Principle of Tea Preparation

One of my goals during the March trip to Taiwan this year was to visit "Luyu Tea Art Center" in Taipei. Although I didn't have time to take the series of tea classes, I did observe a teacher closely when she prepared tea for me to taste. With her help, I picked out several reference books and tea preparation DVDs. One book is especially helpful in explaning the importance of water temperature and steeping time:

• Water temperature: if close to boiling point, caffine (which is bitter) readily dissolves into water.
• Steeping duration: Both astringent and tea's essence elements (phenolic compounds and amino acids) release readily to hot water. The concentration of compounds extracted to the water is closely related to steeping time. Other influencing factors are the degree of tightness of the tea leaves and the amont of tea used.

From my experience, the above principle is quite agreeable with the resulting tea quality. Try for yourself with a light green Oolong: Use 1 flat tablespoon tea, add 8 oz. water at 195 degree F (before a rolling boil), steep for 5 minutes. The first steep is quite delicious!

Tea Storage Guide

Most of my tea-loving friends have the nice problem of "tea overflow": various teas in opened or sealed containers lining on the pantry shelf. The surplus teas require some tender loving care to keep them fresh. The World Tea Newsletter has articles covering sound principles for proper tea storage: purchase tea in small, vacuum-sealed package and after opening, store it in a tight container in a dry, clean place (avoid odor, light and humidity).

Prudent Answers for "Tea and Health"

I am happy to share this Q&A article from World Tea News with the readers. It gives prudent answers to questions my friends often ask me. Tea is such a rich and complicated natural element, questions on this subject would often receive "yes, but..." explanations from a conscientious tea scholar. My principle for health upkeep is "to eat and drink one's favorites provided by nature, but in a modest manner". The health benefits of tea could well be from the calming atmosphere than all those hard-spelling antioxidants! Look at the radiant Taiwanese tea merchant in the photo. I took this picture while he was preparing tea for customers to taste.