Try This Trio of Exceptional Chinese Teas—Iced!
Close readers of the blog and newsletter understand this year we are in the midst of a campaign to deliver our beloved customers and friends to an enchanting land—The Land of Iced Tea Awesomeness!
Most commercial iced tea comes from poor-quality black teas that are brewed until bracingly bitter. They then get “balanced” with excessive sugar and flavors like lemon and mint that mask the atrocious flavors of the tea.
Many of us have grown accustomed to this style. We also know it can taste acceptable, especially to people who have never consumed a different kind of iced tea. But Ku Cha House of Tea is here to tell you—we can do much better!
Tea is the second-most consumed beverage in the world, after water. This agricultural product offers a dizzying array of flavor, aromas and textures.There is a grandeur to tea, a complexity that attracts legions of fanatics. It’s no wonder that people around the world enliven and punctuate their days with tea. The beverage is simultaneously simple and sophisticated; humble and noble; satisfying and healthy.
Cold brewing for the iced tea win!
While most of the world drinks it hot, Americans are responsible for popularizing the pleasures of tea served chilled. But now it’s time for Iced Tea 2.0. Let’s brew some outstanding iced tea—just in time for a SERIOUS swelter that is set to capture Colorado’s Front Range this second week in July.
As established last week, we trumpet cold brewing as the premiere method for crafting tea that sings when it’s frigid. Making hot tea and then just cooling it down in the refrigerator doesn’t compare.
The beauty of cold brewing rests with the gentle way it extracts tea’s flavors and botanicals. Instead of stripping it all from the leaves in just minutes, it slowly coaxes the plant compounds from the leaves over the course of between eight and 12 hours. The method mitigates tea’s natural bitterness, while also showcasing its many other glorious properties.
Cold Brewing Excellent Iced Tea: Tie Guan Yin Superior Oolong
An important key to brewing superb iced tea rests with the leaves themselves. Poor tea will not get transformed by the cold brewing method. But most of the iced tea gulped down in the United States and frankly around the world begins as negligible tea.
This is not the case with Tie Guan Yin, also known as “Iron Goddess of Mercy” and one of the most famous of all Chinese teas. Tie Guan Yin, from China’s coastal Fujian Province, yields a sweet and floral fragrance when brewed. The taste of this wonderful oolong: bright and smooth, with deep notes of toast, nuts and honey. It’s gorgeous.
This is one tea that we at Ku Cha routinely brew when we are hankering for something chilled and delicious—especially during the hot months.
Cold Brewing Excellent Iced Tea: Mountain Mist
All of the main styles of tea can brew into exemplary iced teas. And that, of course, includes green teas. We adore green tea. But brewing it takes special care—miss the brewing window by less than a minute, and it can taste bitter. Cold brewing eliminates this problem. When you leverage the long, slow method for brewing green tea, the result is a grassy, herbal, floral tea without the bitterness that comes with over-brewed green tea.
Mountain Mist, a premium green from the ancient tea mountain, Mountain Meng, in northern Sichuan Province, is positively delicious when cold brewed. It also comes bearing fascinating history.
The tea is heralded and celebrated by the tea saint Yu Lu in tea’s very first book, called “Cha Jing” or “the Classic Book of Tea.” This 10th century tome, written during the 10th century in the Tang Dynasty, set Mountain Mist on a path toward greatness that continues today. The tea brews misty, sweet and fragrant, reminiscent of morning dew dropping from pine trees on the top of Mountain Meng.
Cold Brewing Excellent Iced Tea: Yunnan Gold
Honey! That’s one of Yunnan Gold’s signature flavors. And when you cold brew this classic, from FengQing County in the southern Yunnan Province, that’s one of the tastes you’ll savor, along with malty notes that are common among good black teas and even cocoa and peppery undertones. In addition, it brews creamy and oh so smooth. The tea gets its name from the tea’s golden tips, which are the only part of the tea leaves used to craft Yunnan Gold.
