Choosing tea
There are around 3000 types of tea, and all of them owe their origin to an evergreen member of the Camellia family: Thea sinesis and its subspecies. Yet the source of the tea, and its journey from plant to pot, are what determine its final character, colour and flavour - much in the same way as a wine from the same type of grape differs according to where it is grown, when it is harvested and how it is processed. The flavour and quality of tea from the same estate can vary from year to year because of uncontrollable environmental changes, a fact beloved by tea connoisseurs, but less so by the mass market which favours the unchanging taste of the more common tea blends that are balanced to provide a standard and familiar flavour.
Fresh, unprocessed tea-leaves are bitter, designed by nature to make the plant unattractive to foraging animals. It is the selective harvesting and processing of tea-leaves that makes them palatable and produces the different styles of drinking-tea. The major styles of tea are green, Oolong and black. Rarer styles are white tea, yellow tea (China’s rarest), and Puerh tea from China’s Yunnan province, which is aged for up to 30 years and named after the town which is at the centre of its trade.
The location and the climate of a tea plantation affect not only the taste and character of the tea they produce, but also its rarity, and therefore its desirability and market price. The most suitable conditions for growing tea are a stable atmospheric temperature, high humidity and altitude, with the best plantations found at altitudes of 1,200m to 1,800m, where the air is warm, but not too hot, and mist helps protect new growth from the harshness of direct sunlight. At such heights, new buds and leaves develop more slowly, intensifying the flavour of the so-called high-grown teas.
Tea does not age well but can be kept for several months once a container has been opened. Storing tea in your fridge is not a good idea because water vapour can penetrate the container and condense on the inside, ruining the tea.Where the climate is constant all the year round - as it is in Kenya, for instance - new shoots sprout throughout the year, providing a constant supply of new leaves. On average, in a constant climate, harvesting of tea leaves takes place every one or two weeks. In Sri Lanka, for example, new leaves can be plucked every seven days when the weather is wet, or every 10 days when it is dry. The high year-round yield of such plantations means that there is a constant supply of their teas on the world market, which keeps prices relatively low or constant.
In places where the climate is seasonal, as it is in Assam and Darjeeling, new leaves are available only at certain times of the year. The yield of each tea-plant is therefore lower, and the supply fluctuates throughout the year, so the tea is rarer and more expensive. Even where more than one seasonal harvest is possible in a single year, the quality and desirability differs between one ‘flush’ and another. First-flush Darjeeling, for instance, is more fragrant and commands higher prices than second-flush Darjeeling, whereas second-flush Assam is considered better than first-flush Assam.
The best and dearest teas are small-leaved, seasonal and hand-plucked. Tea-leaves are harvested when the plants ‘flush’, which means the sending out of new shoots tipped by a bud. Harvesting tea-leaves is laborious and, though machine-harvesting is widely used, it is not always suited to the contours of a tea plantation and it certainly cannot match the selectivity of hand-plucking, which is favoured for the finer teas.
Fine-plucked tea consists of an unopened leaf-bud at the tip of a shoot, and the two tender new leaves below it. Medium-plucked tea includes three leaves, and coarse-plucked tea includes the bud and up to four leaves. The fine distinction between types of plucked tea cannot be managed by machine. When a tea is small-leaved, more leaves, and therefore more work, are needed to make up the volume, hence the higher price of a small-leaved tea. With first-flush Darjeeling, around 5,500 tea-plant shoots, all plucked by hand, result in just 250g of ready-to-use tea.
Using the right water
Tea is mildly acid, bitter, and contains traces of salt and a substance called theanine, which is sweet and savoury - hence the complexity of tea’s taste. Brewed tea is around 98% water, so the flavour of even the finest of dried teas is readily ruined by using the wrong sort of water. Hard water, which is what comes out of Maltese taps, is the worst sort to use in brewing tea. The high carbonate content produces a surface scum that might not be visible but which contaminates the taste of tea. Water that is too soft can give a salty type of flavour because it encourages over-extraction of the chemical components of the tea-leaves.
Pure, distilled water is not ideal because it gives tea a flat taste. The best type of water for tea-making has some level of mineral content and a moderately acid pH value. Bottled spring water which has a pH value of 5-7 brings out the best flavour in tea. If you are going to buy water specially for making tea, invest in a new kettle which you can keep for that particular purpose. Your regular kettle is likely to be contaminated by carbonate deposits left behind by boiling tap-water.
Brewing and airing
Once tea is brewed at the right temperature for the correct length of time (these factors differ according to the type of tea), the liquid should be removed to prevent the taste becoming harsh. Tea that is left to stand loses its aroma and changes in taste, because dissolved oxygen and internal reactions affect its chemical composition. Tea that is served hot should be brewed in minutes and drunk fresh, when its flavour is at its best. Tea that is served chilled can be cold-brewed slowly over several hours, rather than brewed hot and cooled with ice, a process which tends to make it cloudy.
Generally, the smaller the leaf or particle size, the shorter the brewing-time, but this varies across tea styles. So a small-leafed black tea needs a shorter brewing time than a large-leafed black tea, but a small-leafed white tea might need a longer brewing-time than a large-leafed black tea.
Choose a suitably sized pot for the number of servings you expect to draw. Using a large teapot for just one or two cups of tea is not a good idea, as too much air in the pot affects the flavour. Tea can be kept warm with a tea-cosy or a hotplate, or a candle lit beneath a stand under the base of the pot - but this should be avoided when the leaves are still in the pot, because it stews the tea and makes it bitter.
White teas can be infused several times using water that is hot but not boiling. Instead of guessing the water temperature or messing around with thermometers, use a rule of thumb: bring water to the boil, pour it into a jug and then leave it to stand for a few minutes before pouring it over your white tea. Brewing-time varies up to 10 minutes but, typically, Chinese white tea needs five to six minutes and Darjeeling white tea needs three to five minutes.
Green teas should be infused in slightly cooler water. Allow three to four minutes brewing-time for Chinese green tea and one to two minutes for Japanese green tea. The Asian way of preparing green tea is to use a small pot, one third full of dry tea, and top it up with hot water three to four times for successive infusions of varying flavour.
Oolong and black teas should be infused in water that is close to the boil. Take the water off the heat just as tiny bubbles begin to form, or let it boil and then cool slightly. Brewing-time is typically three to five minutes long.