Introduction for future teaheads

Hi people,

I think I am getting good at spreading the word about TEA 😀

Mei Leaf Shout out for turning my friends into Tea Heads

In my opinion this blog is long overdue. People ask me about tea all the time and now I finally got a blog to refer to. A while ago I  got a message from one of my friends from The UK asking me about tea. And while answering her questions I realized I almost wrote an entire blog.

I get a lot of questions about tea and I am always happy to answer them all. After all tea is one of my favorite subjects to talk about.

When I start to talk about tea I usually start with saying that most tea bags are not made from proper tea. And that it’s better to drink loose leaf tea. When I was in Sri Lanka at a tea plantation I was told that the tea that is used in tea bags is in fact nothing more than “Tea Dust”.

One of the misconceptions about tea is that loose leaf tea is “inconvenient” and tea bags are easier. But to be honest with you loose leaf tea can be very easy and convenient too. And you can make things as easy or complicated as you wish. Of course I like to have nice tea ware because it is my hobby. With tea it is the same as music. You can record your music in a very high quality. But if someone is listening to this awesome music through some cheap earplugs you won’t get the full experience as when you’re listening to it on a full hifi system. It is up to the individual what kind of experience you’re after. With tea you can buy fancy tea ware. But you don’t have to do it to enjoy the experience. However you can have very high quality green tea but if you don’t use the right tea ware or put boiling water on top of it the tea will still go bitter and be horrible! And the experience is not as good as it could be.

The way you brew your tea has an effect on the tea. Usually we brew Western style: with a teapot. You use less leaves and let it infuse for a longer time to extract the leaves. We leave the leaves in the pot so when the tea sits for a while the rest of the tea turns really strong and most of the time black and bitter. It’s not a really bad way to make tea. But you do reduce the amount of times you can infuse the tea leaves with almost half. With Gong Fu style brewing you use more leaves and you have a shorter time to infuse. You will see that the leaves expand after multiple infusions and the taste will change with every infusion.

I do like the connoisseur tea brewer because it is really easy to brew Gong Fu style in a very easy way. You just add the leaves to the top chamber. Put water on it and after 30 seconds push the button and decant the tea into the lower chamber. It’s easy and hassle free.

If you don’t want to spend money on things like that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy good tea. And it isn’t that much extra work either. You can also use a 2 mugs and a strainer. Just put the leaves in a mug. Put a strainer on another mug and poor the tea from one mug in the other after 30 seconds. It is that simple! And for the next infusions you just put the leaves back into the mug and continue to do so until the infusions get weaker. Just don’t leave the leaves in the water for too long and add about 5 seconds to every infusion. I promise you that this will change the way you look at tea.

I certainly don’t think there is anything wrong if someone loves a certain tea. Even if it’s a teabag. It’s the same with fast food. If you like that stuff and make a conscious decision that you want to eat at McDonalds or Burger King than that is fine. But if you want to be aware of what you drink and drink good quality tea that smells and taste good than loose leave is the step to take. And tea drinking becomes more exciting.

Actually teabags are not even filled with tea. It is tea dust. All the leftovers from processing tea is just used to put into a bag. That is why it is cheap and easy. Teabags are designed to extract all their flavor as soon as the water hits the teabags and then you throw them away. Tea bags are are accidentally discovered when a  tea seller packed his tea in small bags when he send tea to one of their customers. When he got in touch with the customer he found out that they didn’t take the tea out of the packet and that they liked the convenience of it. And that is how the tea bag was developed. Loose leaf  is more about getting more flavor out of the leaves over multiple infusions and really let the leave expand and develop the flavor with every infusion.

Which brings me to another misconception and that tea is boring. Tea got this image just because people don’t know about good tea. Good tea takes you on a journey.  And seriously…. You’ve got no idea haha….it’s like following the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland….. once your down that hole you have no idea what hit you. Your life will never be the same! 🙂 The quality of loose leaf tea is much better.  And in the end it is actually cheaper than teabags. Once you discovered the convenience of drinking tea that way there is a whole world to explore.

What people don’t know is that you can get a real kick out of tea! You might think that coffee, wine or beer is exciting and tea is not. But you must admit that the fact that you can actually get tea drunk must appeal to even the most resistant tea drinker. Tea can seriously influence your mood! When you drink Matcha that can have the same effect on you as a double espresso. Aged white tea can get you tea drunk. A ripe Pu-Erh tea can give you a satisfied feeling.

But there also are lots of health benefits.  I haven’t explored that part of tea yet. But no doubt that I will dive into that side of tea someday. At this point my focus is on taste and how tea makes me feel.  I am trying out different kinds of tea from different countries. I haven’t even scratched a bit from the surface. Slowly but surely I start to focus on certain types of tea and certain area’s. So that is the horizontal part of the tasting. Now I am going to dive into certain tea’s. I fell in love with Japanese green tea and now I am starting to explore the different types of Sencha and Matcha.

And I recently decided that I it was time for me to upgrade my teaware and invested in Mei Leaf’s Gong Gu Guru. A set of cups and special teapots to turn drinking tea into a bit of a ceremony. This is of course not everyone’s cup of tea. But for me it takes tea drinking to another level. There are so many things that influence the taste of tea. And like I said before, the right teaware makes a difference too. The set contains a Yixing clay teapot. The clay of the pot will react with the water and the tea and makes for a more smoother tea than when you brew the tea in porcelain or glass. This teapots are especially desirable when you brew oolong tea which needs to be brewed quite hot. And the clay retains the heat longer than a glass teapot.

However that is not something you want with a green tea. Green tea is better when brewed at a lower temperature so a glass teapot is more suitable for green tea because the glass doesn’t retain the heat as long as clay. The Gong Fu Guru contains both and also includes all the other accessories you can use when you are Gong Fu style brewing. But as I said before, you don’t need all that to enjoy a good quality tea.

It all might sound very intimidating but it is all up to the individual what kind of experience you’re after. And don’t get me wrong. When I’m travelling I will be happy to drink teabag tea. No problem. It’s not that I’m a tea snob now. It’s just when given a choice I’d rather go for the loose leaf tea. Having said that, the quality of the tea that is being served when I order a cup of tea in The Netherlands is getting slightly better. They’re still teabags but you can tell that tea gets more attention than before. More people decide to drink tea instead of coffee.

I hope that by sharing my experience more people will discover the wonderful world of tea. It’s not just about the tea. There is a complete community of people who love “the leaf” and love to share their experience and even their tea with each other. I would love to have a platform like Goodreads. Goodreads is a social network where you can post your book reviews and can befriend people. A little bit like Facebook for bookworms. Mei Leaf gives you the opportunity to share your tasting notes. All I miss is the opportunity to swap tea with other Teaheads. I mentioned that idea on the Mei Leaf facebookpage and I got the response that it is something they intend to implement in the future. And I also mentioned it at several Live sessions. So who knows what the future brings.

In the meantime I will keep drinking the good stuff with my Gong Fu Guru. Until next time: Stay away from the teabags too!!

Miranda.