Leaf Tea E-Book

Timothy D'Offay

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Unravel the history, sample the flavours, and experience the amazing versatility of the world's favourite brew and all its health-giving properties. Tea expert Timothy d'Offay starts with the very basics with a section on water and tea tools to make brewing easier. Then, as well as traditional ways of making tea, he explores new brewing methods such as 'Flow Brew', which involves brewing one tea through another to create an infusion, and 'Ambient Tea', a way of making tea pair better with food. There is a 'Cold Brew' chapter as well as one for delicious sparkling teas, called 'Kitchen Colas', which you can make in the comfort of your own home with tea and a few other natural ingredients. 'Fresh Fruit Tea Quarters' are another new innovation, combining tea and fresh fruit juice to create a refreshing soft drink. In Leaf Tea there will be recipes to make the most of matcha and the other stoneground teas now available so you can learn to make tasty 'Somersault' drinks – frappes, milkshakes and ice creams. So turn on your kettle, tune into tea culture and drop those tasteless tea bags for some of the best leaf tea experiences you can have.

Leseprobe

Leaf

TEA

INFUSIONS, COLD BREWS, SODAS, FRAPPÉS AND MORE

Timothy d’Offay

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAN BALDWIN

Designers Megan Smith and Paul Stradling

Senior editor Miriam Catley

Production manager Gordana Simakovic

Creative director Leslie Harrington

Editorial director Julia Charles

Publisher Cindy Richards

Photography art director and prop stylist Lesley Dilcock

Indexer Vanessa Bird

Originally published in 2017 as Easy Leaf Tea. This revised edition published in 2023 by Ryland Peters & Small 20–21 Jockey’s Fields, London WC1R 4BW and 341 E 116th St, New York NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Timothy d’Offay 2017, 2023.

Design and photographs © Ryland Peters & Small 2017, 2023.

Photography on pages 23, 24, 25, 58, 134–5, 139 © Timothy d’Offay 2017, 2023.

ISBN: 978-1-78879-503-6

E-ISBN: 978-1-78879-534-0

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

US Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

Printed in China.

NOTE

British (Metric) and American (Imperial ounce and fluid ounce) measurements are included for your convenience; however it is important to work with one set of measurements and not alternate between the two within a recipe. Where very small measurements occur, they have been provided in grams where there is no suitable imperial conversion.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WATER THE MAIN INGREDIENT

TEA WARE ALL YOU’LL EVER NEED

1 EASY LEAF TEA LOOSE LEAF LIFE

TEA HOW A LITTLE LEAF BECAME BIG

TYPES OF TEA

20 LEAF TEAS TO TRY

FLAVOUR CHART

FAMOUS BLENDS & HOME BLENDING

2 EASY LEAF BREWING

TWIN TEAPOT METHOD

COOLING CUP METHOD

MODERN GONG FU CHA

DOUBLE BREW

FLOW BREWING

CHAI

PUERH TEA THE PRESSED AGED TEA

Quo Vadis

3 LOWER TEMPERATURE TEAS

AMBIENT TEA TEA FOR FINE FOOD

Fera at Claridge’s

COLD BREW FOR ADULTS, KIDS & HOT SUMMERS

TEA SODAS SPARKLING TEA SOFT DRINKS

4 FRESH FRUIT TEA QUARTERS TEA & FRUIT JUICE

FRUIT ICES

5 STONEGROUND TEA CONTEMPORARY WHISKED TEA

STONEGROUND MILK TEA

MATCHA

Prufrock

6 SOMERSAULTS ICE CREAMS, FRAPPES & SHAKES

SELECTING LEAF TEA

LEAF TEA SELLERS

Postcard Teas

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

A sea of green foam in a big black bowl, the sound of a spoon on the side of a much-loved mug, a thimble-sized cup cradling a highly scented elixir, and the taste of clay and sweet spices from a terracotta tumbler almost too hot to hold. Tea exists in so many forms and in so many different cultures around the world. Its remarkable journey from an obscure Chinese herb to the world’s favourite beverage is partly due to tea’s ability to be easily transported and then swiftly transformed into a delicious drink that relaxes and restores.

Because there are many ways of making tea, not to mention the many different types of tea – greens, blacks, oolongs, whites, and aged teas too – there is an almost infinite number of permutations and personal preferences. What a difference from the unhealthy mass-produced soft drinks that come ready-made in just a few flavours in a can or bottle designed to be thrown away after just one use. With tea you get choice – the choice of tea, any added ingredients and the vessel you want to drink from. Today people are discovering that brewing leaf tea is simple and many times tastier than bagged tea. Indeed, making tea may be the simplest form of cooking as it often involves just two ingredients and takes so little time. In this book I share the tea-making knowledge and ideas I have learnt since I first got enthused about leaf tea in Japan twenty-five years ago.

At the beginning of the book is a section on water and tea tools to make brewing easier, such as the hoop jug that helps you get the water temperature right for your green tea in an instant and with minimal fuss. Then, as well as traditional ways of making tea, we will explore new brewing methods such as Flow Brewing (see page 54) which involves brewing one tea through another to create an infusion and Ambient Tea (see pages 68–71), a way of making tea pair better with food. There is a chapter on delicious sparkling teas that I call Tea Sodas (see pages 80–87) and which you can make at home with just tea and a few other natural ingredients. Fresh Fruit Tea Quarters (see pages 88–101) are another innovation, combining two things I love – tea and fresh fruit juice – to create a refreshing soft drink with only a quarter of the amount of sugar found in fruit juices.

One of most exciting recent developments in tea is the worldwide popularity of matcha, both as a beverage and as an ingredient, liberating it from the refined world of the tea ceremony. In this book there are recipes to make the most of matcha and the other stoneground teas now available so you can learn to make new kinds of tasty drinks and desserts. So turn on your kettle, tune in to tea culture and drop those tasteless tea bags for something that’s better for you and the planet.

Use cold water for your kettle as it contains more oxygen, which means the tea you make will be more delicious.

WATER THE MAIN INGREDIENT

Water is the main ingredient of tea so selecting the right water is absolutely crucial to making good tea. In East Asia tea producers make their tea with their local water in mind and historically tea connoisseurs in Japan and China have been very fussy about finding the right water for brewing their tea. In the epic Qing dynasty novel Dream of a Red Chamber, for example, a Buddhist nun and tea connoisseur famously matches a tea with water from snow water collected from plum blossom branches several years previously. Obviously such pairings are neither practical nor ecological for most of us today.

In the UK, where there is both hard and soft water, matching tea to water rather than matching water to tea used to be an important part of the industry. Tea institutions, now long gone, used to suggest tea blends to mail order customers based on water samples they would send in. The larger tea companies with national distribution also used to adjust their blends city by city across the country. Today Taylors of Harrogate, a tea company in the north of England, still blends a black tea especially for very hard water. Thankfully most people have an affinity for the water they have grown up with or have drunk for many years. However, if your local tap water does not work with your favourite teas, here are some things you can do.

If it is a chlorine issue, leaving the water to stand in a large jug, pitcher or a glass or ceramic container overnight can help. If this does not reduce the chlorine you could try a charcoal filter for your drinking and tea-brewing water. In my experience most water filters improve the clarity of the tea and will decrease any strong chlorine aromas but they can also make the tea seem a little lifeless.

As many people tend to prefer the taste of their local water, if you need to find a bottled water first look locally as it is also likely to be cheaper and of course be much more environmentally friendly. Ideally the mineral or spring water would be extracted sustainably and come to you in returnable/recyclable glass bottles or safe plastic (HDPE) containers. If none of your local bottled waters works with the teas you enjoy, as a last resort you can try widely available bottled waters like Volvic, Vittel and Highland Spring.

Once you have the right water, it should be stored in a cool place, but it does not need to be refrigerated. Cold water has more oxygen which can make the water, and later the tea, taste better, just like a chilled soft drink always tastes more refreshing than a lukewarm one. As the boiling or reboiling of water reduces the oxygen, making the tea taste flat, be careful to use only the amount of water you need in your kettle and try to use fresh cold water for every new infusion.

TEA WARE ALL YOU’LL EVER NEED

KETTLE

We had a kettle; we let it leak:

Our not repairing made it worse.

We haven’t had any tea for a week …

The bottom is out of the Universe

Kipling’s lines are a humorous reminder of the importance of a kettle in a tea drinker’s life. I have few recommendations for buying a kettle other than to suggest you look for a metal kettle with as little plastic inside the kettle as possible both for potential health issues and because certain plastic kettles can have a distinctive smell.

A Japanese iron kettle or tetsubin is a once-in-a-lifetime investment, but be warned they require a dedicated owner as after every use they should be emptied of water otherwise they can rust and develop holes, just like Kipling’s kettle. These handmade iron kettles do not have the enamel interiors that the popular teapot tetsubin have, but instead iron interiors, which fans believe purifies the water and gives the tea a better aroma and texture.

A more affordable choice is a temperature-controlled kettle. There are many good steel ones available, including ones developed for coffee specialists with goose neck spouts which makes pouring more accurate. One word of warning about temperature-controlled kettles – they can, over time, lose the accuracy of their internal temperature thermometer, sometimes due to limescale building up within the kettle. We try not to descale our kettle as descaling in the short term will effect the taste of the tea. However if any limescale cannot be removed by hand, lemon or lime juice as well as vinegar are effective natural descalers. Just cover the area you wish to descale with the juice or vinegar and soak for over an hour, then add water and boil the kettle. Pour off all the hot water from the kettle and rinse it several times with cold water before boiling once again, and then you should be ready to use your kettle again.

TEAPOT

The teapot’s design has changed little since Chinese craftsmen first produced large numbers of Yixing teapots in the early 1500s. The teapot boom was a response to an early Ming dynasty emperor decreeing that more tea should be made in the loose leaf form. Up until then a lot of tea was pressed into cakes and bricks, some of which also had a scented wax around them and this tea was often ground and whisked in a bowl like matcha used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

A selection of teapots and kettles in a diversity of materials. Why not see if you have a teapot or kettle hidden away in a kitchen cupboard you can use before you decide to buy a new one?

Yixing teapots and other clay teapots are still produced today and their attraction for tea aficionados is the way they can influence a tea’s texture and aromas – it’s a bit like listening to music with a sophisticated stereo system where you can alter the treble and the bass to suit your taste.

The most common clay in Yixing is a reddy-brown colour, and the shape and colour influenced many western teapots, including the iconic British Brown Betty. The advantage of a darker glaze is that tea stains, inside and outside the pot, do not show.

The material of a teapot also is worth a little consideration. If durability is very important to you, porcelain or bone china are tougher and less likely to chip than other forms of pottery and glass. Glass has many fans who enjoy seeing the colour of the tea, some can even judge when their tea is brewed to the strength they like by the infusion’s colour. If you buy a glass teapot try to choose one with a shorter spout, which is less likely to break. To be able to enjoy the colour of the tea in your glass pot you may have to regularly clean the pot with something stronger than just detergent. I use bicarbonate of soda or denture cleaning tablets with warm water to shift stubborn stains.

The size of a teapot is an important consideration. While you can make just one cup in a large teapot, it is much easier to use a smaller one so do choose a pot according to how much tea you normally brew. Also, if you like to make your tea strong and over several infusions, smaller teapots under 200 ml/7 oz. are ideal. Another design feature to check is whether the pot has something to catch tea leaves when you pour the liquid tea out. Many modern teapots only have a large hole where the body meets the spout which is fine if you are using teabags but not for leaf tea as most of the leaves will end up in your cup or your strainer. Teapots with a built-in cylindrical filter or strainer that can be removed are practical for removing leaves, but these pots severely limit the movement of the leaves and therefore will not brew as good a pot of tea as those without such restriction of movement. Although I have listed some things you might want to consider when choosing a teapot, do also be guided by your instincts as this very special object is likely to be at the heart of hospitality in your homer.

GAIWAN AND OTHER INFUSERS

I am a big fan of these small easy-to-use and very easy-to-clean brewers often made out of durable porcelain. The gaiwan revolutionized leaf tea drinking in China as it was cheaper than a teapot and was both a brewer and a cup. The Japanese version of a gaiwan is called a shiboridashi and has a very short spout to pour the tea into another vessel or cup. Other infusers like hohin or modern versions of these brewers also offer a quick and easy way to brew leaf tea. Glass travelling versions with a mesh infuser are also useful, especially if you want to try making tea sodas.

HOOP JUG

If you enjoy teas that are brewed with lower water temperatures like green teas, the hoop jug is a really useful tool. I developed it as the simplest and quickest way to get the water temperature right for tea brewing. All you need is a glass jug/pitcher and some rubber bands or a marker pen. To calibrate it to the water temperature(s) you want you will need use a thermometer or some time to work out which levels work best for your teas. As a basic guide, if you fill the jug a third full with cold water and then two-thirds with boiling water the water temperature is approximately 70°C/160°F, which is good for many Japanese green teas. If you use a quarter of cold water to three quarters boiling, the temperature should be about 80°C/175°F, which is suitable for many Chinese green teas and some greenish First Flush Darjeelings. Using the rubber bands or the marker pen, record your personal preferences so you’ll never need to wait for your water to cool or use a thermometer to make certain teas again.

FAIRNESS JUG

This jug is Taiwan’s fairly recent invention for Gong Fu-style tea, which allows you to decant all the infusion from a teapot into a jug/pitcher. The tea is then shared among the guests. The advantage over the traditional method of pouring tea from the pot to one cup then another is that everyone drinking from a fairness jug shares the same strength tea.

CHASEN AND CHASHAKU

A chasen is the Japanese bamboo whisk and chashaku the bamboo scoop used to make matcha. The most famous place for their production is in Takayama, a village in Nara prefecture, where some of the families who live there have been making them for twenty generations. Their superior skill, as well as their careful aging of the bamboo, makes Takayama chasen both highly sought after and expensive. Much cheaper chasen and chashaku are now made in China and these are perfectly fine for everyday use.

Before use, briefly soak the chasen in warm water. After use carefully wash the chasen’s prongs in cold water, gently pat dry and then air dry, ideally horizontally on a nail or upside down on a clothes rail. For those concerned about keeping their chasen in peak condition, you could buy a chasen holder to keep the shape of the prongs perfect.

CHAWAN

A chawan is the tea bowl used to whisk matcha in and drink the tea from. These bowls are often from Japan but famous chawan styles are also made in Korea, Vietnam and China. They come in all shapes, colours, clays and sizes to suit different occasions and seasons.

Judge a chawan not just by the way it looks but also by the way it feels. Hold it to assess whether its size and shape feels right for you, and put its lip to your lips to see how drinking from it will be. If you cannot find a chawan you love, feel free to use another bowl. For those who are not natural matcha makers, using a bowl with high sides makes whisking a tea with lots of foam easier than using a shallow bowl.

Shino chawan, Chashaku scoop and chasen whisk on a tray.

SCOOPS AND SPOONS

The tea bag is a terrible invention for brewing tea but a brilliant piece of portion control. Before tea bags, we used tea scoops, spoons and scales to portion out the leaf tea we needed. They all can still be useful measures until you get familiar enough to work out the correct quantity of your favourite teas by sight.

Hoop scoop and hoop jug, Fairness jug and gaiwan, and a Yixing teapot.