Brewing Chinese Tea in Western Teaware

Hi everyone, in this video, we're taking a look at how to brew Chinese tea, western style. If you're interested in premium tea, make sure to subscribe to our channel for new videos like this one each week. If you've been following our channel or drinking our teas for a while, you know that our favorite way to brew tea is the Chinese Gong Fu method. This small batch brewing technique gives you complete control over the infusion and unlocks the full flavor of any tea. But sometimes, you may still want to brew in a large mug or British style teapot. So today, we're taking a look at how to use premium Chinese tea in a western tea service. No matter how you brew, a good cup of tea starts with good quality tea leaves, and the reverse is true too. Bad tea leaves will only make a mediocre pot of tea. We have another video all about how to tell a tea's quality if you're interested, but the most important thing is to choose whole leaf tea. Most western style teas are made from crushed up leaves, which indicate harsh processing and low-grade harvest. Crushing also damages flavor and healthy compounds, since it allows the leaves to rapidly oxidize and degrade. When you see nice whole leaves in your tea, it shows that more care was put into the harvest and crafting process, and it also helps preserve complex flavors since the leaves aren't damaged. That's why even for western style brewing, whole leaf Chinese teas are still often the best choice. Using whole leaf tea is also much easier than crushed leaves, since it's naturally less bitter and more forgiving to brew. Typically, with western brewing, we let the leaves sit in the water without ever removing them. Because of this, it's important to adjust a few things for the optimal taste. Since the tea will get stronger and stronger as it sits, you'll need to use a lower ratio of leaves to water. Since there are fewer leaves, it will take longer to extract flavor, so you'll need to increase your brewing time. Although teas generally taste best when brewed at lower temperatures, since we're using fewer tea leaves, we also need to increase water temperature to extract enough flavor. We have separate videos about how brew ratio, time, and temperature affect flavor if you're interested. Even though longer brew times and higher temperatures aren't ideal for most teas, it's necessary if you're brewing western style, since there's a lot of water and only a small amount of leaves. Luckily, you can still get a decent flavor from whole leaf teas if you're brewing this way. For the best taste, we recommend the Chinese Gong Fu brewing method, but no matter how you brew, premium whole leaf teas will always taste better than crushed leaves. To learn more about the world of premium tea, visit redblossomtea.com. Make sure you leave a like and comment below if you found this video helpful, and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss out on future videos.