Yesterday I put some Anji Duet from Adagio Tea in the fridge to brew. This is a very mild green Chinese tea with some white tea characteristics. If I brewed this hot, the directions say to do it for 3 minutes at 180 degrees. Since my pitcher holds 10 cups, I used 10 very large clumps, gave it a stir and set it aside for seven hours. I looked on the Adagio website and saw it was an extremely mild tea, so I quick went and added another 5 clumps. In just 5 minutes the water was already a pale green. The dry leaves are very attractive, tightly rolled lengthwise into long, thin needles, in a pleasing mix of greens. The dry tea gives off a scent of grass, with a hint of fruit, something in the peach/apricot line, but it is not specific to them – that sweet scent with a hit of astringency around the edges. The leaves did not unfurl much, remaining long thin needles.
The brewed tea was quite pleasant, with just hints of floral and fruit. There was perhaps a bit of grass/vegetable. All in all, very delicate and would go with some mild foods. I think this is not really a tea for ice tea, as it doesn't stand up to the cold because of it's delicacy. However, if you are looking for a delicate ice tea, this could fill the bill, rather, glass, nicely.
I will be trying more cold brew teas as the summer unfolds. Hot tea doesn't appeal to me very much, except as a morning wake-up.
1 comment:
I too have been experimenting with cold-brewing of teas...I have been thinking about blogging about the results, but have not yet done so.
=)
I've found it works much better with some teas than others...but, alas, I usually find that there are almost certain qualities in the aroma that simply don't come out with cold brewing.
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