Drinking right now: Sweet Pu-erh Black Tea, origin: China. $79.99/lb
At 4:30 in the morning, I am waiting for my bread to rise. I didn't mean to be making it so late, but the 103°F heat index kept us from going for groceries until 9 PM; by the time I got home and the food put away, it was 1:30 before the kids were in bed.
I'm getting a whole lot faster at this baking thing, but I still need an uninterrupted 10 minutes to knead the dough at the start. If I can't have that long without chasing kids, I can't actually begin baking. Razi is helpful with that, but Beorn knows when I'm occupied and immediately gets into trouble (i.e., anything I normally put him in time-out for doing.) Therefore, my baking is restricted to waiting for my husband to get home from work so he can watch them, or until after they've gone to sleep.
So here I am at 4:30 in the morning, my rising bread not even in the oven yet.
Joyous News
Today, my husband called me on his drive to work to say something I'd been hoping to hear for years: "I think I want to try tea." You see, he's not a fan of hot drinks, period. He likes soup enough, but I'm not sure he'd even take that from a cup.
"It's getting expensive to buy my orange juice, isn't it?" He's been drinking only orange juice at home for the last couple of months. In addition to the expense, he's just plain tired of it. And he's completely correct--it would be a lot cheaper if he did as I do and drank mostly tea and water.
He asked me what kind of tea I recommended for him to start exploring. I started with the basic types, where they typically are produced, what kind of methods are used in growing and... At that point, I realized he'd been dead silent for several minutes. Did you hear me? "Yeah." I might as well have been speaking Klingon.
I backed up. Do you want iced tea? I know you like iced tea. Yes, that's what he had meant by "what kind."
"I like the tea at Olive Garden." Ah, the Bellini tea! Well, that's just regular tea loaded down with syrup and fake peach flavoring. I can't do that, but let's see what I can get. After going through a few peach-like flavors of tea, he asked me to just start by picking some at the grocery store that sound good and that I know I'll drink if he doesn't.
A free rein to load up on a dozen teas! I set myself a $10 budget, and came home with 8 different kinds--one white tea with peach, two seasonal iced tea blends, and five very different (from each other) black teas.
One of the black teas I chose had been tempting me for awhile: Pu-erh. It comes in these little compressed mounds wrapped in rice paper, and I had no idea where to begin brewing it. I love a challenge, especially including a chance to learn more about tea!
As I was loading the dishwasher and letting the dough rise, I decided to give the Pu-erh a go. I set the water to boil and opened the tea bundles--then stood and stared at them for a good 3 minutes. The little cakes of tea are so packed that there's no way putting hot water over them for 2-3 minutes (as the instructions printed with the label said to do) would unfurl the leaves enough for any kind of flavor. To the internet!
Google overwhelmed me with Pu-erh information, none of which I will try to summarize here. Please do look it up, it's incredibly interesting (there are three links there.) I'll put it this way: if Pu-erh were the only type of tea in the world, tea history/cultivation/production/infusion would be just as varied (and confusing to my husband) as it is now.
After considering the different methods for actually brewing it (eastern or western, 10 seconds or 3 minutes, wash the leaves first or dump the mound in, etc.) I decided to try breaking the leaves off gently first, then washing them, and finally brewing for about 30 seconds.
That fell through as soon as I tried to get a table knife into the rock-hard bullet of leaves. I finally ended up putting two of the mounds (I weighed them--5g each) into my teapot and pouring boiling water over them. I let those sit a minute to loosen up, then used the knife to pry everything apart.
I was pretty dismayed to find tea twigs in there immediately; this was a very, very low-grade Pu-erh. Mostly, I was dismayed that four of the little buggers cost me about $4, would only make two pots overall(each brewed multiple times still), and were already being more difficult than getting Beorn away from cheese at snacktime. At $79.99/lb for this low-end tea, I was really curious as to what a true, aged Pu-erh might cost (If you buy that, please do it through this link so I get 4% ;D).
Anyways, I strained the leaves (I used that unfurling as the "washing" step) and poured water over them again. Another quick discovery--I had raw Pu-erh instead of ripe. From the price, I'm guessing it was pretty young, so I used water far too hot for its age and probably brewed it too long. It took a couple of minutes for the water to tint at all; even though one website said to brew according to "taste, and not color," I balked at pouring clear tea.
The verdict? Still delicious! It's very muted and earthy, almost smoky--but nowhere near Lapsang Souchong. One thing I'm loving is the refreshing aftertaste; there's really no bitterness or metallic finish that so many earthier teas have. It's not quite as full-bodied as I like, but it is on the heavy end. The finish is definitely flowery, though.
You know what else just finished? My bread! And the sun is barely up.
8 comments:
.... no way would I pay that much for tea.
Which one, the $4 for 20 grams or $2100 for 300 grams?
2100 for 300.
I'm kind of with your hubs on this one, Maevrim. I love sweet tea and I actually do like going out to Tea, at a Tea Room. I know jack about teas, mostly I like to hang out there and pretend like I'm respectable for a few hours before I go back to dropping the F-Bomb. I like to try the different teas when I go, but so many times they have a bitter after taste. I suspect this is from overbrewing. This didnt happen often in the Pink Bicycle in Occoquan because they left an hourglass on the table. That was easy enough. Here, in Florida, they dont do that so my experiences havent been as pleasant. I appreciate that you like, tea, though, and I hope you find one to make the hubs happy. I might have to suggest plain ol' Lipton, though, because that's what I like. :0p
Overbrewing happens too often. There's a really smoky tea I love that I can't get anyone else to drink, and part of the problem is the first guy who made it for me (at a specialty tea and coffee shop--obviously he was not so knowledgeable about the tea) not only brewed it for 15 MINUTES but added about 1/4 c. of tea leaves for a two-cup pot of tea. I didn't know any better at the time, and assumed that this employee knew what he was doing and this is how it was to be served.
I do keep Lipton around, mostly because it's what I drank growing up and is kind of a comfort drink for me sometimes. It's also a very cheap base if you want to make a lot of flavored iced tea but only want to use a little herbs and need a great deal of black tea. Kind of like how you don't generally use the best wine to saute, you know?
I have a lot of issues with most tea rooms: they don't stick to their own theme with their tea choices, they don't actually know enough about tea to provide a good selection or serve them correctly, and...well no, those are my two main issues. People let me down when I expect for them to have a little education about what is central to their business, especially when they don't provide a way to educate their customers should they so wish to learn.
Addendum: But I'm just extremely cranky right now, which is why there's no new post yet.
Well, I hope he liked it. I think it's cute that you're so excited about this. As for me, I'll stick with Propel--no steeping necessary.haha
He does love the iced tea! I'm not going to make him try hot tea as long as he's happy with the iced.
Tea is definitely where I become very eccentric. One of the places. Ok, there may be a few, but tea is certainly one of the top issues I feel strongly about.
[insert emotional--yet inspiring--overused tea quote here, ideally by a Buddhist]
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