Works best with: Any green tea, especially Jingshan, Songyang White
Start with a tempered glass tumbler. Fill with fresh boiled water, 6-8oz is ideal. Allow the water to steam and cool for about 45 seconds to one minute. add two generous pinches of tea, or 2 tsp. If the tea is Jingshan green, or rolled Laoshan green, it will quickly start to fall towards the bottom of the cup. Other green teas may float for a minute or so. Swirl the leaves around, and hold them up to the light to appreciate the color. Smell the stem until it becomes fragrant, usually 30-40 second, and start sipping. You can sip down the small cup over a few minutes, as Jingshan tea doesn’t get bitter. This allows you to experience various stages of brewing in one go. When the cup gets low, fill back to the top with 175 degree water and keep drinking.
The Story: The first time I tried this was a dark rainy night in Hangzhou. I had wrapped up a day of interviews with tea vendors, mostly selling Dragonwell, and found myself out in torrential rain walking along the shoreline of the city’s famous lake. My goal was to find either a taxi or a teahouse to get out of the rain. I walked and walked with no luck at either. After about an hour of wandering and thorough pounding from the rain, I saw an old wooden structure down a side street. The whole sign was not visible, but I saw the character for tea, and made a dash for it. As I rounded the corner, I saw that the sign read “Jingshan Teahouse.” I had never heard of Jingshan before, but didn’t particularly care. I entered the old wooden building and asked for a table.
The teahouse was completely empty, and the woman behind the counter scurried upstairs to find a table and some hot water. She handed me a big, wooden-bound menu proudly and I opened it to find just three teas. Jingshan Tea, Jingshan Budset Tea, and Jingshan Early Spring Tea. I almost laughed at the oddity of three menu items, but ordered the Early Spring Tea, and waited. Instead of the usual Gaiwan, the woman brought a short glass, poured hot water and sprinkled the tea leaves on top, telling me to wait for the tea to start dancing around.
This was clearly no ordinary tea waitress. I struck up a conversation while waiting for the leaves to open and found out that her family was a farmer family in Yunnan, and they saved money to open a shop in Hangzhou to spread the tea of their village that they were so proud of. I sipped the tea and experienced a crisp, sparkling and determined sweetness that impressed me. The woman was very happy I liked it and immediately began pulling out books and picture albums of the mountain Jingshan. I convinced her to sell me a little bag of tea to drink at home, and left much happier, and with much more taxi-finding skill.
I love this story and this tea. I’m really curious about the brewing technique. I have to give this a try! You say to use freshly boiled water that has cooled for 45 seconds to one minute. Is that adequate time for the water to come down to 175F? I’m afraid that it would otherwise burn the tea, making an unpleasant brew.
Hi Charlotte,
This is a greta way to brew tea, and very beautiful to watch. About water temperature: It really depends on the size of your water kettle. If you pour out into a glass pitcher or cup, even 30 seconds or so is enough to cool down the water. If you pour the water from higher up in a thin stream, it also cools as it falls. The water continues to cool as the tea brews.
You might want to be more careful with easy to burn teas like Japanese greens or something like the Songyang White, but Jingshan is super forgiving. If you are worried about steep time, you can also use a brew basket so that the leaves can be removed when the strength of the brew is to your taste.
Have fun,
David
Thanks for the great story. I tried this brewing technique with Songyang White, but like Charlotte, was worried about the temperature, so started it a bit lower. That may have been the problem – the leaves stayed at the top so was a bit hard to drink. I will have to try again, maybe with a green next time.
HI Laura,
The Songyang does have a tendency to float for the first few steepings. In China, people will just blow on the surface of the water to move the leaves to the side while sipping. You can try this, or you can use a brew basket to remove the leaves when you want to.
Jingshan leaves will mostly sink, as will Laoshan Green and given 15 seconds or so, the Yunnan White Jasmine.
Hi David,
I’ve read you posts for a while and this is the one that sticks in my memory, so I wanted t add my two cents about the power of chance at the right moment. For me, I was given a gift of a little packet of anonymous (but excellent) Chinese tea a few weeks ago. I generally drink low price Japanese tea that I buy in New York City, so naturally it opened up a new world.
The little gift from a friend who traveled to Shanghai turned my attention to tea, and looking online showed me the enormous breadth of possibilities. Your post touched me because it is the opposite end of the telescope from where I am. I am a novice surrounded by excellence and you were an experienced tea drinker accepting and being surprised by the modest.
I want to approach my new found tea interest seriously, but I am very aware that we tend to fetishize activities, tea drinking is certainly an example, so is what we have done to the simple process of making a cappuccino. If it’s a means to and end – a better glass of tea, cappuccino or wine, great. But if it’s an end in itself then it’s much better from my point of view to let the tea unfold in a glass.
Thanks,
I did this with my jingshan green and it was awesome to watch the leaves dance around.
I can’t wait to try this method of brewing. I’m looking forward to the Jingshan Green coming back in stock this spring.
I severely enjoy your posts. Thanks