I'm All Wet (and So Are You)

Currently I'm in a state of suffering in a heat wave of +40s C with high dew points. Now this sort of weather is very common in many parts of the world, but not in snow country where I live. And we're not adapted for heat. I do have a window AC unit, but it barely keeps up when the weather gets this hot. My medications don't help, at least two of them have sun or heat warning labels. Even drinking tea can be difficult, and I only manage to work in a cup or two at night. So I spend more time thinking about tea than actually drinking it. Luckily sheng still makes the cut for me, because nothing is better than fresh, green sheng puerh with its yin qualities to drive out the water that my body is forced to hoard. This brings up some of the issues with drinking a fresh sheng. Some people cannot take fresh green tea, it bothers their stomach or they feel too cold afterward. In that case, aged puerh is the way to go alternating with aged oolong or oxidized red tea. But if you are able to drink fresh sheng, paying attention to brewing parameters is just as important to get the best from your tea as your careful decisions when you purchased the tea.

This past week, my friend and blogger OolongOwl demonstrated her mastery of brewing technique in her blogged brew of white2tea's 2015 "If You're Reading This" cake. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who has purchased this cake needs to read her blog post, and at least try her parameters. Of particular note are the temps she used for her water, aiming for 195F-205F at the very top means let the water cool after a boil for at least 5-10 minutes. She correctly assessed that a fresh green tea needs a lower temp to get the best flavors from the tea. If your tea turns to mush after a number of steeps, you know that the tea is all wet and so are you.

We have heard a bit about the unusual rains in Yunnan during the first part of April. Not only is fresh puerh on the wet side anyway after pressing, but any tea picked after rains will be even more so. Brewing temps are one way to control the flavor and retain leaf integrity. Check the dates on your tea cakes, if you see pressing dates after April 1, this isn't a sure conclusion that the tea got rain, but at least some probability exists for this in 2015. You can let the tea rest for several months before trying it out. But brew temps are one way to drink your new tea without killing it prematurely.

I've been working with another little technique on my fresh teas. When I reach a point where the tea doesn't seem to be giving much, the leaves are fairly opened and I'm brewing closer to 2 minute steeps, I stop brewing and dry out the leaves. I spread them out on a tray and let them dry out overnight or longer. If you have at least some AC going in your house, drying your tea is very easy to do. Then I can start over with steeping the tea and get several more steeps back at a 30 second steep time. In my observation, the tea develops an equilibrium with the water and no longer releases any more essence, however plenty of essence still is in the leaf. By removing the tea from the water and drying it back to just leaf, I can extract more tea from those dry leaves. This has been very successful for me with teas like 72 Hours and Last Thoughts, and with older teas that seem to need a rest. By the way, I dried out the 1960s sheng leaves that I drank with TwoDog a month ago, and I still have them. They are like dried out leather and nowhere near ready to quit.