Tea Geek Blogs

A somewhat frequent question I get is “how should I store my tea?” I figured I could put my answer here on the blog so that folks could find it if I’m not around to ask. While you hear lots of variations on the “best” way to store tea (with additional variations based on what type of tea), for most teas it boils down to four simple principles.

1) Avoid Evil #1: Moisture. This is a fairly basic one. Keep your tea away from moisture. Moisture is good when you want to steep your tea, but for storage, moisture is bad. Keep it away from places that tend to be damp or steamy. For example, next to the shower isn’t the greatest place, nor is right above the stove when you’re boiling pasta. Which brings us to…

2) Avoid Evil #2: Extreme Temperature. Excessive heat ain’t so hot (thus above the stove is doubly bad). And in many cases, excessive cold ain’t cool. Don’t freeze your tea–especially if it’s been open to the regular air. You know how that condensation thing works? Well, that happens on the tea if you’ve got warm air in the bag and you cool it down in the fridge of freezer…then you’ve got Evil #1 going on.

3) Avoid Evil #3: Bright Light. This can tie in to the heat thing from #2, but light itself can affect how long a tea will retain flavor. Glass jars next to the kitchen window may look pretty, but it’s not a good idea if you want to actually drink your tea more than a couple of weeks from now. Your tea should not be more enlightened than you–it’s okay for some things to be kept in the dark.

4) Avoid Evil #4: Air Flow. Nobody likes sitting in a draft, and tea’s no different. With the exception of puer tea, which needs access to a little bit of air to properly age, you pretty much want to seal up the tea so there’s no wicked winds wafting away the wonderful flavors of your tea.

Solution: Use some kind of opaque packaging that you can seal reasonably well (which means no *breathing* materials like paper or cloth unless you’re storing puer). Put it in a closet, drawer, shelf, or cabinet where there isn’t much temperature fluctuation. I’ve included a photograph of some tea storage containers I use.  I keep them in a drawer that only comes open when I want to brew some tea.

If you stick with these tips, you shouldn’t go too far wrong.

Boy, tea’s been in the news!  The October 2nd edition of the Wall Street Journal had an article about puer on the front page (below the fold, of course, but still…front page?).  It talks about how newly-wealthy Chinese investors have been looking for things to invest in and have caused the price of puer to skyrocket, but now there are fears of a collapse.

Then, today, another article about tea appeared in US News & World Report.  This one was about research into the amino acid theanine and how it helps concentration (with speculation that it might help with attention deficit disorder, or ADD).  They also had a link to another article about green tea and possible connections with healthier skin.

Each week, I offer a tea class to the students of the Puget Sound Community School. Now in its fourth year, I’ve had to push myself every week to learn more about tea so that I had something to teach. Last week I put them to the test: they were to taste the same set of Dragonwell teas that I tasted and wrote about here. (Even though some students are new to the class, those who’ve been at it for four years ought to be able to pick out a good tea…)

After reading them a couple of descriptions of what Dragonwell is known for and how it is processed, it was time for the tasting. I had labeled the teas with a letter, had the proper amount measured out, brewed them to the same specifications and gave each student a scoring sheet based on a tea evaluation method that I first read about in Tea: Aromas and Flavors Around the World by Lydia Gautier.

They could give up to two points for dry leaf appearance, one point for infusion (wet leaf), two points for scent of the infusion, a point for the liquor color, and up to 4 points for scent and flavor of liquor.

There were five students in the class that day, and each dutifully inspected the dry leaves, sniffed and observed and prodded the infusion, compared liquors before slurping from their tasting cups…all the while taking notes and awarding points.

When everyone was satisfied, we tallied the points. One tea stood out with nearly 25% more total points than the second-place sample. All of the students graded it their highest, tied for highest with another tea, or second place in their rankings. The tea that won? The same one my partner and I had picked as the best, and the one that was clearly the most expensive of all of the samples, at almost $22 per ounce.

They have learned well. I’m very proud.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I intend to post occasional interviews with tea people, and as you may have guessed from the title, this is just such a post. Nigel Melican is a “tea technologist” who has manufactured tea on six of the seven continents. His business websites are www.teacraft.com and www.nothingbuttea.com

The image below shows Nigel loading green leaf into the withering chamber of the “Teacraft ECM System,” a tea processing unit used for tea research all over the world (also known as “the tea factory in a box”).

TG: What’s your favorite tea?

NM: I’d say that a real favorite tea must be indulged in only rarely or it becomes routine – for me this would be a golden tippy Yunnan which I reserve for special moments. My favorite regular all day long tea is Yorkshire Gold by Taylors of Harrogate – a high end CTC blend mainly from Africa – several of my consultancy clients (in Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa) sell their best clonal teas to Taylors for this one. It’s strong black British tea bag tea that must be made with searingly hot water and have milk added, preferably low fat milk, and for me NO sugar

TG: How did you start on the path to tea geekdom? Briefly describe your history of tea exploration.

NM: Serendipity – I fell into tea in 1980 when I was sent to Papua New Guinea to sort out an agricultural problem on a tea estate (I was a research scientist with Unilever and had just completed two years trials in the Arabian Gulf countries of an arid agriculture product we had produced). Agriculture + Overseas experience gave me 2 out of 3 – the missing 1 being any knowledge of Tea! As the problem turned out to be in the factory and not the field my assistant and I spent 6 months on a very steep hands-on learning curve. In the subsequent 27 years I have continued to learn more about tea every day.

TG: What aspect of tea do you find most fascinating?

NM: The unbelievable number of completely different teas that can be produced from the same shiny green leaves just by subtle manipulation of an entirely natural process – and without adding any other ingredient.

TG: Who have you learned the most from?

NM: In 27 going on 28 years in tea it cannot be a single person I guess – still learning by listening to all those who know more than I do – and also learning by frequently questioning my own knowledge.

TG: What tea resource (book, website, person, etc.) would you recommend for a tea novice?

NM: Google Groups, rec.food.drink.tea – I’d advise to lurk; read; learn; trawl the archives; then contribute

TG: And what’s your own favorite tea resource, potentially for more advanced tea geeks?

NM: A book. Tea: Cultivation to Consumption edited by Ken Willson and Mike Clifford (ISBN 0-412-33850-5) compiled in 1992 but still the definitive technical book on tea – the one I carry with me when consulting around the world.

TG: What does tea mean to you?

NM: A job that fascinates me and allows me to travel internationally for at least three months every year meeting nice people in wonderful scenery.

TG: Name your biggest pet peeve in the realm of tea and tea drinking.

NM: Two answers here: #1. Narrow minded people who cannot see that it is possible to have good CTC teas, and excellent tea bags just as much as you can have poor orthodox tea and lousy leaf tea. High quality tea is possible (and should be strived for) in ANY format. #2. You cannot (despite what some notables in the tea industry believe) you just cannot significantly decaffeinate tea by using a 30 second hot water wash (in fact 30 seconds leaves 91% of the caffeine in place – and removes a lot of the antioxidants)

TG: If you could let everyone in the world know or understand one thing about tea, what would it be?

NM: It’s amazingly healthy and health beneficial – and tastes good too!

TG: What’s the craziest/weirdest/most obsessive thing you’ve ever done in pursuit of your love of tea?

NM: Tea is certainly obsessive. After half a lifetime in a safe career with Unilever I left them in 1990 to set up my own tea technology company – Teacraft Ltd based on zero capital and a dream. Then in 1995 with my wife Helga I added Tea Technology Associates– a tea consultancy and training company. And then in 2002 with my daughter Chrissie we started Nothing But Tea Ltd – an e-commerce company selling rare and specialty teas. Tea is infectious and obsessive and once you become entangled it’s impossible to leave. We have may other future tea ventures up our sleeves – “so much to do, so little time. . .”

TG: Thanks, Nigel!

In the movie, The Matrix, the character Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) is given a choice by the mysterious Morpheus (Laurence Fishburn): he can take one of two pills–a blue one or a red one.

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

Tea is like this choice. You can take the blue pill and continue thinking of tea in the singular, in the teabag, in the same way you always have. Or, you can take the red pill and see how far you can go down the rabbit-hole of education–learning how plural tea actually is, learning and relearning what you thought you knew, and continually realizing that it’s always more complicated than that (regardless of what “that” is).

And wouldn’t The Matrix have been an absolutely dreadful story if Neo had just taken the blue pill?  Tea without the education can be just as awful, I’m sure.  If you haven’t already, take the red pill.

The other day I realized that I’d been drinking the Dragonwell (aka Longjing) tea from the same source for years. Dragonwell isn’t my very most favorite tea, but in some circles it’s probably considered unconscionable that someone calling themselves a tea geek would only have a single version of Dragonwell in his experience. After all, it’s the most famous and sought after tea in China, right? So I set out to expand my mental picture of Dragonwell.

I started by going to six tea shops and buying an ounce of their best Dragonwell. Really, I went to more shops than that, but some didn’t have Dragonwell for sale, others only sold pre-packaged amounts of several ounces, etc. I also tried to get a little extra information if I could about the tea and what made it special. No probing questions or anything, I just let the shop give their Dragonwell pitch.

Then the photo shoot. I won’t go into this too much, but let’s just say I’m not a photographer, my camera is clunky, I couldn’t find enough light, and it was tough getting photos of the teas that actually made them look *different* from one another. However, there are pictures with each below–click to enlarge so you can get better detail.

Oh, and I “randomized” them by putting them in order of my purchases. Strangely enough, the dry leaf color alternated between dark and light green without fail when put in this order. While it won’t necessarily keep me from knowing where they came from while I’m tasting, hopefully it will minimize any prejudicing of my opinions.

And now for the tasting, with input from my partner, Loren. Each tea was brewed for 2 minutes in a gaiwan with the same temperature water (the lowest “green tea” setting on our variable-temperature electric kettle):

Sample A:

Looking at the leaves as they brewed, we both noticed almost all broken leaves and a few stems. Leaves seemed to be of various sizes, from large (by green tea standards) to tiny. My first impression of the smell was “bitter” (odd, since you can’t smell bitter) and Loren’s was fireworks or actual gunpowder. We both noticed the scent faded to sweet, though. The flavor was a basically standard nutty “Dragonwell” flavor, with a fairly noticeable astringency. We could tell it could easily turn bitter. Kind of like walnuts…nutty with an edge of bitterness to them. Loren thought it was obviously not the highest possible quality.

Sample B:

The brewing leaves seemed more uniform in size, but with a goodly number of broken pieces. It was also more uniform in color…all in the yellow-green to bright green neighborhood. The scent was lighter but sweeter than Sample A, and a bit more herbaceous. The scent was appetizing and fresh…a little like fresh veggies being steamed or something. Loren’s first taste impression was chocolate, which we narrowed down to an agreement on cacao beans as opposed to sweetened chocolate bar…a darker, richer flavor, anyhow. A little bit of astringency, but not as much as Sample A. Spent leaves looked more like a single harvest from the same place, whereas Sample A seemed like it might have been a blend of harvests.

Sample C:

The leaves looked like tiny pea pods, and many of them stood on end in the bottom of the gaiwan. All very even in color size and shape. It was mostly individual leaves–not just buds or leaf and budsets. Loren proclaimed it the highest quality one just looking at the leaves brewing. The smell was very fresh and clean–like a spring breeze, with a hint of spicy or chocolate. I got a flavor of like a winter squash or something, but Loren didn’t think so. But it was by far the strongest in flavor of all of them. It seemed like you could gongfu this forever and keep getting things out of it. (After we were done, we had more of this brewed for only one minute and it was kind of spicy in flavor–like nutmeg or cinnamon, but not as intense in flavor.) The leaf color of the spent leaves were, as Loren put it, “very pleasing.”

Sample D:

Again, more variation in leaf size and including pieces. We both got a baking/toasted scent off of it soon after adding water. (Maybe extra heat applied during processing?) This one had more bud-and-leaf combos than the rest. The baking scent continued through the scent cups as well. The flavor was much lighter, but smooth…it struck me as being like a genmaicha in taste, only without the marine-like flavor that’s common to the sencha or bancha in the genmaicha blends. Maybe if you made genmaicha using Dragonwell instead of sencha. My impression was that Sample D was very pleasant, but that it wouldn’t go as far as Sample C in a gongfu session.

Sample E:

While brewing, this seemed a little similar to Sample A–some larger variation in leaf size and with pieces and stems. Loren kept smelling it and saying, “weedy.” The brew was a little yellower than the others. The smell in the scent cup was very light…not nearly as robust. However, the taste of it had a very nice sweetness in the back of the mouth/soft palate/nose. This was probably the sweetest of the lot…light and subtle, but sweet. Loren didn’t find it very distinguished in flavor, though. I kinda liked it. But we both agreed it was better in flavor than in aroma.

Sample F:

Leaf size was fairly uniform, with a few (but not many) broken pieces, with color in the cheery yellow-green to greenish-brown range with the occasional dark brown bit. The scent of the wet leaf was kind of confusing–neither of us could put our finger on it, but we both recognized that it was different from the rest. Again, very little aroma in the fragrance cup, but the flavor was interesting. It was still Dragonwell, but leaning strongly towards the marine. Not as much as a sencha, but moving in that direction. This had very little sense of where bitterness would come from. Fresh, smooth, and sweet…a nice balance of elements with the added interest factor of the hints of marine.

And a bit more information:

• Sample A was $2.25/oz
• Sample B was $2.75/oz and was said to be a Xi Hu (West Lake) Dragonwell
• Sample C was $21.88/oz and was said to be a competition-grade Dragonwell
• Sample D was $6.00/oz
• Sample E was $8.40/oz
• Sample F was $14.97/oz and was also said to be a Xi Hu Dragonwell.

And perhaps not surprisingly, Loren and I both both picked out the most expensive one as a top tea. Loren picked Sample F as practically a tie for him. I liked D, E, and F for different reasons, so taken all together I’ll give C the gold, F the silver, E the bronze, and D will get the “most bang for your buck” award.

If you’d like to try any of these, email me at teageek (at) teageek.net and I’ll see if I can’t get you some!

I’ve been scheduling classes for the rest of the year. More may come, but here’s what I’ve got so far. If you’re in Seattle on any of these dates, I’d love to see you there!  I’ll post updates to the schedule as things develop (I’m working on more classes at other venues).

25 SEP 2007: The Teas of Taiwan. Perennial Tea Room.
Only slightly larger than the state of Maryland, the island of Taiwan is known for its many varieties of wulongs (also spelled ‘oolongs’). From Bai Hao and Baozhong to Four Season Spring and Golden Lily, you can experience a wide range of flavors, oxidation levels, amount of roast, and leaf style just looking at Taiwan wulongs. Join Tea Geek Michael J. Coffey in a tasting tour of Taiwan teas. Sample a range of teas, including a far more rare Taiwan black tea, while learning about tea production and common brewing practices on the island.

6 OCT 2007: Introduction To Tea. Phinney Neighborhood Center.
What’s the difference between black and green teas? What about oolong or white? Is chamomile or mint really tea? These questions and more will be answered while you sample teas from around the world. Taught by a tea geek who’s studied tea for over 10 years, you’ll experience different brewing methods and discover interesting tidbits of tea history and culture.
13 OCT 2007: The Basics of Green Tea. Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Green tea is the most studied type of tea in the world, and the primary tea product of both China and Japan. China alone makes 3000 different kinds of green, and a uniquely Japanese green is used in their tea ceremony. Start your tea exploration with this, the original style of tea, while tasting samples from both Japan and China!

20 OCT 2007: The Basics of Black Tea. Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Black tea accounts for the majority of tea produced worldwide. Taste the differences of the various tea producing countries in an experiential class punctuated by tea trivia, history, and geography. Learn how unintentional the two major American tea “inventions” were! Find out the right way to brew and drink black tea. Is cream and sugar right or wrong?

27 OCT 2007: The Basics of Oolong Tea.  Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Tea and wine author James Norwood Pratt claims that there are more kinds of oolong than wines in the world, and he may well be right. Oolong (sometimes “wulong”) is the most diverse category of tea. We’ll explore how oxidiation and roast levels (and other variables) influence the taste of a good oolong. Samples from China and Taiwan.

3 NOV 2007: The Basics of White Tea. Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Can’t tell a Bai Hao Yinzhen from a Bai Mudan? One of the hot new trends in the tea world is including white tea—from facial products to sweetened and flavored beverages. But what is white tea, really? We’ll sample white teas from the most traditional to the more modern and fanciful variations.

10 NOV 2007: The Basics of Puer Tea. Phinney Neighborhood Center.
This unique tea made from fermented and aged leaves is perhaps the most unusual category of true tea—at least to most westerners. Try samples of a tea used as Imperial tribute for at least a millennium! Its tendency to improve (and increase in price) with age has caused increasing interest worldwide as both a “drinkable antique” and an investment!

And coming up next year:

* JAN 2008: Cooking With Tea
* FEB 2008: The Teas of Japan
* MAR 2008: What The Heck IS Puer, Anyway?
* APR 2008: The Teas of India
* MAY 2008: Teas for Cheese
* JUN 2008: The Basics of Green Teas
* JUL 2008: The Basics of Oolong Teas

I’ve got the Summer Tea Blues. Seems that two of my favorite teas are having problems this year. First, I got the news through my typical supplier of the Makaibari Estate Darjeeling that the shipping company bringing it to the US had some kind of problem along the way, and that most of it arrived in the country damp and moldy. There may be more on the way, and they did get in some large-leaf varieties, but I like the small leaf stuff of this particular tea. More news as I get it, and I’ll let you know when I taste the large leaf (assuming I can get some of that). Anyway, that’s disappointment #1.

Disappointment #2 is not so much a disappointment as it is the inevitable letdown that comes the year after a truly noteworthy year. I got a sample of some 2007 Bai Hao / Dong Fang Mei Ren / Oriental Beauty. It was nice. Good color, plenty of flavor, and a flavor profile that I’d expect from a good Bai Hao. In other words, it’s a perfectly good tea. It’s just not as good as last year. Last year was phenomenal, and this year just isn’t quite. I hear there weren’t enough bugs and the weather wasn’t very cooperative in Taiwan.

So what can you do? Drink good (but not phenomenal) tea for another year, I guess, and hope that the bugs come back in droves and the weather cooperates more next year. And that the shippers bringing second flush Makaibari Estate from India don’t leave the tea on the tarmac (or whatever happened) again.

My partner Loren and I went down to the second (ever?) night market in Seattle’s International District. As you might expect from a second night market, it wasn’t as vibrant as you might find in Vancouver, BC, or any of the more famous night markets. But it was fun. There was some REALLY bad karaoke–and some good singing as well, people chopping the tops off of coconuts for an authentic tropical drink (just add a straw!), games of weiqi and majiang going fast and furious, and so on.

While we were down there, we went across the street to New Century Tea House (416 Maynard Ave S. / 206-622-3599) and sat down with Grace at their ENORMOUS new tree-root tea table and shared a little shop talk, restaurant recommendations, and Longjing (Dragonwell). I wish I had brought a camera so I could show you the size of the table and the King-Of-All-Tea root throne that went with it.

Speaking of pictures, though, the last time I was in, Dafe Chen gave me a picture of the tree one of his new puer bingchas was picked from. Since I mentioned a New Century puer in the last newsletter, this is as good a time as any to share the picture, right? Isn’t it lovely, in a I’ve-provided-tea-for-generations kind of way?

I’ve edited down the photo a bit, and linked it to a larger one–click to see it closer up. Thanks, Dafe, for the cool picture!

Today’s post is a request for help.  Recently, the TeaGeekWiki has seen multiple attacks by spammers and that’s really put a cramp in my tea-information-collecting style.  You can help me with this by writing a little in the wiki.  I’ll handle the deletion of articles that don’t belong, and banning users who create nothing but lists of links to vendors of cheap drugs, video games, and enhancement of the naughty bits.

If you would be so kind as to visit the wiki and post something that you know about tea, or look at the Planning Page and find something you’d like to research and write an article on, it’d make the TeaGeekWiki a much better resource for us all.

Thanks so much!