Monday, February 18, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 08:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

There is an old English rule of thumb for making tea in a teapot, “One for you, one for me, and one for the pot”. It is true that when making tea in a large pot, one needs a bit more tea than the sum of the cups to be made, hence the addition of the extra teabag “for the pot”.

I have much less experience making tea in the large (approximately 12 ounce) teapots, than I do in the palm-sized traditional Chinese teapots, but I have found some fairly useful rules of thumb. Estimate the amount of tea you would need for each person you are serving, and then add a little bit more for the pot. How much per person depends a great deal on the tea leaves that are used: for jasmine pearl teas, perhaps four to six pearls per person; for most wulongs, perhaps a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half per person; for white teas and pu-er, perhaps 1 to 2 tablespoons; for Longjing, perhaps half to one teaspoon.

Pour in just about enough water for every person you are serving, and let steep. I find that the steeping time for a large teapot can vary very much. It can be anywhere from two and a half minutes to more than four minutes to properly steep a pot; the larger the pot, the more unpredictable steeping time becomes, because it is hard for the tea leaves to infuse thoroughly when there is too much tea leaves and water. For small Chinese teapots, the steeping time can be accurate almost to the second; for the large teapots, it is largely a matter of guesswork, at least for the first few times. Usually tipping the teapot forward to pour out some tea, and then tipping back again is a big no-no, as the few seconds difference for the smaller teapots can vary the strength of the tea a great deal; but it is less of a problem with the large teapots, so a good way of finding out if the tea is ready is to pour out a tiny amount of tea and check if the tea is strong enough; if it is, pour out fairly quickly. If not, let it steep a while longer.

Another common advice for English tea drinkers is to bring the pot to the kettle, and not the kettle to the pot. This is good advice for black teas, since they usually need high water temperature to bring out the flavours; however, this may not always hold true for Chinese teas. Green and light wulong teas need slightly lower water temperatures, so you would need to let the kettle sit for a little while after boiling to let the water cool down a bit. Strong wulongs such as Gaoshan or Tie Kuanyin can take high temperatures, so treat them as you would black teas, although in general they need less steeping time. For good Chinese teas, make sure to steep at least one more time for a second round of tea. If the flavour is still strong, you may be able to go for a third or even fourth round.

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