For tea, brewing is very important. White tea can be divided into silver needle white tea, white peony tea, Gongmei white tea, Shoumei white tea and so on, which need different brewing methods. Even high-quality white tea, if brewed incorrectly, will lose the best taste of tea soup to a large extent.
How to make white tea? Different white tea has different brewing methods, which can be divided into the following five methods: the Cup Brewing Method, the Gaiwan (Lidded Bowl) Method, the Simmering Method, the Purple Clay Teapot Method, and the Cold Brewing Method.
1、Cup Brewing Method
- Suitable for: Silver Needle White Tea, White Peony Tea, New White Tea
- Steps: use about 3-5g of white tea (tea water ratio: generally 1:50), Place the tea into a glass or insulated cup, then directly pour in water heated to around 90°C. Let it steep for a while before drinking.
- Advantages: portable, simple, suitable for home travel, office or drinking, and you can enjoy the beautiful posture of tea in the water.
- Disadvantages: Limited to one person, not suitable for entertaining guests.. The heat preservation performance of the glass is poor, and the temperature of the tea drops quickly; and the glass is easy to cause excessive soaking of the tea when brewing the white tea.
2、Gaiwan (Lidded Bowl) Method
- Suitable for: Silver Needle White Tea, White Peony Tea, and new white tea.
- Ratio of tea to water: generally 1:20 or 1:30, adjusted according to the capacity of the covered bowl and personal taste.
- Water temperature: Start with 85°C. The temperature can be slightly increased based on the coarseness of the tea leaves, but it usually does not exceed 95°C.
- Steps: Warm the cup of sanitary ware, throw the tea, and inject water along the edge of the covered bowl (avoid injecting water directly into the tea leaves to reduce the bitter taste). After 10 seconds, quickly take out the soup, and then add 5S for each bubble. Generally, it can be brewed about ten times.
- Advantages: The most commonly used bubble method, aroma and taste more layered.
- Disadvantages: test the tea-making techniques of tea-makers, improper control of water temperature and time will affect the taste of tea soup.
3、Simmering Method
- Suitable for: aged white tea, white tea cake, etc.
- Water-separated boiling method: Put tea and water into a pot according to the proportion (the recommended ratio of tea and water is 1:150), and then put them into a big pot to boil, such as stewing bird’s nest in water. This kind of boiled old white tea is the easiest to produce medicinal fragrance and taste better.
- Cold water tea method: Take dry tea 5-10 grams, cake tea can be reduced appropriately, first put tea in the pot, add cold water, boil with high fire and then simmer with low fire. Drink after 2-3 minutes.
- Hot water tea-throwing method: When the water is heated to around 85°C, add the dried tea. Once the water boils, switch to gentle heat and simmer slowly.
- Brew first, then simmer:first use a covered bowl to brew a few times, and then turn the bottom of the leaves into a tea cooker to continue boiling.
4、 Purple Clay Teapot Method
- Suitable for: White Tea Cake, Old White Tea, Shoumei
- Ratio of tea to water: generally 1:20 or 1:40, adjusted according to the capacity of the teapot and personal taste.
- Water temperature: 85-100°C, adjusted based on the type and age of the tea leaves.
- Steps: washing the tea set with boiling water, putting a proper amount of white tea into a purple clay teapot, quickly moistening the tea for 1 to 2 times with boiling water with moderate temperature, injecting water along the edge of the teapot to avoid directly flushing the core of the teapot, and pouring out the tea soup after a certain period of time.
- Advantages: Sweet, soft and mellow.
- Disadvantages: The aroma is not as good as the covered bowl.
5、Cold Brewing Method
- In addition to hot brewing, white tea can also be extracted by cold extraction. First prepare a glass, add 8 grams of new white tea, add appropriate amount of pure water, brew until the tea soup is excellent, and then put it in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours, you can drink it. This bubble method is very friendly to diabetics.