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This simple brewing style is based on the traditional way farmers in Yunnan brew their own green tea. Anyone can enjoy this method – all you need is a tempered glass tumbler, boiled water and your favorite green tea. Free floating leaves allow you to enjoy their beauty as they dance and unfurl to create a more relaxed tea drinking experience. Sprinkling the tender buds on the surface of the water also means your brew will stay sweet without becoming bitter, even after steeping for hours.
You will need:
– a tempered glass
– your favorite loose leaf green tea
– water at 175°
–
(optional) brew basket
IMPORTANT: Remember to always use tempered glass. If you use untempered glass, your pitcher or glasses can crack and shatter with such hot water.
Step One: Boil Your Water to 175°
First, boil fresh filtered water to 175°. We recommend using spring water or filtered tap water, as overly hard water or distilled water can make your teas taste flat. If you do not have a temperature controlled water boiler or a handy thermometer, you can always bring your water to a full boil, and then let it cool. You can speed up this cooling process by pouring your water from a height and then tossing the water back and forth between two tempered glasses.
Step Two: Fill Your Glass & Measure Your Tea
Fill your glass with your 175° water and set aside while your measure out your green tea.
We recommend using 4g of tea for 6-8oz of water.
Step Three: Sprinkle Your Tea into your Glass
Sprinkle your tea into your glass. The tea leaves will slowly sink and unfurl. If you wish, you can speed up this process by swirling the water in your glass.
You can also use a brew basket if you would rather remove the tea leaves and halt the steeping. Just measure your tea into the brew basket, and then place the brew basket in the glass of water. After about one minute, remove and enjoy.
Step Four: Sip and Enjoy
Smell the steam until your cup becomes fragrant, usually 30-40 second, and start sipping. You can use your breath to blow leaves away from the rim of the glass as you sip. Enjoy slowly over a few minutes, as Jingshan tea doesn’t get bitter. This allows you to experience various stages of brewing in one go. When your cup gets low, fill back to the top with 175 degree water and keep drinking.
Leave a Reply
That's interesting. I've always been all about halting the steeping, but that's a good point about enjoying different infusions all at once without constantly re-steeping.
I grew up on low quality teas, so I guess my instinct is still that they'll get bitter if left to their own devices for too long in the water. I should try this :)
It's definitely worth a try! As long as you're using cooler water (and don't forget to enjoy your steeping tea for 2+hrs!) it's a great way to enjoy Jingshan. Sprinkling the tea leaves on the surface of the water instead of pouring your hot water directly on the leaves is part of what keeps this style of brewing from becoming intensely bitter. Brewing in this way also keeps the wet leaves from sitting exposed to air and oxidizing between steepings - with more delicate green teas (especially flat-pressed Dragonwell), this waiting period can lead to more bitter later brews with less complexity.
You're right, too - the other key to success in this brewing style is the tea itself. For other green teas, you may just have to experiment and see how they perform!
Are those colour changing rabbits?
They don't change colors, but they are made of yixing clay! Originally, the two rabbits were light yellow. After years of drinking tea, they have become dark and darker - absorbing the tea we pour over them almost every day.
very interesting, i've never heard of that method before.
can't wait to try it out!
Wow. I tried this and while very interesting, I could not get the leaves to sink at all. I ended up spitting out the leaves a lot. Brew baskets are the way to go for me! Or at least steeping and then filtering the leaves!