Bamboo leaf green emphasizes color, fragrance, light green, bright and mellow taste. The brewing of green tea seems simple, but it actually takes a lot of time. Because green tea has not been fermented, it keeps the freshness of the tea itself, and there is a slight deviation when brewing, which is easy to make the tea soak old and stuffy, and the tea soup is insipid. In addition, because the varieties of green tea are the most abundant, the shape, compactness and freshness of fresh leaves of each kind of tea are different, and the water temperature, time and method of brewing are also different. It is difficult to make a good cup of green tea without repeated practice.
(1) Use of water
Water quality will directly affect the quality of tea soup. Ceng Yun, an ancient man, said: "Tea comes from water, and 8% of tea is good when it meets 10% of water." Eight points of water, ten points of tea, only eight points of tea. " Personally, I think water quality is very important to the taste of tea soup, followed by color and fragrance. Slightly poor water, even when brewing oolong tea, is unbearable to drink.
Most of the ancient tea classics talked about water. The so-called "on the landscape, in the river, in the underground" and so on, all that is required is that the water is sweet and clean, fresh as new. From a purely scientific point of view, the hardness of water directly affects the color of tea soup and the solubility of effective components in tea. If the hardness is high, it will be yellowish brown and light, and if it is serious, it will be astringent and bitter. In addition, inferior water can not only make good tea, but also produce serious scale and damage tea sets after long-term use. Therefore, the water used for making tea should be soft water or temporary hard water.
Generally speaking, spring water is better, clean streams and rivers are also acceptable, and well water depends on underground water sources. As for rain, snow and water, I'm afraid no one dares to drink it today with serious environmental pollution. Most of the tea I make myself is mineral water. For domestic water, I often use Nongfu Spring, which is slightly sweet with spring water. Tea houses also use mineral water or distilled water. Those places near mountains and rivers can learn from mountain springs, such as Tiger Running Water in Hangzhou and Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou. The water filter used by ordinary families filters almost no water.
(2) Water temperature
The ancients were very particular about the water temperature of making tea, especially in the period of cake-tea group tea. Controlling the water temperature seems to be the key to making tea. To sum up, it is best to boil water with a big fire, and it will bubble as soon as it is boiled. Old water and tender water are taboo. Water temperature affects the taste and aroma of tea soup by affecting the solubility of tea components.
The water temperature of green tea depends on the quality of tea. High-grade green tea, especially all kinds of famous green tea with tender buds and leaves, needs about 80C. The greener the tea leaves, the lower the water temperature. If the water temperature is too high, it is easy to burn the tea leaves, and the tea soup turns yellow and tastes bitter; If the water temperature is too low, the fragrance will be low. As for low-grade green tea, it should be brewed with 100C boiling water, which has low water temperature, poor permeability and light tea taste.
In addition, it should be noted that high-grade green tea uses a water temperature of 80C, which usually means that drinking water is boiled and then cooled to this temperature; If it is treated sterile raw water, it only needs to be burned to the required temperature.
(3) the amount of tea
There is no uniform standard for the amount of tea. It depends on the size of the tea set, the type of tea and everyone's preferences. Generally speaking, when brewing green tea, the ratio of tea to water is roughly 1: 50 ~ 60. Strictly taste tea, green tea is brewed with 150ml water.
The amount of tea mainly affects the taste, which I think depends entirely on everyone's habits. Beginners can try different doses and find their favorite tea soup concentration.
(4) Tea set
To brew green tea, you can cover the bowl with glass or white porcelain. The large porcelain cups and teapots used by ordinary people are only suitable for brewing low-grade green tea.
Glass is more suitable for brewing famous teas, such as West Lake Longjing, Biluochun and Junshan Yinzhen. It can be observed that tea slowly stretches, swims and changes in water. Especially some silver needles, after brewing, the tip of bamboo shoots washed up on the water, hung upright, and then slowly sank, like unearthed bamboo shoots like golden guns. The excellent Junshan silver needle can rise and fall three times, which is extremely wonderful. So in general, tea houses and green teas are brewed with glasses.
The ancients used it to build bowls. Compared with glass, covered bowls have better thermal insulation. Generally speaking, I like to make firm green tea, such as Zhu Cha plum. Personally, I prefer to build bowls. Good white porcelain can fully set off the light green and bright tea soup, and the bowl cover is more elegant, and the touch is incomparable to the glass. In addition, because good green tea is not brewed with boiling water, tea leaves float on the water, and it is easy to eat by mistake when drinking tea. If you cover the bowl, you can brush the tea leaves aside with the lid.
Generally speaking, whether it is a cup or a bowl cover, it should be small rather than big. The bigger the water, the older the tea leaves.
(5) Brewing method
Compared with oolong tea, the brewing process of green tea is very simple. According to the tightness of cables, they can be divided into two types. But no matter which method is used, the first step is to iron the cup in order to give full play to the color, aroma and taste of tea.
The soaking method of bamboo leaf green tea is "young tea cup soaking, old teapot soaking"
Generally, high-grade and exquisite bamboo leaf green tea is brewed in glass or white porcelain cups. The transparency of the glass is conducive to stretching the posture of tea leaves in water due to injury, and it is also conducive to preventing the tea leaves from being soaked and losing the fresh color and flavor of the tea soup, while the white porcelain cup can make the tea soup look greener.
When brewing ordinary green tea with bamboo leaves, the general purpose is not to watch or quench thirst, nor to entertain guests, so you can choose a teapot to make tea. The so-called "young teacups make tea, old teapots make tea". Before making tea, you should also pay attention to preparing cups and bowls, bamboo green teapot, Chaze, teaspoon, tea tray, tea towel and kettle according to the number of people drinking.
Soaking method of bamboo leaf green tea: watching tea before soaking.
Before enjoying the exquisite and famous Zhuyeqing tea, you usually need to watch the tea. When watching tea, first take a cup of dry tea and pour it on a white paper or a special vessel for holding tea, so as to appreciate the color and shape of dry tea, and then smell the fragrance to fully appreciate the natural charm of the famous bamboo leaf green tea. You can also tilt and rotate the bamboo leaf green teapot, pour the bamboo leaf green tea into Chaze, and put the bamboo leaf green tea from Chaze into the tea appreciation tray with a teaspoon to appreciate the color and tenderness of the dry tea and smell its aroma.
Method for brewing bamboo leaf green tea by soaking method
1, Sanitary Ware: Washing tea sets with boiling water can also play the role of warming cups, especially in winter, which is very important for making tea and is beneficial to the brewing of bamboo leaves and green tea.
2, tea: brewing bamboo leaf green tea, the amount of tea is about 3 grams, or one-fifth of the container. When putting tea, use a teaspoon to evenly transfer the tea tray or the bamboo leaf green tea in Chaze to each teacup.
3. Up-pouring method: For the top-grade famous bamboo leaf green tea with compact appearance, first pour boiling water at 85 ~ 90 degrees Celsius into the cup, then take the tea and put it in, and the bamboo leaf green tea will slowly sink.
4. CIC method: For the high-grade and famous Zhuyeqing tea with loose rope, the tea should be placed first and then poured into boiling water. The suitable temperature for making tea is 85 ~ 90℃, and the amount of water is one-third of the capacity of the cup, so that the bamboo leaf green tea can absorb water and relax, which is convenient for the tea juice to precipitate, and it will start brewing in about 30 seconds.
5. Brewing: Brewing times are about three times. Use the "Phoenix Three Nods" method to rush into the cup to about 70% of the total capacity, which means "seven points for tea and three points for affection". After three times of "high punching", the bamboo leaf green tea in the cup turned up and down, and the concentration of tea soup in the cup was uniform.
Taste of soaking bamboo leaf green tea
For high-grade, famous bamboo leaf green tea, we should taste tea before drinking tea and appreciate the whole process of making tea, including the appearance of tea, the change of tea soup, the dispersion of tea smoke and the final imaging of tea soup, so as to appreciate the charm of tea.
Before drinking tea, you should smell the tea, take a sip, let the tea soup fully contact with your mouth, and open your taste buds to taste the fragrance of the tea soup.