The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea - Michael Harney [4]
Before you brew your first cup, imagine yourself on a leisurely stroll through the aisles of your favorite market. Get comfortable. Remind yourself of that important kindergarten lesson: There are no wrong answers. Old tea tasters have a favorite saying: “From ten tea tasters will come eleven opinions.” Do whatever you need to do to relax, so that you can draw from the fullest spectrum of flavors and aromas you already know. The more at ease you are, the more you can take in about the tea.
To make it even easier, I’ve broken down tea tasting to five simple steps: (1) examining the dry leaves; (2) brewing the leaves at the proper time and temperature; (3) looking at the tea; (4) smelling the tea; and, only at the very end, (5) tasting the tea. In the chapters that follow, a tasting chart will introduce each new tea variety and guide you through each of the five steps.
1. EXAMINING THE DRY LEAVES
Tea leaves hold important clues to the quality of the eventual brew. The first step to tasting tea is to ensure you are brewing the right kind. Many of these teas are so rare that they are not always sold as the same grade. In each tasting chart I have provided a description of the appearance of the leaves; if yours look dramatically different, your tea may not be as good.
The leaves should look consistent with one another, as though they came from the same plant. Poorly made tea can have an odd mixture of shapes, from shoddy manufacturing or, worse, fraud, blending leaves from a variety of plants. Cheaply harvested tea will also contain bits of stalk. With the exception of Hojicha (page 66), an all-stalk tea, the best teas contain leaves only.
Next, examine the leaf size. If the chart says the leaves should be about one inch long but your tea leaves average a quarter of an inch or less, you have, unfortunately, bought an inferior tea. Lots of small particles will translate to a brisk, blunt taste. Similarly, some tea makers incorporate longer, older leaves when the finest versions include only the youngest and smallest.
Finally, check the dried leaves’ aroma. The dry leaves offer a quick preview of the tea’s taste. Breathe on the leaves through your mouth, as though you were clouding up a glass pane. The moisture will briefly trigger the release of the tea’s aromas. Immediately inhale the moist breath through your nose. If the tea is stale, the aromas may seem subdued. Most good teas begin to go stale after six months and should not be drunk after two years.
Once you are confident your tea is good and fresh, measure it out. While water temperature and brewing times vary for each tea, the ratio of tea to water is constant: For 8 ounces of water, measure out 1 rounded teaspoon, or .079 ounces (2.2 grams).
2. BREWING THE LEAVES
Potware
There is a world of potware to choose from, as wide as the world of tea. The selection can be overwhelming but doesn’t have to be. Professional tasters brew tea in small lidded ceramic cups modeled on the Chinese gaiwan cup. Resembling demitasse cups, the vessels are ideal for smelling the drained leaves. Their vertical sides release the steam without condensing it, as a round pot might. The lids also help keep the steam contained. Professional cups are not necessary; any pot is fine. I prefer ceramic pots out of tradition; the Chinese and Japanese also favor pots of earthenware and iron; glass pots are increasingly popular to brew “art teas” whose leaves change shape in the hot water. Since you will smell the leaves in the pot, I suggest you use a ceramic or glass pot. The aromas of an earthenware or iron pot can interfere with the tea.
Cup
In order to judge the color of the tea, or the “liquor,” it is important to use a white-lined ceramic cup. After brewing, professional