Greeting you with a virtual cup of Tea!
Pick your cup ;)
Though most teas will produce a
decent cup if you steep them all in boiling water you’ll drop the rich and
exact flavour of your tea leaves turning it all bitter and astringent in the
cup, besides losing the polyphenols- antioxidants. Rather, paying attention to the water temperature will help get the best flavour and benefits from your tea. Every type of tea has a “right”
temperature. When the tea is brewed,
tannins, amino acids, aroma and flavour compounds are released from the
leaves. Some kinds of tea require less
heat, while others need more to maximize their distinctive attributes. Brewing at their optimal water temperature
for each kind of tea allows the compounds to be released in a balanced way and
leads to great tasting tea.
The basic rule to remember when
heating water to brew tea is to "never boil the water".
Water temperatures that are too
hot dissolve the polyphenols and tannins present, also destroying the other desirable
compounds in the tea. The result will be a bitter, astringent making an unbalanced brew.
At the opposite end of the
spectrum, you can have the water temperature for brewing tea to be too cool but
a longer steeping time preferably overnight steeping may compensate to extract
the exact flavour and other compounds.
The right steeping temperatures:
During my intern at UPASI in Munnar, I learnt
that there are certain rules they apply to the water they put in their tea. Usually, the temperature is checked with thermometers but in the olden days the water
temperature kind of had funny names that’s based on “eye” sizes. Once the water
reaches these "eye" stages they know what the temperature is for the
kind of tea leaves.
If you are using tea leaves kindly rinse the leaves in cold water before brewing to avoid the thermal shocking to the tea leaves.
So here I am sharing the 4 different stages of checking the water temperatures:
1) Prawn Eyes
Prawn eyes are these tiny, dotted bubbles. It
is the point where you first start seeing bubbles in the water, which means that
the water is around 160 degrees, making it perfect for some really delicate
green teas. Steeping time is 2 to 4 minutes.
2) Crab Eyes
Crab eyes are slightly larger bubbles. This means the temperature is roughly 175 degrees and it is well suited for oolongs
(falls between green and black) steeped for around 5 to 8 minutes and white tea
steeped for 4 to 6 minutes.
3) Fish Eyes
In this stage, the water bubbles will be the
size of a fish eyes and you can notice steam rising at this stage. This water is
roughly around 180 degrees and is good for some heartier black teas, usually steeped
for 4 to 6 minutes.
4) Moving bubbles
Big bubbles start sprouting at this stage with good steam rising up; usually, the water temperature at this stage is around 200 - 210
degrees. Preferably, the bubbles should be streaming to the top, just the stage before boiling and the tea dust steeping time is 3 to 4 mins and then add the milk, total time together is around 6 to 8 mins of brewing. This temperature is good for tea dust to make your perfect milk tea.
So there they are the 4 stages of water
temperatures.
If you miss it, after which you'll have a full rolling boil and it’s
just boiling water and not a tea even though you add the tea leaves/ dust.
If anything it is quite Zen to watch the
bubbles grow and just as you steep in your tea leaves to see them unfurl and
releasing that perfect colour.
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Happy Tea tasting ahead! |
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