Loosen up! The world's best teas don't come in bags.
PinMy friend Laura is way more into wine than tea, so it took some cajoling to get her to travel an hour and a half away from home to a tiny tea shop in a Queens strip mall, where we settled in for a three-hour tasting of teas from all over China and Taiwan.
She took a sip and her eyes went wide and she almost yelled at me, "How does this taste like riesling? Is that peach skin? Black walnut?". Just like wine grapes, one species of tea plant yields many products.I knew she was hooked, because she was picking up on something tea lovers have known all along: The same vocabulary we use for coffee, spirits, and wine—tannins and fruit undertones and terroir—are all just as applicable to tea.
Now lots of people love their Earl Grey or a particular chai blend, but drinking flavored tea by default is like saying it's best to drink coffee with a shot of hazelnut syrup, or that white wine's only worthwhile if diluted with ice cubes, or that the only way to have bourbon is mixed into a Manhattan. On a philosophical level, it also suggests thatI'd argue the opposite, particularly in regards to East Asian styles that are designed to be drunk straight, not with milk.
One increasingly popular high-priced solution is tetrahedron-shaped "loose leaf" tea bags full of larger leaves. Manufacturers claim these shapes allow for better water circulation and brewing around the leaves, letting more nuances seep into your cup. I've found neither of these claims to be true. For their high costs—higher than true loose leaf in many cases—I've had some pretty foul teas.
Take a look at a tea bush and you'll see a wide swath of waxy, dark green leaves and a thin coat of lighter green ones resting on top. Those dark green leaves are culinarily useless; only the fresh young shoots are good for tea.Hand-roasting Dragon Well.
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