To Acquire The Original Best From Tea, A Copper Kettle Is Crucial

Brewing and serving tea is not new to the United States, where for most it is an alternative to coffee or cocoa occasionally indulged in for a change. It is largely a tea bag affair which is dipped in hat water and then drank as is or with milk and sugar. The romantic notion also has the image of a beautiful copper kettle on the stove in which the water is boiled.

Perhaps because brewing tea requires a more time and care than coffee it is less popular in the US. Americans make huge pots of coffee and keep it hot, whereas tea must be made and consumed almost immediately. The change in taste is chemical; over-brewed tea contains excessive amounts of tannin.

Tea originated in China and passed to other cultures over time. It passed from China through Korea and into Japan early in the ninth century, when priests went to China to learn of her culture and brought the drink back. It became a drink of the imperial household and spread from there.

Tea production is complex, beginning with the picking of the leaves. Tea leaves are said to ferment, but not in the traditional way with yeast, the leaves have naturally occurring enzymes which act on the leaf. This process is stopped by heating the leaf, so for green tea the leaf is immediately heated, for black tea fermentation is allowed to finish, and for wulong tea the fermentation is stopped half way.

There are literally thousands of types of tea on the market today, with the most expensive being that called Dragon Well tea, hand produced in China from a single region. Categorizing them by region and flavor would be unhelpful because of the number and varieties. Commonly the categorization is accepted to refer to the degree of fermentation allowed; green tea is not fermented, Black tea is fully. Fermented and wulong tea is half way between.

The art of brewing and serving tea is a formal part of cultural Chinese and Japanese society, and individuals who master the art spend years studying and practicing the ritual. There is also a chemical and physical aspect to creating the right cup of tea. The kind of water that is used is significant, and the temperature of the water is essential.

The quality of the water used to brew tea impacts the flavor of the drink. Too little or too much mineral content changes the flavor. Natural spring water has just the right amount of mineral to enhance the flavor, and produces the best drink.

The final characteristic to be considered is the temperature of the water. For most teas, 100 degrees Celsius is best, right at boiling, for wulong, however 95 degrees is the preferred temperature. A skilled observer knows the temperature by the bubbles formed as the water begins to boil, at sea level 3 millimeter bubbles mean 85 degrees, and 8 millimeter bubbles mean 95 degrees, a roiling, bubble free boil is 100 degrees.