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Chinese Tea, for coffee shops
It was said that the Chinese tea, like green tea, is becoming popular in the west countries. Due to the very different ways of pouring Chinese tea, I would like to know if anyone is interested in it. If yes, we can talk about it here.
As an example, normally the first pour of the hot water to tea is not suggested to drink, and the following ones, three to four, can be the best. It can be a problem for the cafes in other countries in the west.
As an example, normally the first pour of the hot water to tea is not suggested to drink, and the following ones, three to four, can be the best. It can be a problem for the cafes in other countries in the west.
Peter Tam
About the tea, we mainly have two different ones, one is tea leaves, and the other is the very small pieces of tea leaves in small bags; that is tea bag. For Chinese tea, we talk only about tea leaves.
The main kinds of Chinese tea include Green tea (not fermented), Oolong Tea (half fermented), and Chinese Black tea (full fermented); all in leaves. For tea bag, one steeps only once, but for tea leaves, one could not draw most of the tastes in one steep. In fact, only very little of the taste can be drawn from the tea leaves in one steep. Like pre-infusion, the first steep is not tasted and only a preparison; so is to be dropped. Only from the second steep on, one can get good and strong enough tea tastes. While till the fourth steep, the tastes can be good enough, and then the leaves can be dropped.
If one leave the water together with tea leaves for too long time in one steep, the tea will be taswted bad. So, in general, one use fast steep and fast pour. That is to get tea away from the tea leaves soon after one pour the water in, normally a few seconds. If one drop the first steep, then about 10-15 seconds for the second steep, and 5 seconds more for each the following steeps.
We have the good tools for it, if necessary, I can prepare some photoes for those tools next time.
I am not sure if I explained it well or not. If anything not clear, let me know.
Apr 16, 2009
Eldad Yogev
The general public, even the English who quaff huge amounts of the stuff, are happy with the shavings that go into tea bags. And the subtler tastes of Green or Oolong teas just don't smack hard enough into the Western taste buds that are accustomed to the Black varietals.
I love tea and drink much more of it than coffee, but I would never serve it in my cafes as its just not worth the headaches. The ROI just isn't there to invest in doing tea. Now, a tea shop with a great afternoon/high tea format is a different story and if you can tap into a good market (especially amongst women) you can make a great living just doing that.
Jun 8, 2009
Peter Tam
Aug 18, 2010