What water to use for tea brewing | Why avoid gooseneck kettles for gongfu tea | ZhenTea
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- Опубліковано 26 лют 2020
- What water should I use for tea brewing? It's an often asked question, and today we answer it, in detail! No need to be frightened by the water talk, you can always use what's available to brew tea. It's NOT about right or wrong, but it's indeed fun!
❤️If you are a "tea nerd" passionate about water, here is a fun site you should visit! How to make your fake mineral water from BABELCARP.ORG! However, the data is only good for tea lovers in the states. BTW, babelcarp.org is a great tool for tea lovers to bridge the language barrier between English and Chinese. Check it out!
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I have tried various waters. I've also settled on Brita-filtered tap water. I have two tea tables in different rooms. I use a Kamjove induction kettle in one, and one of the gooseneck kettles in the other. I'm now curious to conduct a side by side test. What are your thoughts on stopping the boil at "fish eyes' rather than full boil, to prrevent too much oxygen from boiling off.
isn't fish/crab eyes around 80c? id rather have full flavour pulled out of the tea at higher temps than getting a little more oxygen in the first infusion as it would be very wasteful to refill the kettle for every infusion and your 2nd+ infusion are going to have very little oxygen left in the water anyway
Laughing Chinaman I was shown the technique in a small teashop in Vancouver's Chinatown. The way it was explained to me is that the water is removed the second it reaches a full 100°C and the 'fish eye' size bubbles rise. The shop's owner also recommended purchasing the smaller 1L Kamjove kettle because the larger 1.8L pots encourage re-boiling, with a resulting loss of both oxygen and flavour in the tea. She was adamant that 2 'fish eyes' boils is the very maximum the water can handle, before it negatively impacts the flavour of the tea.
LOVE the conversation you guys are having here. It's so fun to read it!
To be honest, I personally don't pay much attention to the oxygen level in the water when boiling it, especially within the same water. But I don't like to boil the water over and over, twice is my personal limit because I feel "overboil" concentrates the mineral and whatnot, and the water somehow tastes dead (though Phil often teases me that second and third time boils are not much different...). So I really like her suggestion in turns of getting a smaller kettle. On the other hand, we don't have to fill the kettle up, do we? ;) I have a big kettle and I often fill it up to 1/3 or 1/2 so that I don't have to boil the water over and over.
Regarding fish eye, this kind of expression of shrimp/crab/fish eyes comes from ancient books. It's a way to bring everybody on the same page when there wasn't a thermometer. The tea they drank and the way they drank tea is totally different than what we have nowadays. Though many books pointed out that fisheye is the best "temperature" for tea brewing, I think it doesn't necessarily suit today's brewing situation.
Translating those different water animals' eyes to the modern language, those bubble sizes reflect water temperature as the water approaches a full boil. Little bubbles on the bottom of the kettle, bubbles get bigger and appears on the surface of the water, bigger bubbles appear (fisheye), even bigger bubbles coming from the bottom of the kettle like a string of necklace, bubbles disappear and the water is turning and tossing like the angry ocean (full boil). (FYI, I'm not weird, I just mixed in the translation of some ancient texts). I always boil the water for brewing tea. If I need to adjust the water temperature, I do it after the water boils. Plus, I rarely, rarely sit beside the tea table and wait for the water to boil, so I don't have a chance to check the bubble situation not to mention catch the water at that specific state.
Long story short, to answer your question on stopping the boil at "fish eyes' rather than full boil, I think it's totally fine as many teas taste better at a lower temperature than full boil, and stopping the boil at "fish eyes' rather than full boil is what many preset kettles are doing.
I think the reason most westerners use a gooseneck kettle is not the gooseneck, but the variable temperature settings. Sadly currently the only available kettles on the western market, which has degree by degree variable temperature settings are all gooseneck.
That's why I do. Not many options with normal spout
I got a refurbished fellow corvo kettle for exactly this reason.
I'm bewitched by your words and the way that you're explaining the art of tea
I am so impressed, I don’t think I have ever seen a video so thoroughly prepared and informative on the subject. Thanks!
Thank you!❤️
Thank you. Excellent explanation and informative.
Great info here! Thanks for all this.
I was about to buy a gooseneck kettle to brew my tea, luckily I found this video before making any payment.
I'm not a fan of gooseneck kettles for the same reasons that you listed. My current kettle has a weighted handle and I find that really helps with controlling the pour.
Oh! This video should come a year ago, when I was buying my kettle. :) Now I will have to wrap aluminium foil around the gooseneck. :D
Haha, no worries! Gooseneck kettles are still a great option for tea brewing. In the end, not many people in the west are like us who almost only drink Chinese tea. :)
I’ve been doing a bit of a binge watch of your videos. I wish I’d known about the Tea Book reads earlier! Great content delivered with energy with humor. This was a fun video both for the information and the history. Thank you! Looking forward to when local tea shops reopen....but may now be spoiled by (your) good tea!
Thanks so much for you comment! That's precisely what gives us the energy (and humor) to do these videos. Hopefully we'll all be sipping tea with our friends, face to face again soon!
I prefer distilled water only because I can taste minerals pretty strongly so mineral water brewed tea (or even Brit’s water) ends up tasting like the water more than the tea.
Thanks
I personally just use tap water. I actually prefer the taste of tap water myself, but have been curious about using a Brita filter for tea purposes. Perhaps if I see them on sale I'll pick one up and experiment with some side-by-side Brita vs tap water comparisons.
I am fairly new to proper non-tea bag brewing,and initially believed that distilled water was the obvious choice.
But,no.
Is it pure?
Yes!
But it is flat.
Dead,somehow.
Spring water,or filtered tap water(I filter twice),is preferred.
You make an interesting argument against goose neck kettles. Your point about the force of the pour was particularly interesting. I'd love to learn more about that. Thanks for sharing!
Do you have any book suggestions regarding gong fu cha and how to improve intuitive/dynamic tea making skills? I'm a beginner, but I find myself at a loss when it comes to identifying how any particular tea should be brewed. I don't find the average tea sellers' recommendations on brewing one tea necessarily helpful when brewing another. Should I just stick with boiling water, shorter infusions, and adjust to taste?
I think you have exactly the right idea with regard to brewing. Start with the recommendation, but if they don't work, try boiling water and work your way down until you find something that works for you. You can really play with the parameters and I think you'll be surprised how quickly your intuition will guide you... As long as you don't get distracted by Instagram or Facebook like we sometimes do! 😀
My tap water, even when filtered, is super hard haha. It's impossible to clean the wares with just boiling water after making tea and the brew is dark
water softner is what you need for the house. & for tea I suggest finding a good bottled water that you have access to. The softner will take out too much im sure
I have a water temperature question. How do you maintain the temperature of the water in the kettle as you go through a session?
We put less water in the kettle (about 3-4 infusions ideally). Of course the temperature is never perfectly stable, but it's close enough to get really great infusions. Most importantly, enjoy your tea 😀!
What? Goosneck kettles are specifically designed to give more control over the pouring height, volume and flow rate...
Ive talked to a couple people specifically who do gongfu brewing and love their gooseneck kettles. 🤷🏻♀️
Especially if you're drinking sheng pu'erh. The last thing you want is to pour water violently over a temperamental sheng 😬 I think it's called the "cha dan", where Dan cong and sheng get too bitter if the mass of wet leaves is agitated too much during pouring
yeah, and when you rinse the tea the spout will heat up so its not going to lose much temperature, I have a gooseneck kettle and it works great for pouring fast, and slow