. As a rule, they are sewn from several layers of dense fabric and contain a sewn-in cotton padding inside. It is believed that “tea nesting dolls” are an attribute of “Russian tea drinking”. The aesthetics here are quite dubious, but these “matryoshka dolls” completely ruin the taste of the tea. Tea covered with a “matryoshka” overcooks, “suffocates”, and loses its aroma and taste.

V. Pokhlebkin offers his original version of tea napkins. To do this, a kind of “mattress” is sewn from thin hebesh fabric, which is stuffed with dry tea leaves or some fragrant dry herb: mint, oregano, thyme, etc. When covering the teapot with a similar mattress, a double effect is achieved: 1) the herb slightly flavors the tea leaves; 2) the grass itself is saturated with essential oils of tea, holding them quite well. But that’s not the main thing! After some time (about six months), this herb itself becomes a very valuable brew.

Utensil. Gadgets for fighting tea leaves

Modern civilization has given birth to great amount all sorts of different tea gadgets that can be used when brewing. Perhaps our list is far from complete, but true tea lovers usually do not use such garbage ;-))) Usually the invention of all sorts of tea gadgets is caused by the foppish (!) pseudo-aesthetic (!!) disgust of fake (!!!) tea lovers in relation to tea leaves. They say that tea leaves float in the teapot, jump straight into the cup, get into your mouth, stick to your teeth, and generally make the process unaesthetic. Then you also have to painfully shake out and wash the teapot from the tea leaves. Of course, all this is nonsense and prejudices, because... It's all about the tea leaves!

In addition, in those situations when you drink loose leaf tea, but only want to drink one cup, it is much more convenient to use some special devices for this that prevent “littering” of tea leaves. If you drink more than one cup, you can try the following:

A) Two heated kettles are used. In one you brew tea, then carefully pour it into another (preheated) teapot. The number of inconvenient tea leaves is reduced to a minimum. The first teapot, with the remaining tea leaves in it (while you are drinking tea from the second), can be filled with boiling water again. This method has no bells and whistles, except for the second teapot ;-))

B) Carefully pour the brewed tea into a THERMOS. But this method is bad, because... in a thermos, tea swells and quickly loses its beneficial properties:-(((In general, for the future, we note that using a thermos as a tea accessory (for brewing or long-term storage) is complete crap for the reasons listed above. If, due to objective life circumstances, you If you can’t do without a thermos (for example, to drink tea at work), then just fill it with boiling water, take the tea leaves separately, and combine it all on the spot just before drinking tea.

C) To get rid of tea leaves, you can use a metal “EGG”. Most of these “eggs” are made of aluminum, have a spherical or ovoid shape, and also have many holes. The egg is dropped into a cup (or teapot) and poured with boiling water.

The main convenience of such “eggs” is that they are easy to clean from used tea leaves, and, of course, do not allow tea leaves to get into the cup. But their disadvantage is that often the “eggs” are too small and can hardly contain a portion of tea leaves, even for one cup. The fact is that dry raw materials expand greatly during brewing, the tea leaves “seal” the holes of the “egg”, as a result of which the tea leaves are not extracted sufficiently.

Utensil. Fighting seagulls and other bells and whistles

D) You can use a metal STRAINER CONTAINER. Usually made from of stainless steel(in the East, traditionally ceramic; sometimes they are plastic, nickel-plated or gold-plated), has the shape of a cup (cylindrical basket) and is placed through the top inside the teapot; From above, after boiling water is poured, cover with the lid of the teapot. Advantages: even more convenient to handle than the aluminum “egg”. In such a container you can “squeeze” the tea leaves with a spoon for stronger extraction. Easy to remove and clean. Disadvantages: the same as those of the metal “egg” - insufficient extraction.

Recently, plastic (ugh!) teapots have appeared on sale in Russia, apparently made in China (really ugh!), where a similar strainer-container is built into the kettle. We don’t use it ourselves, but according to reviews from friends, it’s pretty disgusting ;-)) By the way, if the kettle is glass, like in the picture, then everything can be quite good.

D) To get rid of tea leaves, you can use an external “BASKET” STRAINER. Such a strainer can be made of metal, plastic, or even ceramic. The shape resembles a pot or a semicircular basket with a handle. It is usually suspended from the outside of the teapot spout, and in some designs it is installed on (or above) the cup. Such strainers are the most convenient because... They do not impair the brewing process, however, they are a little more fiddling. In addition, some teapots may have a non-standard shape, such that it will be difficult to attach a strainer to their spout. Often, if the teapot spout has a non-standard shape or there is little tea left in the teapot, then such a strainer simply falls out.

E) In the West (not seen in Russia) sometimes they use the so-called. "TEA SOCK". This is a bag made of thin natural fabric (cotton, linen), shaped like a sock. The tea leaves are poured into it, then the “sock” is placed in the teapot and filled with boiling water. Advantages: easy to remove, practically does not limit extraction. Disadvantages: Inconvenient to clean, and expensive to use as a disposable one. In addition, if you use the “sock” many times, then in any case (if you wash it and if you don’t wash it), the “sock” retains foreign odors for a long time.

G) PAPER FILTER. Can be easily used to filter tea leaves paper filters, used in coffee makers. Disadvantages: If you want to turn quality loose leaf tea into tea bags, then go ahead! (loss of aroma and papery taste are guaranteed) In addition, this is a rather expensive method, because... filters are disposable.

H) Brewing machines or tea makers. There are some brave souls who brew fine tea in coffee makers. Moreover, there are household “tea makers” abroad, which are not widely used due to a number of significant disadvantages: firstly, unlike coffee, tea cannot be brewed; and secondly, different types of tea require different brewing temperatures, which is very difficult to implement technically.

The latest advances in the fight against tea leaves are teapots with the TEA PRESS system. The principle of their operation is to “squeeze” tea, with the finished drink being higher than the press, and the tea leaves being lower. For the office, such a gadget can be very useful, but at home, of course, it’s better to brew tea like a human being;)

To make the list of tea gadgets complete, we will also include SAMOVAR in it. This system is domestic and highly respected in all respects (which cannot be said about modern electric samovars), but this topic requires separate consideration.

Process. Boiling water

There are many different ways to brew and drink tea. First of all, there is a lot national traditions(Japanese tea ceremony, chinese art gongfu cha, Russian tea party, English tea party, etc.). In addition, there are a huge number of modifications of tea traditions, and simply a bunch of different specific brewing recipes.

In our opinion, before mastering all sorts of exotic subtleties, you must first of all learn how to brew ordinary “household” tea well. Brewing tea is one of the basic life skills that we master in childhood, but for some reason, some brewers make the tea very tasty, while others make it extremely disgusting.

Below we will try to give the most universal recipe for brewing delicious tea, consisting of 6 steps:

1. Boil water.
2. Warm the teapot.
3. Add the tea leaves.
4. Pour boiling water and stir.
5. We insist.
6. Pour.

STAGE 1 – Boil the right water in the right teapot for water. The most important point here is the water temperature.

In general, there are three stages of boiling water. At the FIRST stage, the water approaches the boiling point only at the bottom of the kettle. In such boiling water, only a few small bubbles escape; the bulk of the small bubbles seem to “stick” to the walls of the kettle. In a proper kettle or samovar, the water at this stage begins to “sing” - a dull, bassy and fairly quiet noise.

At the SECOND stage of boiling in water, the lower layers of already boiling water and the upper layers of still boiling water begin to actively mix. At this stage, all the water is permeated with small bubbles, which burst upward in a kind of “cloud”. Many of these bubbles are very small in size, which is why the boiling water appears white and cloudy, and from the outside it very much resembles a bubbling spring. This “second state” (in China such water is called “white key”) of boiling water has unique physical and chemical properties and is best for brewing tea (especially unfermented - white and green, and semi-fermented - oolong).

In a proper kettle or samovar, the water at this stage begins to “make noise” - the sound of the water becomes louder and more sonorous, and the tone of this noise becomes higher; The teapot, like an airplane, seems to begin to “take off.” Let us add that this boiling stage is usually the loudest.

At the THIRD stage of boiling, the entire mass of water uniformly warms up to about 100 degrees and begins to bubble intensely. Large bubbles appear on the water, the water bubbles, splashes, the kettle begins to “spit”, and thick steam pours out of its spout.

What’s interesting is that at this stage the intensity of the noise is already decreasing, the kettle seems to “lose its voice”; All you can hear is the gurgling of bubbles and the quiet hiss of steam.

Process. Water temperature

In general, it is better not to bring the water for brewing tea to a boil, because Such water is considered overboiled and worsens the taste of tea. Even if you slept through the best stage of the “white key”, try to turn off the kettle brought to the third boiling stage as quickly as possible. It is best if after this you let it cool a little (2-4 minutes), and you can safely brew it. At the third stage of boiling (or slightly cooled), water is quite acceptable for brewing fermented (black) tea, but unsuitable for brewing white or green teas.

Let me remind you that boiling water is one of the ways to disinfect it. That is why, from childhood, the idea was hammered into us that “water needs to be boiled properly.” In principle, this is true, but if you want to drink really high-quality tea, then take care of good water in advance (see) and do not overboil it.

Usually, when brewing tea, the appropriate water temperature is selected “by eye” - based on external signs (noise of the kettle, boiling time, etc.; + experience, + intuition). But if you have the opportunity to stand near a kettle with a thermometer, then various types tea experts recommend water of different temperatures:

A) Black (fully fermented) tea – 90-95C;

B) Green (unfermented) tea – 70-80C;

B) White (unfermented) tea – 65-75C;

D) Brewing oolongs (semi-fermented teas) depends on the degree of fermentation of a particular variety. The following figures are given:

– 70% – 85C;
– 60% – 100C;
– 50% – 90C;
– 40% – 95C;
– 30% – 95C;
– 20% – 80C;
– 15% – 88C;
– 10% – 82C.

Of course, a tea drinker standing by a teapot with a thermometer (such thermometers, by the way, exist) will most closely resemble a home-grown chemist, and such a formal approach will somewhat disrupt the aesthetics of the procedure. There is one way that, after some training, allows you to find the optimal temperature for brewing different teas. It is as follows.

Bring the water to that very “white key” and start preparing for brewing - warm the teapot, take out the tea leaves, and so on. All these procedures will take you some time. So, while this time passes, a certain amount of water will cool to a certain temperature. Well, you understand, in short...

Process. Warming the teapot

STAGE 2 - Warm the teapot. A teapot warmed before brewing is a very essential element in brewing technology. In a cold kettle, the brewing temperature can drop by 10-20C, the brewing warms up unevenly, the brewing mode is disrupted (if you're smart, the temperature/time graph doesn't look right at all), which has a very detrimental effect on the result. When warming the teapot, it is important to follow three basic rules:

1) The teapot should be heated evenly, and not so that one side is hotter and the other is colder. Otherwise the tea leaves will turn out to be one-sided ;-)))

2) The teapot should not be heated too much, it should be approximately the same temperature (maybe a little colder, 5-10 degrees Celsius) as the water with which you are going to brew tea. If there is severe overheating, the tea leaves can simply “burn out” and lose all its qualities.

3) Ideally, the heated teapot should also be dry, because... In a wet teapot, the extraction process begins prematurely, which can worsen the taste of the tea. But, in general, this is not important ;-))

Here are two main ways to warm the teapot:

A) Traditionally accepted in the East, dip the entire teapot into a container of boiling water (of course, not into the water that will later be used to brew tea) and hold there for 1-2 minutes. If you don’t have a suitable large container of boiling water at hand, you can simply pour boiling water from a kettle into the teapot; it is only important that there is enough boiling water to rinse and evenly warm the entire teapot. You can pour boiling water over the sink over the teapot from a separately boiling ladle... In general ways pouring boiling water over the teapot is endless, the main thing is that there is a lot of it (boiling water), and that the teapot really warms up inside and out.

B) You can warm the teapot “dry”. You can heat it in the stove oven, you can gently heat it over a gas burner (this method is worse, because it is almost impossible to achieve uniform heating), but my favorite method is to simply place the teapot on top of the lid of the kettle in which the water is boiling. At the same time, I put the teapot on the fire together with a cold kettle, and therefore they warm up at the same time, and the temperature of the teapot is usually almost equal to the temperature of the boiling water used.

Combined options are also possible. For example, V. Pokhlebkin recommends first rinsing the teapot thoroughly (3-4 times) with boiling water from a ladle, and then drying it upside down (1-2 minutes) over gas.

Process. Add the tea leaves

STAGE 3 - Add the tea leaves. There are three methodological ;-))) aspects to pouring tea leaves: aesthetic, quantitative and technological.

A) Aesthetic aspect pouring tea leaves into a teapot is most developed in the Chinese tea art of gongfu cha. To greatly simplify the matter, I will only point out that before roughly grabbing and stuffing the dose into the teapot, the Chinese advise “getting to know” the tea.

“Getting to know” means looking, smelling, touching, being surprised, admiring, feeling and feeling. “Getting acquainted” with tea is a kind of psychological mood, it is an anticipation of the future taste and aroma. Of course, if you are whipping up some third-rate Ceylon brocken, then there is no time for aesthetics. But if you love yourself and pamper yourself, and drink decent quality tea, will you taste this pleasure to the fullest?

Take your time before pouring it into the teapot - admire it, feel the aroma, remember something pleasant about this tea and how you drank it before...

B) Quantitative aspect concerns the answer to the fundamental question: “How much to pour?” There is no and cannot be an unambiguous answer to this question, although some specialists (like V. Pokhlebkin) even derive special formulas for calculating the dose.

There is no clear answer here for the following reasons:

a) tea tastes and preferences vary greatly among different people. Some people like it “stronger”, while others like it “weaker”; b) the features of extracting the same volume of tea leaves for different types of tea are also very different; c) the situations and occasions for drinking tea are also very different, which quite strongly influences the amount of tea leaves required.

The traditional formula, developed by the British, reads: “one teaspoon of dry tea leaves for each cup, plus one teaspoon for the teapot.” But there are too many ambiguities here. The European (including English) tradition of drinking tea is as follows: from the teapot we pour the tea leaves into the cup, but not to the top, but, for example, a quarter or a third of the cup, and then we add (dilute) it all with boiling water (milk, balm, etc.) .P.).

What happens? If we have an average teapot of 500 ml, and a cup of 200 ml, into which we pour a quarter of the tea leaves (50 ml), then it turns out that we can squeeze up to 10 cups of tea from the teapot. And if you add boiling water to the teapot, then even more. It turns out that, according to the most conservative estimates, you need to stuff about 10-12 teaspoons of tea leaves into a half-liter teapot. Try it, it will greatly entertain you ;-)))

This formula (a teaspoon per cup + a teaspoon for the teapot) makes sense only when we drink tea “orientally” - without diluting it with boiling water, but by completely pouring the contents of the teapot into our cup. Then, on average, you need to pour 3-4 teaspoons of tea leaves onto a half-liter teapot; and if you are going to add several times (brew 2 or 3 times), then you can safely add 4-6 spoons.

Hence the moral: if you, having cunningly grabbed the teapot, are going to drink it all yourself (“oriental style”), then, in principle, the traditional formula for the amount of tea leaves will suit you. If you drink tea “European style”, diluting the tea leaves or sharing with a large crowd, then the volume of tea leaves should be increased by at least 1.5-2 times compared to the traditional recipe.

As little pearls of folk tea wisdom, we’ll add:

1) If you are not in the habit of drinking green teas, then when you try, add more tea leaves, because... Compared to black teas, their taste seems “weak”;

2) If you brew tea in hard water, then pour in more tea leaves (1-2 tsp), because hard water impairs extraction;

3) If you drink small-leaf tea, then you can reduce the dose (by 1-2 tsp), because fine teas have a more pronounced pungent taste. Accordingly, when drinking loose leaf teas, the dose may be slightly increased;

4) If you drink tea immediately after a hearty meal or smoke, then the standard dose of tea leaves should also be slightly increased, because taste sensations are usually dull;

5) When choosing the brewing volume, consider your own biorhythms. For example, because I am a night owl, so in the morning I can only take a heavy dose of some small-leaved assam for tea; But in the evening, I am quite ready to experience the delicate taste and aroma of exquisite leafy Darjeeling.

Process. Pour, pour, stir...

B) Technological aspect pouring the tea leaves answers the question “How to pour it into the teapot?” You can avoid a lot of trouble if you follow simple rules:

1) The faster you complete the procedure of pouring tea into the teapot, the better. If you hesitate, the tea leaves will probably have time to become saturated with some foreign odors. They quickly opened the teapot next to the teapot, quickly poured the required dose from it into the teapot, quickly poured boiling water over it and closed the lid!

2) Tea is poured into the teapot most often with a clean teaspoon. In the East, this is often done using special wooden tweezers (for loose leaf tea) or using wooden “measures” (for small-leaf tea), reminiscent of ladles. But I, as a true esthete ;-))), prefer to pour tea with my hands (clean!). Because it’s easier to calculate the dose and you get very pleasant feelings ;-)))

3) I recommend pouring tea not just in a “heap”, but making a couple of shaking circular movements with the teapot; as if to “smear” the tea poured inside along the walls of the heated teapot. Then be sure to stick your nose inside the teapot and smell it! Mmmm, it's just a thrill!!! This “spreading” of the tea leaves over the walls of the teapot is a very important point: when you continue to pour boiling water, the area of ​​its contact with the tea leaves (and therefore the speed and quality of extraction) will increase significantly.

STAGE 4 - Pour boiling water and stir. Immediately (as soon as possible!) after we have poured the tea leaves inside the teapot, it is necessary to pour boiling water over it. The mode of pouring boiling water can be different: in one step, in two steps, the authors even came across recipes where it is recommended to pour boiling water into the teapot in 3-4 steps.

The most standard scheme for brewing black tea is brewing in two steps: first, the tea is poured with boiling water to the volume of about 1/3 of the teapot (or even less), the tea is allowed to “swell” for 1-2 minutes, and then boiling water is added to the volume of 2/3 or 3/4 of the teapot and then infuse the tea until ready.

I can say that I myself use a simpler method - I fill the teapot with boiling water in one go. I fill it almost to the top, so that there is 1-1.5 cm of free space left to the lid. If the kettle is well heated (and all other brewing rules are followed), then pouring it in one go does not in any way degrade the quality of the tea. I will add that I pour boiling water in a circular motion so that it does not pour into one point, but so that it washes the tea leaves as much as possible and warms the entire teapot. Some tea lovers, for example, specially pour boiling water in such a way that it not only gets inside the teapot, but also washes it from the outside, flowing down the walls. Of course, you need to put something under the kettle so as not to spill everything around.

Immediately after we have added the tea leaves and poured boiling water, we need to take a spoon (silver!) and stir the tea leaves thoroughly. Stirring is necessary so that the tea leaves are washed with boiling water faster and more intensely, and, accordingly, for a stronger extraction of tea.

Process. We drown tea leaves and make “secondary drinks”

Moreover, if tea good quality, then when stirring, all the tea leaves floating on the surface should sink, and a yellowish foam should appear on the surface. If, even after stirring, tea leaves (or “logs”) float on top, this is a sign of low-quality or overdried tea. If no foam appears after stirring, then this is an indicator of low quality tea or indicates that too little tea leaves are added or bad (hard) water is used.

Let us also add that some experts are against stirring the tea leaves, especially when brewing elite green and white teas, because in their opinion, in the process of stirring the aroma of tea is lost, the stages of release into tea infusion various essential oils. But for black tea, stirring is usually necessary.

A separate topic is complex brewing modes. We are talking about those cases when you are not limited to just one-time brewing (although this is an ideal option, it is during the first brewing that the highest quality brew is obtained), but you also want to get “secondary”, “third”, etc. from the same brewer. As a rule, the word “secondary” even in everyday kitchen matters has a negative meaning. What then can we say about advanced tea drinkers?

If we speak objectively and impartially, then:

A) Black tea can withstand no more than 2 (very rarely – three) brews. In this case, “two brews” means the following: brewed (at least in one, at least in 10 doses), drank completely, and immediately (no more than 10-15 minutes should pass!) poured again completely (i.e. in one dose) teapot with boiling water (heated!). This is what you get, and there is a very high-quality “recycled” product.

If you violate these conditions, for example, try to add boiling water not after 10 minutes, but later, or add it in several stages, then it will no longer be tea, but…. :-(((((Of course, you absolutely cannot make and drink “secondary tea” from tea leaves that have stood for several hours, or at least just cooled down. You can try to get “secondary tea” gradually. For example, you drank half of the teapot and immediately added boiling water ; I took another sip and topped it up again, etc. I’ll say right away that even this cunning method doesn’t change the essence: black tea can withstand no more than 2-3 toppings. Then it’s no longer tea.

b) Unfermented (white and green) and semi-fermented tea (oolong) can last up to 3-4 pours on average.(with normal brewing), and up to 5-7 pours when using the Chinese Gongfu Cha brewing technique. It is generally accepted that some oolongs can withstand up to 15 brews (all according to the same gongfu-che), but from our own experience we can say that all brews after 7-8 are rather of purely sporting interest.

Process. Place and time of brewing

STAGE 5 – Infuse (brewing time). After we have poured the tea into the teapot, poured boiling water over it and stirred it, we cover the teapot with the correct tea napkin (see) and put it in a secluded place.

The “secluded” place should be: a) No foreign odors. If tea is still brewed in the kitchen, then at least away from strong-smelling foods. b) Warm(room temperature), but not cold (window sill, and especially a refrigerator ;-))) will not work), and not hot. I would especially like to note that under no circumstances should the tea leaves be heated, placed on or near a fire, and even more so, boiled! When the teapot is heated, the extraction of tea will not only speed up, but will also become excessively strong - substances that are better not to go there (for example, poisonous guanidine) will be released into the infusion. Moreover, it is very dangerous for health to reheat old (yesterday’s) tea.

Now the most important thing: you need to steep the tea for a strictly defined time. Traditionally, brewing times vary:

A) Black tea brews for an average of 3-5 minutes, in exceptional cases (hard water, cold room, poor quality brew - souchong, etc.) - 10-12 minutes.

b) Ordinary green teas and oolongs brew for 1-3 minutes, although, as you remember, they can withstand up to 3-4 pours of boiling water. Also note that the steeping time for these teas is highly dependent on the temperature of the water used. A brewing time of 1-3 minutes is best if you brew this type of tea with relatively “hot” boiling water at the second stage of boiling (“white key”).

If you are using more than cold water(for example, 60-70C), then brewing can last much longer - 5-7 minutes. At the same time, for each subsequent pour (if you want to maintain the quality of the tea), hotter water should be used, and the brewing time should be reduced accordingly.

V) Elite white and green teas, as well as some thin oolongs, which often have a unique aroma, must be brewed with “white key” boiling water (and sometimes with water at a temperature of 60 degrees) for 30s-2 minutes. In the traditional gongfu-cha procedure, such dry tea leaves are “washed” with boiling water. In this case, the first filling is the shortest, subsequent ones increase slightly in time.

It is also important here to have a large enough kettle of boiling water so that it maintains the optimal temperature of the water for brewing. Or, as in China, you need to keep a kettle of boiling water on a special fryer so that its temperature remains on the verge of a “white key” boil.

In principle, elite varieties with a delicate aroma can be brewed with colder water (50-70C), but then the brewing time increases to 4-6 minutes. But this is only permissible for some special varieties of tea, because... In general, sufficiently “hot” boiling water is needed for optimal extraction of fragrant essential oils.

The brewing time must be strictly observed. English chemist researchers studied in detail the process of extracting black tea and found that essential oils are released into the infusion within about 4 minutes, and most intensely in the first two minutes of brewing; caffeine is released into the infusion during the entire brewing time, but reaches the optimal (for the taste of the tea and absorption by the body) concentration during the first three minutes of brewing.

Experiments conducted together with experienced tea testers showed that the richest range of flavors and aromas of black tea is observed 3-4 minutes after the start of brewing. If you start drinking black tea earlier, its taste characteristics usually suffer; If you start drinking black tea later than this time interval, its aromatic characteristics will suffer.

It has also been experimentally proven that after 5.5-6 minutes from the start of brewing, poorly soluble substances actively begin to be released into the tea, giving (together with accumulated caffeine) a bitter taste to the tea. Tea testers also confirm that the longer the tea is infused, the more the taste harmony of the tea is disturbed towards the predominance of bitterness. (a) green teas begin to taste especially bitter; (b) grown in southern regions with a hot climate and plenty of sun; (c) low-grade teas (not top leaves, but souchongs).

Finally, we also add that the strength of tea does not depend at all on the time it is brewed. Strength (not bitterness!) depends primarily on the quality and grade of dry tea leaves, and indirectly on the amount of tea leaves poured into the teapot.

Remark. Cup shape, material and color

STAGE 6 – Pour into cups. After you have sat out the allotted time for brewing, nervously and impatiently licking the teaspoon ;-)), it is time to pour the resulting mixture into cups.

Choosing a tea cup is a purely private matter for each tea lover. In general, a good (favorite!) cup for a real tea lover is a treasure, a jewel! In the Middle Ages, Japanese feudal lords could easily start a small war with human casualties because of one particularly elegant cup specimen.

1) Form. Traditionally, there are two opposing cup shapes that have been used in Gongfu Cha since ancient times in China and are known as Yin and Yang. The Yin cup is low, wide, with gentle edges, most reminiscent of a bowl. The Yang cup is tall, narrow, with straight edges, reminiscent of a goblet or narrow glass. Actually, all possible modifications of cups tend to be either closer to Yin or Yang. In Europe, the so-called traditionally prevailed. Viennese cups, which are nothing more than Yin cups (bowl-shaped) with a handle attached to the side. In coffee-drinking countries, glass-shaped cups traditionally predominate, which, by the way, are now very actively being sold to Russians during advertising campaigns companies selling coffee. And people begin to “at the same time” drink tea from them...

However, because Russia is always somewhere in the middle; we have wide circulation of both bowl-shaped and goblet-shaped cups. There are also historical roots here: before the revolution, only aristocrats and merchants could afford Viennese porcelain cups, and the people were usually content with glass glasses and tin circles.

I view the shape of a tea cup as purely functional. In summer (when it’s hot) or at work (when you’re in a hurry), it’s better to use bowl-shaped cups, because... the tea cools faster in them. In winter (when it’s cold) or while doing something leisurely (reading a book, listening to music, playing your favorite strategy game, etc.), it’s better to drink from a glass-shaped cup in which the tea cools slowly. By the way, as food for thought, I’ll add that according to Eastern canons, the most beautiful cups are something between a Yin and Yang cup, harmoniously combining their forms.

Porcelain cups are thin-walled (good to drink in summer, tea cools quickly) and more elegant (guest version), thick-walled clay (good to drink in winter), porous (absorb the taste and aroma of tea), rougher in appearance (but remember that “simplicity” “naturalness”, “artlessness” are key points in oriental aesthetics;-))) Among other things, porcelain and clay have the best heat capacity compared to all other materials.

3) Color. For titester research (and always when you drink a new type of tea for the first time), it is best for the cup to be white, without rims, painting (both outside and inside), etc. Only in a white porcelain cup (it is translucent, but reflects light well) can you see and appreciate true color tea. In general, the color of your favorite cup can be absolutely anything, this is not a fundamental question, and in the history of tea ceramics all conceivable and inconceivable combinations of colors are known.

As a little provocation (well, I love clay, I can’t help it!) I’ll add that according to ancient Eastern canons, ceramic tea cups were glazed and/or painted either with similar colors (yellow-brown) or contrasting colors (blue-brown). green gamma). Achromatic colors (black and white) were used as additional ones. According to the same canons, there should be as little painting on cups as possible, and it should be something calm, natural, and unpretentious.

Remark. Cup size and preparation

4) Size. In general, it can be anything, even the size of a bucket ;-))) Just one little piece of advice - the higher quality tea you drink, the smaller the cup should be. Here you can take an example from the wise Chinese, who drink elite teas from tiny (30-60 ml) cups.

Small cups have many advantages: a) they convey not only the taste, but also the aroma; b) because tea has to be poured from the teapot more often, then in the process you can clearly feel the whole range of changes in the aroma and taste of tea; c) the process turns not into eating, but into drinking tea and only tea; d) the smaller the cups, the longer the process, and the longer the process, the greater the overall satisfaction;-)))

However, I fully understand and accept the lovely Russian tradition, when, having returned from the cold, stiff as hell, you pour yourself a half-liter cup, add lemon, balm, honey, rosehip syrup, and... In short, the size of the cup is up to your taste!

If a cup is selected, you can pour it into it. Here are some subtleties:

a) The cup must be clean, BUT, like the teapot, the cup cannot be washed with soap or any cleaning chemicals. As we have already said, it is better not to wash it at all, but if you really want to get rid of centuries-old tea plaque, then scrub the cup with baking soda, and then rinse thoroughly with clean water.

It is better to place the tea cup away from odorous foods, and if it is washed, it is better to store it upside down (for airtightness;-). If you use a ceramic clay cup, then there is one more subtlety: you need to drink from it all the time. If you take a long break and the cup dries out too much, it may become “offended” - simply crack.

b) The cup should be warm. Before pouring tea into it, you can simply rinse it with boiling water; or, as they say in the former Soviet East, you can “marry” tea. To do this, you need to pour the tea leaves into the cup (about a third of the cup), and rinse the cup in a circular motion, after which the tea leaves must be poured back into the teapot. This oriental method allows you not only to warm the cup, but also to feel its aroma and stir the tea leaves in the teapot.

I would like to note on my own that in the warm season you don’t have to adhere to this rule. Then a cold cup will at least slightly lower the temperature of the tea and will allow you not to suffer from waiting for a long time until everything cools down.

Process. Let's pour...

Before pouring the tea leaves into the teapot, it is advisable (but not necessary) to stir again. If you have seen how tea is brewed in a glass container, then there is a certain layering - the tea leaves at the bottom are much darker than at the top. To avoid this, everything should be stirred. (Although among tea drinkers there are also opponents of this matter, they believe that drinking tea in “fractions” is the most foppish subtlety, since each layer has its own taste and aroma. Therefore, it is absolutely forbidden to mix.)

Actually, let’s pour... If you drink tea “orientally”, then, as you remember, your entire drink consists only of what you pour from the teapot. If you drink tea “European style”, then you will dilute the tea leaves with water.

We are used to first pouring tea leaves into a cup, and only then diluting it with water. In the case of water, this is trivial, but regarding milk, the British have been debating for many years about what is poured into the cup first - milk or tea leaves.

The only one reliable fact What both sides agree on is the knowledge that the very first porcelain cups produced in England and Europe would have shattered when very hot tea was poured directly into them. Pouring milk into the cup before adding tea could protect the cup. (Modern porcelain, of course, does not need such “milk protection”.)

Some people talk about hot tea "burning" the milk's nutrients, especially if the milk is poured in first; others argue that the order of pouring does not matter - boiling tea has a destructive effect on milk in any case. The disagreements do not end there - further dispute concerns whether “spoiled” milk improves the taste of tea or not. At the same time, some say that the taste of tea improves, while others believe that the taste of tea remains the same, but the taste of the milk added to it spoils. Of course, this debate is endless and scholastic, but the truth is somewhere nearby ;-)))

But in any case, if you add anything to tea (milk or alcohol), do not forget to stir the mixture, because for example, alcohol added after pouring the tea leaves will remain on the surface.

Result. Tea temperature, leaf agony

In general, all advanced tea drinkers agree that it is better not to add anything to tea and not even to dilute it with water (i.e. drink not “European-style,” but “Oriental-style”). However, this is not entirely true and is not always possible for a very simple reason: tea cannot be drunk very hot.

Of course, if your nasopharynx is hardened by drinking medical alcohol, and you have just returned from 30 degrees below zero, then you can drink bubbling boiling water! But in general, physiologists and nutritionists have long proven that taste and aroma are best felt not in hot food, but in warm or moderately heated food (24-26C). Those. If you want to fully experience all the delights of tea, then drink it warm, but not hot.

The Chinese get out of this situation by using small cups - the tea in them instantly cools; our Central Asian brothers due to wide bowls, and due to the fact that little by little is poured into them. The Russians, always prone to perversions (as Belinsky said: “excessive originality of the Russian person” ;-)), used saucers to cool tea. I understand that serving from saucers is an integral part of the so-called. “Russian tea drinking”, but I myself am very skeptical about this piece of tea furniture. The way out of the situation is trivial - to hot brew (even when drinking “oriental style”) you need to add not boiling water (as is usually customary), but water of moderate temperature.

Was our tea good? Sometimes this is not easy to assess. Like that old joke:

— Have you heard Vishnevskaya? Is it true that she is a great singer? - one asks
- Well, nothing special! It's fake and burrs terribly!
— ?!?!?!?!
- Yes, I'm telling the truth! Rabinovich himself sang for me, and he was at the concert.

Moral: to assess whether your tea is good, you need to know the criteria for this assessment. Therefore, every good tea drinker should also be at least a good tea tester. Below we provide some criteria for assessing the quality of brewed tea. Let’s immediately make a reservation that, in general, these criteria are most applicable to mass consumer teas (black), because elite unfermented and semi-fermented teas are often too unique and distinctive.

So, the main indicators of the quality of brewed tea:

1) Agony of leaves.“Agony of leaves” is a tricky tea-tester term that indicates how dry tea leaves react to the action of boiling water, how quickly and strongly dry tea leaves unfold in boiling water. The ideal leaf agony should be (a) rapid and (b) severe.

“Fast” means that during the optimal brewing time (on average 3 minutes), dry tea leaves should have time to fully unfold and extract as much as possible, i.e. add all soluble substances to the infusion.

"Strength" refers to the degree to which dry leaves unfold. Those. We put a dry leaf, small and wrinkled, into the teapot, and under the influence of boiling water it straightens out, becomes large and smooth. Roughly speaking, severe agony of the leaves means that by pouring 2 teaspoons of tea leaves into the teapot, after pouring boiling water, we end up with leaves swollen to the size of half the teapot.

Leaf agony indirectly reflects how well the tea leaves were rolled before fermentation and/or drying. And the better they were rolled, the more aromatic and extractive (rich) the tea turns out. Of course, in high-quality tea, the agony of the leaves should be fast and strong.

Result. Color, astringency, bitterness...

2) Tea infusion color. The color of a tea infusion has (a) specific characteristics and (b) non-specific characteristics.

Specific characteristics are associated with a particular type of tea. For example, high-quality Assamese teas from the first harvest usually have a light golden-yellow-ocher infusion color. In Titester jargon, there is even a separate term for this color of quality Assam - “biscuit” color. (Imagine the top crust of a well-baked sponge cake...)

Nonspecific characteristics are universal and suitable for assessing the quality of any tea infusion. These characteristics are the brightness and transparency of the tea infusion. The transparency of a tea infusion is easy to determine. Even with the eye it is easy to see whether the tea is clear or cloudy. Let us immediately note that cloudy tea is an indicator of low-grade or spoiled tea. The higher the quality of the tea, the clearer the infusion.

The brightness of a tea infusion is a complex optical characteristic (it’s easier to show than to explain;-(((). Like a high-quality gemstone, tea should sparkle, glow, “play” in the light. The tea infusion should be beautiful and bright. This can be seen if pour freshly brewed tea into a clean glass thin-walled glass and look at it in the light (not in direct sunlight!). In principle, the brightness and “play” of good tea can be seen even in white porcelain or earthenware.

The opposite characteristic of brightness is dullness, dullness, and inexpressiveness of the tea infusion. Let us also add that, contrary to popular opinion, color has nothing to do with the “strength” of tea, with its astringency and tonic properties.

3) Astringency and bitterness. The first taste characteristic of strongly brewed tea, which immediately catches the tongue (by analogy with “catches the eye” ;-))) is its astringency, or, as people often say, bitterness. Despite the fact that astringency and bitterness in everyday understanding are almost the same thing, from the point of view of testers, it is completely wrong to equate astringency and bitterness. Bitterness is truly a taste, and the degree to which a tea is bitter is directly related to its caffeine content. In 99% of cases, the more caffeinated the tea, the more bitter it is. This is especially true for unfermented (green) teas. (Also see about bitterness earlier, where about brewing time)

There is one very subtle point associated with brewing (and tasting) tea. The fact is that caffeine is not actively extracted into the tea infusion immediately, but 3-5 minutes after the start of brewing.

If you don’t want caffeine bitterness to overwhelm all the other flavors of the tea, then it is very important to catch the very moment in brewing when essential oils, tea polyphenols, etc. have already been released into the tea, but the caffeine has not yet been fully released . Only then will you feel the real taste of tea. (Of course, for different teas this very moment of the appearance of caffeine bitterness is different. This can only be verified experimentally.)

Astringency is NOT a taste, but an exclusively tactile sensation. As my daughter said when she was a child, after trying strong tea: “Some kind of roughness in the mouth.” Astringency is an astringent tactile sensation, a consequence of the tannic effect caused by tea tannins. Let us also add that astringency is more characteristic of black medium- and small-leaf teas; in green teas (with the exception of certain varieties) it is usually less pronounced.

Let's summarize: 1) good tea should have good, pronounced astringency; 2) good tea should release caffeine into the infusion for as long as possible (i.e., the later strong bitterness appears, the better).

Result. Tastes, flavors, aftertastes of tea

4) Taste of tea. In general, science knows only 4 tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty. It would seem that everything is simple, but the number all possible combinations There are a huge number of these tastes. In addition, there are many tastes (there are dozens and even hundreds of them), and in addition, taste is inextricably intertwined with the sense of smell, i.e. the smell greatly “edits” the taste.

From this you can rightly conclude that the task of describing taste is quite difficult. Especially for products that are multi-flavored, i.e. combine several flavors. Tea is such a multi-flavored drink.

Traditionally, tea testers believe that tea is a harmonious unity of three tastes: bitterness, sweetness and astringency. The bitterness of tea comes from caffeine, the sweetness comes from fruit sugars, and the astringency comes from tannins. I already wrote earlier that astringency is not a taste, but a tactile sensation, but nevertheless, at the level of holistic perception, it is closely and inextricably linked with the taste of tea.

According to teatester rules, in good tea all three tastes should be evenly expressed and balanced. If any of the tastes is absent or too dominant, then the tea is of poor quality.

In addition, tea can have different flavors. Good flavors are those that “set off”, “sharpen”, and enhance the basic tastes. For example, flavors that enhance the sweet taste in tea are considered especially valuable - almond, honey, spicy (cinnamon), malt, etc. Bad flavors are considered to be those that are non-food (for example, metallic) or that contradict the basic tastes of tea (for example, sour taste, as happens with spoiled tea).

Interestingly, on the menu of many traditional cuisines we find that products that can be combined with high-quality tea without spoiling its taste are usually selected on the basis of complementary flavors. Those. good tea is best drunk not with sweets, but with something sour (hence lemon in tea) or salty. Then the taste of the tea itself will be felt stronger.

There is also a difference between taste and aftertaste in tea. Taste is what we feel directly at the moment when the tea is in the mouth; aftertaste is the taste that remains in the mouth (on the tongue) after the tea is swallowed. High-quality tea usually has pronounced astringency and partly bitterness as a taste, and sweetness and partly astringency as an aftertaste.

Remember also that you also need to taste and evaluate the taste of tea correctly. Firstly, the tea should not be very hot, because... high temperature suppresses the sense of taste. Secondly, the tea should not be swallowed immediately, but should be kept in the mouth for some time, because different parts of the tongue are responsible for different tastes. If you swallow tea too quickly, your tongue simply won’t have time to perceive all the flavor nuances. Thirdly, it is best to taste the taste this way: a sip of tea - a sip of clean water - ... (etc.). For example, wine is tasted in a similar way, but this method is also good for assessing the taste of tea.

Result. Tea aroma, summary

5) Tea aroma. The aroma of tea is even more difficult to describe than its taste. The fact is that even scientists have not yet created an accurate classification of odors. There are many of these classifications; they usually distinguish 4-18 basic odors, and the number of combinations of these basic odors can number in the hundreds. For example, according to H. Henig's classification, the basic odors are floral, fruity, spicy, resinous and burnt.

Tea can (and should!) express primarily floral, resinous and fruity aromas, and only in some varieties – spicy (some oolongs) and smoky (lapsang souchong).

Almost all smells are objective. That is, if we talk about plants, then their specific aroma is determined by the content of essential oils in it (mostly). Currently, hundreds and even thousands of essential oils have been discovered, many of which are unique and are named after the plant in which they were discovered. For example, the smell of geranium is mainly determined by the presence of the essential oil geraniol; the smell of thyme (thyme) - thymol; mint smell - menthol, etc. The main problem with tea is that it is not only a multi-flavored object, but also a poly-aromatic object. It contains quite a lot of essential oils, which can give various types of tea the most complex and bizarre aromatic compositions (bouquet).

In addition to the basic tea aromas (floral, resinous and fruity), tea testers highlight the following aromas: citrus (lemon, orange), geranium, lilac, peach blossom, strawberry, rose, malt, cinnamon, jasmine (without aromatization), wild rosemary, black currant, honey , nut (almond), etc. As a rule, these aromas are very subtle (the so-called “aromatic notes” or “accents”), and you need to have a very trained nose to distinguish them from the general bouquet.

As a rule, in the East the most expensive tea is the one that has exquisite aroma(flower tea). Generally, unfermented (white and green) and semi-fermented (oolong) teas are more aromatic than plain black tea. At the same time, such teas have a very strong and persistent smell of both dry brewing and infusion, the aromas of black tea are more subtle, and if improperly brewed and stored, black tea easily and quickly loses its aromatic characteristics.

Experienced tea testers know that it is better to evaluate the smell of tea using... an empty cup. To do this, tea (infusion undiluted with water) is poured into an empty cup (about 1/3 full), rinsed, and the infusion is poured back into the teapot, and the cup is then sniffed. At the same time, do not forget that the aroma of tea changes all the time and is most intense in the first 2-3 minutes from the start of brewing.

To assess odor, the standard tester technique uses a “semicircular” bowl-shaped cup, which is rinsed with tea and then sniffed. In the Chinese ceremony of gongfu-cha, on the contrary, narrow glass-shaped yang cups are used to “taste the aroma”. However, if you have a good sense of smell, then the cup is not a matter of principle;-))

As a summary, we note that properly brewed good tea: a) should have a bright and strong tea aroma (a harmonious combination of common tea odors - floral, resinous and fruity); b) must have a complex aromatic bouquet, which, however, must have a pronounced aromatic accent (for example, in high-quality Darjeelings this is almond note, for high-quality Assam - malt, etc.) c) should not have any foreign odors.

At the end of the section, we remind you that well-brewed high-quality tea should:

1) Have severe leaf agony.
2) Have a beautiful, bright color.
3) Have good astringency with little bitterness.
4) Have a pronounced taste.
5) Have a subtle, refined and rich aroma.

It's no secret that tea is the most popular drink that both adults and children enjoy drinking. Who would refuse a cup of aromatic tea, invigorating and tonic? But many people forget how to brew tea correctly, in order to reveal its beneficial qualities as fully as possible; they use quick brewing methods using tea bags. But the tea ceremony in some countries is a real ritual that cannot be rushed. Eastern peoples They consider tea their national drink.

Let's remember all the subtleties and nuances of preparing this wonderful drink and fully enjoy its taste and aroma.

Many people know about the existence of the most beautiful flower - camellia, some even grow it at home. But not everyone knows that this is the same tea plant, from the buds and leaves of which absolutely all types of tea are made. Yes, yes, it is Camellia sinensis that provides the raw materials for black, green, and all other varieties of our favorite drink.

The birthplace of tea is China, although many are confident of its Indian origin. But there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, especially since the three-thousand-year history of Chinese tea is reliably known.

IN modern world There are more than 1,500 varieties of tea, but there are only six main types: black, green, white, red (oolong), yellow and pu-erh (post-fermented). They differ from each other in the duration and method of oxidation before subsequent drying of the sheet.

1. Black. The oxidation process is long, from two weeks to a month. The leaf is almost completely oxidized, up to 80%. When dry, it has a dark brown, almost black color. The drink is orange to red-brown in color. The most popular type of tea in the European part.
2. Green. Almost non-oxidized tea (3-12%). Its leaves are left in the air to wilt slightly, dried and rolled. Thanks to this, fermentation does not occur. Dry leaves are light green to dark green in color, and the drink is yellowish or greenish with a distinct herbal taste and aroma.
3. White. Young leaves and unopened camellia buds are almost not processed, however, the degree of oxidation is about 12%. They are dried, but not rolled like green tea, so the tea leaves quickly open in water. Light in color when dry, and yellowish but deeper than green when brewed. It has a floral taste and aroma. Very sensitive and capricious when cooking.
4. Yellow. This elite variety, it was once prepared exclusively for the imperial court, and it was prohibited from being exported from the country. It is made only from high quality raw materials and carefully processed. Before drying, the leaves undergo a special simmering procedure in fabric bags. The degree of fermentation is 7-10%. Brewed tea is clear and light yellow tint and a pronounced “smoked” smell - this is his distinguishing feature. The tea is quite rare and is still considered exclusive.
5. Red (oolong). In China it is also called turquoise or blue-green, while in Russia it is known as red. According to the degree of fermentation, they are divided into weak, medium and strong. Color, taste and smell depend on oxidation, which varies from 30 to 70%.
6. Puer (dark tea). The dense, juicy leaves are collected from the oldest plants, then pressed into cakes and subjected to many years of natural oxidation. To speed up the fermentation process, artificial aging is used - a pile of leaves is watered from time to time and the mechanism for the development of microorganisms (mold) is triggered, which, through their vital activity, increases the temperature and causes juice to be released. The main thing is to monitor the temperature to prevent rotting. This is the most expensive type of tea

Before brewing tea, first make sure that the water is prepared correctly, because it is one of the main components when preparing the drink. The Chinese recommend taking spring water or fresh water from rivers and lakes, but given the unfavorable ecology, it is better to limit yourself to pure filtered water.

If you only have tap water, then make it a rule to leave it in an open container for several hours so that the smell of bleach disappears and harmful impurities settle to the bottom. Of course, it is unacceptable to shake and stir it; use only the top layer of liquid.

Remember, the quality of water plays a decisive role in preparing tea.

Rigidity

Hard water “kills” the taste and smell of tea with sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide components.

Soft, practically free of mineral salts, most suitable for preparing an aromatic drink.

What to do if hard water prevails in the region? Leave for at least 24 hours and filter.

Temperature

If you ask drink lovers what kind of water to brew tea with, the overwhelming majority will answer – boiling water. And it will be completely wrong!

Of course, there are a few varieties that require boiling water, but they are rather the exception. You need to take hot water for brewing, about 80 degrees. Try to catch the moment of the “white key”, when many small bubbles rush upward and the water takes on a cloudy milky color. It is under these temperature conditions that the taste and aroma can be revealed most fully, and most importantly, the release of tannins, which give a bitter aftertaste, can be avoided.

Boiling water for a long time or boiling it again spoils the taste of tea, “poor” it, and the smell completely disappears. This is no longer a drink, but colored water. The most offensive thing is that we often call this water tea.

Ceramics, porcelain or earthenware are the best materials for a teapot. Recently, transparent ones made of thick heat-resistant glass have come into fashion; they are not inferior to ceramic ones and are also worthy of attention.

The lid must close tightly and even go a little deeper inward, so as not to create a “draft” and temperature imbalance. The walls are thick, the bottom is wide, the shape is pot-bellied, tapering towards the top - this is the ideal teapot.

Step-by-step instructions for brewing black tea

How to brew tea correctly in order to fully enjoy its taste? After all, most likely you pour the raw materials into the teapot, pour boiling water over it and after a couple of minutes pour the tea leaves into cups. Or you dip a bag of an unknown substance into a glass of hot water. Is this what you call tea? Then you have never drunk real, properly brewed tea.

Boiling water

Pour out everything in your kettle. No repeated boiling! Fill it with fresh, ideally spring water. Since you most likely do not have such water, take filtered or bottled water from the store.

Bring to a partial boil, a “white key”, when many small bubbles color the water milky.

Preparing the teapot

Before adding tea, pour boiling water over the teapot.

This way you kill two birds with one stone. First, remove dust and dirt, that is, disinfect the surface. Secondly, you create a favorable temperature regime for brewing.

Compliance with brewing dosage

Each variety is brewed differently, but there is a universal rule - you need to pour 1 teaspoon of raw material into a glass (cup) and add another one. That is, if you need to pour tea leaves for four people, then pour 5 teaspoons of tea into the teapot.

Everything else depends solely on your taste - like it stronger, add tea leaves.

Filling with water and infusing

After you have prepared the teapot (scalded it) and poured the required amount of raw materials, pour hot water to a third of the volume. Close the lid and shake the contents lightly. Then add water to the desired level and leave for a few minutes.

Never fill the water all the way to the top, leave a few centimeters for steam and foam. By the way, properly brewed tea always forms foam on the surface.

The tea is considered brewed if all the tea leaves have sunk to the bottom. As a rule, this happens after 5-7 minutes. During this time, the leaves managed to steam and unfold, releasing all the beneficial substances and aromatic essential oils into the water.

Drink only freshly brewed tea; the longer it sits, the more it loses its beneficial properties. In a drink that has stood for an hour, up to 90% of its properties are lost and harmful substances are released that are more likely to do harm than good.

How to brew green tea and how does the brewing technology differ from black tea? Nothing! There are no fundamental differences in the preparation of black and green, except for one very useful property of the latter.

Green varieties are suitable for multiple brewing. This is especially convenient in our realities, since high-quality tea leaves are not cheap. With each subsequent brewing, the drink acquires different taste, and the second and third are much tastier than the first. But it should be remembered that re-brewing should be carried out during the day, and not the next, otherwise this is fraught with the appearance of mold and mildew, and the essential oils will evaporate and the tea will look like colored hot water.

Rules for brewing red, yellow and white tea

Varieties of tea that are exotic to us need to be brewed correctly and all features taken into account. Otherwise, if you buy expensive tea, you may be very disappointed.

Oolong or red

In the East, red tea is what we know as black tea. The Chinese are guided by the color of the drink, because depending on the quantity and type of raw material, the shade varies from amber to red-brown. Europeans call it black based on the dried tea leaf, and it is known to be black in color. Tea, which is traditionally considered red in our country, is called oolong or turquoise in China. This variety is a cross between green and black tea, and its color, smell and taste depend on oxidation.

To properly brew oolong, you should know its degree of fermentation. Weak ones are filled with hot water from 60 to 80 degrees and kept for up to 3 minutes. More oxidized ones require a little longer brewing time, and the water temperature approaches boiling - 90 degrees.

The tea leaves open well when maintained temperature regime, so it’s best to take a special ceramic teapot with thick walls. Such teapots are made for Chinese tea ceremonies; they are small in size - one third is filled with tea, and the remaining two thirds are topped with water.

The amount of re-brewing can reach an average of 7 times. But you can also use traditional dishes - glass or porcelain teapots and take 1 teaspoon of raw materials per glass of water, plus another extra spoon.

Imperial Elite

Yellow tea requires careful adherence to all brewing conditions, otherwise the taste can be ruined. Do not pour boiling water over it under any circumstances, except that you will “kill” the smell and most of the useful substances, the drink will be bitter and unpleasant.

Take soft filtered water and heat it until bubbles appear, approximately 70-80 degrees. For a glass of drink you should take 4 grams of raw materials. It is best to prepare tea in a transparent glass teapot to enjoy the “dance of the tea leaves” - the tea buds float to the bottom several times during the brewing process. In ancient times, it was believed that the process of rising and falling had to happen three times, only after that the tea would be ready.

Medicinal light

This type of tea appeared long before green tea and was used for medicinal purposes. It is still called the drink of youth and health. Considered one of the the best means for the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome.

White tea According to Chinese tradition, it is brewed exclusively with boiling water. There is a myth in Western culture that this gentle drink and you need to cook it in cold or slightly warmed water - this is stupidity and the Chinese will only laugh at you.

Take small teapot and pour raw materials into it at the rate of 7 g per half glass of water. Pour boiling water over it and after half a minute pour the tea leaves into a larger kettle. Pour boiling water again and drain. This method is called strait. White tea can withstand up to 10 repeated brewings, and the resulting tea in a large teapot will be rich and will contain all the flavor subtleties of numerous brewings.

If you do not want to carry out ceremonies, then pour tea into an ordinary porcelain teapot at the rate of 6 grams per glass of water and fill it with cooler water at 80 degrees. Infuse until the tea leaves sink to the bottom. This method involves brewing once.

Brewing tea with cream or lemon

For lovers of all kinds of additives to tea, we can say one thing - this is no longer tea, but a tea drink. Because when you add lemon, milk, cream, honey and other things, some properties of tea are lost. For example, if you like tea with milk, then get ready for the fact that the tea leaf loses antioxidants, which means it ceases to be a preventive measure for oncology and cardiovascular diseases.

On the other hand, the drink takes on something new. Therefore, if you like a sour citrus flavor, then add a slice of lemon. Or a spoonful of honey, or maybe raspberry jam.

Conclusion

Now you know how to brew tea correctly. Enjoy your tea! Brew fresh tea and drink it with pleasure!