- Over a decade ago I sat down with tea
expert Sebastian Beckwith to learn the ins and outs of
tea and how to brew it well. That afternoon changed my life. That might sound like a joke, and I sure do like making jokes
on this show, but it's true. Tea still enthralls me, hydrates me, I'm super passionate about it. Today I'm really excited to go over all kinds of
information about tea. I'm probably gonna get over-caffeinated, I'm definitely gonna be
really animated, stick around. (whimsical instrumental music) I don't know who came up
with the term "fun fact", but if they get royalties for its use, I'm gonna be shelling out
some cash for this episode because tea, so many fun facts. Fun fact, tea is the most
consumed beverage in the world after water. Fun fact, all types of tea,
that means white, green, oolong, black and fermented all
come from the same plant. It's called camellia sinensis. How wild is that? Fun fact, I will not be
talking about health today. Now look, I want all of you to be healthy and tea does have some potentially
healthy properties to it but the reason you should drink tea is the same reason you
should drink coffee or wine or any other crafted, beautiful beverage; it's delicious, it's
complex, it's fascinated, it'll change your life. Now there's a lot to cover so let's just put a pin in
the fun facts for a moment. So how is it possible to get
so many different kinds of tea from one plant? A lot of it comes down to browning. Now often when we're talking
about browning in the kitchen we're talking about caramelization
and maillardization. We apply heat to sugar or
steak or a loaf of bread and we get beautiful browning and loads of flavor and aroma compounds. That is non-enzymatic browning and we pretty much universally
love that kind of browning, it's just delicious. But the browning that
makes tea what it is, well we don't usually love
that kind of browning. I'm talking about enzymatic
browning or oxidation. Tea leaves, like all
plants, contain enzymes. One particular enzyme
called polyphenol oxidase speeds up oxidation reactions
between oxygen in the air and polyphenols in the leaf. The first step in this
process is damaging cell walls just like we do when we
cut an apple or an avocado. Let either of those sit
around after cutting and they start to turn brown. That is oxidation and it usually does not
lead to deliciousness. Fun fact, with tea, it does. Okay, let's dig into
the major types of tea and see how they compare. First up, white tea. White tea sees the least
amount of human intervention. New leaves are plucked from the plant and then left to air dry. A small amount of enzymatic
browning can take place during this time but nothing extensive. This leads to very
delicate, aromatic teas. Next up, green teas. Green teas are some of
my absolute favorites, offering a massive range
of flavor and aroma, depending on where they're
grown and how they're processed. The unifying factor for all green teas is they're heated very soon after picking and that quick hit of heat stops
further enzymatic browning. Back to our apple example. If I slice an apple and
then immediately cook it, the enzymes are deactivated
and we see no oxidation. For many Chinese greens
that means pan firing or heating it in a wok-like vessel. That kind of heating introduces our non-enzymatic
browning friend caramelization, leading to nuttier, toastier flavor. Japanese greens, on the other
hand, are heated by steaming. As we know from steaming
foods in the kitchen, it adds not additional flavor. That's a big part of why Japanese greens are distinctly green in flavor. They can be grassy, seaweed-y,
and often incredibly savory. A couple important Japanese
greens are Sencha and Gyokuro. To make highly-prized Gyokuro, the plants are shielded from the sun during the final few weeks before picking. Depriving them of
sunlight during this time limits tannin production and increases amino acid production, leading to tea that is incredibly savory and packed with umami. Next up, oolongs. I won't pretend for a
minute to be unbiased here. This is my favorite category of tea. Oolong teas are massively complex. The range of flavors that can
present is just incredible. Am I drooling right now? Leaves for oolong tea are picked and then purposefully
bruised and manipulated to break cell walls and
encourage enzymatic activity. This is like buying a bunch of basil, bringing it home, and then mashing and
smashing it with your hands and then leaving it to sit around and turn into a swampy, blackened pile. Except, again with tea it's a good thing. After this bruising
step, oolongs are shaped, often into tight little balls or twisted into elegant lengths and then they are finally
heated to arrest those enzymes. Sometimes that heating is extensive and leads to toasty, delicious flavors. The best oolongs come
from China and Taiwan and my absolute favorites come from high in the mountains of Taiwan. The combination of climate
and craftsmanship makes a tea. Next up, black tea. With black tea we reach
the pinnacle of oxidation. Never really thought I'd say that phrase, pinnacle of oxidation. The pinnacle of oxidation. The leaves are subjected
to extensive rolling to encourage as much enzymatic
activity as possible. Finally, they are heated
to halt the process. There's massive variation
within the world of black tea and even within regions that
are known for their black tea. Take Darjeeling for example. This region of India produces some of the most
sough after black teas in the world. One of my favorites is
Darjeeling first flush, which looks like this. Darjeeling's second
flush, on the other hand, looks more like what we
classically think of as black tea. First flush is picked in early spring and the leaves are handled more gently to keep oxidation in check whereas second flush
is more fully oxidized. First flush, delicate and floral. Second flush, rich and malty. Man, that's just so cool. The final category of tea I
wanna get into is fermented tea and the classic example here is pu-erh, which is often compressed into bricks and then left to age for
years or even decades. Pu-erh starts out a bit like a green tea but the small amount of
moisture left in its leaves allow bacteria to ferment it
over a long period of time into something wholly distinct. All right, I think it's
time to talk brewing. The three factors to always consider are type and quantity of tea,
temperature of the water, and length of steep. You can play endlessly with these factors and get unique results. My favorite way to brew tea
is using the gong fu method. Gong fu cha, often translated
as brewing tea with skill, calls for a high ratio
of tea leaves to water and multiple, short infusions. It originated in the Southeastern
coastal region of China but it is now popular across Asia and in many other parts of the world. Let's go to the kitchen and check it out and learn how to make
the very best iced tea while we're at it. There are many, many ways
to do the gong fu method, but here is how I like to do it. It traditionally uses small
clay pots like this one or a vessel that looks like this, which is called a gaiwan. First, you fill the pot a third or even half full of tea leaves. Here, I'm using tieguanyin. It starts out as tight balls like this but during brewing will open up like this. Now, I fill the pot up with hot water and let it sit for a few
seconds to both warm the pot and open up the leaves a little bit. Then I dump out this wash water. Then, we fill the pot up again and let it sit for anywhere
from 20 to 30 seconds. Now that sounds incredibly short but it's because we're
using a really high ratio of tea leaves to water. Then we decant all of
the tea out of the vessel into either a mug or a
sharing pitcher like this. Now if I'm just drinking this on my own I might put it into a mug but the sharing pitcher is perfect for dispensing into small
cups for a group to enjoy. Now we take a taste, sip. (makes yummy noise) That's so good. It's green, it's a little bit toasty, there's something pine-y in there. Such a complex, wonderful
tea but I'm not done. The beauty of this method is that with good quality tea leaves you can get multiple infusions
out of the same batch and each infusion is slightly different than the one before it. So, we add water, we
steep until delicious, we decant, enjoy, repeat. We add water, we steep until delicious, decant, enjoy, repeat. Add water, steep until
delicious, decant, enjoy, repeat. Add water. (mumbles incoherently) Fun fact, some high-quality
oolongs can be steeped up to 10 or more times. Okay, so I'm clearly using
specialized teaware for this, but here's the thing
you can easily do this in a larger western-style pot. Just fill the basket up and
make multiple, short infusions. To my mind, the gong fu method is the best way to learn about your tea and really, really enjoy it. And the best way to
make and enjoy iced tea? For that, we need Cooks
Illustrated Senior Editor Lan Lam and her recipe for iced black tea. We're gonna start with a bowl and add 1-1/2 tablespoons
of loose-leaf black tea. I'm using a lovely Assam here. Then, we add three cups of boiling water and let it steep for four minutes. During that four minutes
the very hot water is pulling loads of flavor compounds out of those tea leaves. You have malty flavors, floral
flavors, and so much more. Now, anyone who has left
a tea bag in their tea cup for too long knows that
along with great flavor, hot water also pulls out bitter-tasting compounds and tannins. We need some of that
bitterness and those tannins for a nice cup of tea but
too much can be unpleasant. So, at the four-minute
mark we add one cup of ice, which rapidly drops the temperature. Now, we can let the tea
steep for an additional hour where the cooler water will continue to pull out great flavor without any of the risk of it
turning bitter or too tannic. Then, all we have to do is strain and let it chill in the fridge
until we're ready to drink. So, whether you like it
hot or you like it cold, this is definitely how to drink tea. (whimsical music) Whew, we have just barely
scratched the surface of tea. There's so much more to learn. I've got a lot of links below this video that are gonna help you do just that. First up, I have links to
Lan's iced tea recipes. She has amazing flavor
variations, they're so good. You have to check them all out. Sebastian Beckwith's tea company is called In Pursuit of Tea. He has amazing teas and while you're there you
can also pick up his book A Little Tea Book. It's wonderful, beautiful illustrations, you'll learn a ton about tea. Jason Chen's company is ccfinetea. He has awesome guides to
brewing on his website and even invented a gong
fu automatic brewer. You have to check it out. And if you want more great
YouTube content about tea I highly recommend Don
Mei's channel, Mei Leaf. Thank you all so much for watching. If you like this video
hit the like button, hit that subscribe button. Please go buy some tea and start brewing. We'll see ya next time.
