Loose tea needs to breathe

[ghostrider]

Since I'm going through this ritual for the umpteenth time with two new varieties of Assam from Upton, I thought I'd inquire whether anyone else has noticed this pattern.

Some teas seem to yield their full flavor from the very first pot, as soon as you open the tin, or hermetically sealed bag, as the case may be.

Others taste dull & flat at the start. The dry leaves frequently have a good aroma, but that doesn't travel into the cup at the outset. Then, after a week or two of use and openings and closings of the storage container, the flavor of the new tea suddenly takes a quantum leap for the better.

A fellow tea aficianado has also noticed this effect. It seems that the leaves need to interact with the atmosphere for a time to develop their full potential. Perhaps the fermentation process that occurs during the drying of the leaves needs to be restarted before they'll brew up really well. Perhaps there's such a thing as the leaves being too dry, and they need to be rehumidified to a certain degree in order to exude their maximal flavor when the boiling water hits them.

My friend's approach, when he finds a tea that remains dull after a couple of initial tries, is simply to put the tea away for a couple of months; when he comes back to it, he usually finds that the flavor has blossomed. I'm not that patient or organized, I generally keep the tea in the rotation (I usually have 3-4 morning teas, & a similar number of afternoon teas, available), though I may select it less frequently until it develops.

Has anyone else had this experience?

[MaxH]

Has anyone else had this experience?

No and it's intriguing, since teas have a reputation for volatile or sublimatable flavor components that escape into the air -- I've noticed sublimation of something onto the inside of a sealed glass container, with some very fine and allegedly fugitive light tea (hand-carried from China and given to me as a gift). As noted, the details may be subtle. (I've also dealt with Upton imports, for a decade or so, but I do not drink 3 or 4 different teas each morning, by any means.)

It's well to be thoughtful about this, because such kitchen science has had many counter-intuitive realities in the past. (For instance people used to presume that all the fast flavor change in newly opened older wines came from oxidation, until a series of popular experiments in the 1970s with controlled atmospheres argued that oxygen was not necessary, and departure of dissolved gases seemed to be a factor ...)

-- Max

[ghostrider]

Didn't express myself with maximum clarity, I fear - I only drink 1 variety of tea each morning, but usually have 3 or 4 in the cabinet from which to choose.

Interesting about the inside of the glass container. Was it perhaps an extremely fine dust? I've seen that happen with certain tinned teas.

[jpr54_]

tea needs to breathe-

but not by not using the loose tea leaves-

many teas like oolong taste better the 2-3 brews-

i usually "rinse" leaves first and throw out the first rinse-

with only a small amt of water-

then brew tea

[His Nibs]

that's how we do it "gung fu" style. First rinse is to "open" up the leaves and you dump that water out. Enjoy the 2nd to 5th pot of water!

[ghostrider]

tea needs to breathe-

but not by not using the loose tea leaves-

many teas like oolong taste better the 2-3 brews-

i usually "rinse" leaves first and throw out the first rinse-

with only a small amt of water-

then brew tea

←

According to Upton, since most of the caffeine in tea is extracted in the first 30 seconds, that's also a very good way to decaffeinate your brewed tea.

To me, decaffeinated tea is like non-alcoholic beer, I just don't see the point. But I'm open to the possibility that in another 10 years I may.

I've read that about the multiple-brew method, in terms of improving the flavor, & may try it one day. It's different from the tea leaves' interaction with air, though there may be a relation if the phenomenon I was talking about is an effect of moisture.