Press Pass provided for review
Over the last two weeks, I shared my experience at the 2019 World Tea Expo. During my time in Las Vegas, I was able to attend various workshops, one of them being a green tea processing workshop!
I thought it would be fun to try the teas from the workshop. We processed green teas using four methods: steamed, pan fried, blanching/boiling and Sous Vide. Even the day after, the teas all looked and tasted different. Make sure to read my recap of the workshop and the rest of my trip!
Now that the teas have had some time to settle down, I wanted to re-taste them! I brewed each tea for 2.5 minutes using 3 grams of tea and 140 ml of water.
Let’s go!
Steamed 45 Seconds
Description: Leaves were placed inside a vegetable steamer, cooled in an ice-water bath, dried in a salad spinner, rolled and left to dry.
Notes: The leaves were almost black with some green sections. The smell reminded me more of an oolong – faintly grassy and earthy. After 2.5 minutes infusion, the wet leaves were a chocolate brown colour with some green peeking through. Many of the leaves were broken. The strong smell was much more pronounced and was malty and sweet.
The liquor was a golden orange with an underlying brown tinge with a roasted earthy smell. As expected, it really did not taste like a green tea. It was sweet, honey and molasses-like. The sip ended off with some dryness at the back of the throat.
Steamed 2 Minutes
Description: Leaves were placed inside a vegetable steamer, cooled in an ice-water bath, dried in a salad spinner, rolled and left to dry.
Notes: In comparison, the leaves were much greener in this tea because we were able to stop the oxidation/kill green. The dry leaves had a faint floral and sweet smell. After brewing, the leaves were much longer and had more of vegetal, grassy sweetness.
While it shared some characteristics with the Steamed 45 second, I found it a lot more drying. The liquor, in comparison to the 45 seconds, was a lighter golden yellow. It had a slight vegetal and malty taste which was overwhelmed by dryness in the back of the mouth.
Pan Fried 5 Minutes
Description: Leaves were placed inside a large wok over a portable gas stove. The leaves were dried, then rolled and shaped and left to dry.
Notes: The leaves for these were also almost black (like Steamed 45 seconds), so it also oxidized. It had a pleasant smell that was more sweet, floral, with a lingering vegetal. After infusion, there was an even mix of green and dark brown spots with the twisted leaves.
The liquor had a dark golden orange colour with a roasted and nutty smell. Tastewise, it was on the fainter side. The most pronounced was the nuttiness, followed by some sweet vegetal notes. There was some nice lingering of flavours at the back of the mouth.
Pan Fried 10 Minutes
Description: Leaves were placed inside a large wok over a portable gas stove. The leaves were dried, then rolled and shaped and left to dry.
Notes: The leaves were dark and twisted with some fuzzy white tips. There was a very faint grassy aroma. After steeping, the leaves were more brown with a sweet vegetal smell.
The liquor was a light yellow-green colour with a fairly strong grassy smell. It reminded me of a very faint Dragonwell. It was nutty, toasted with some vegetal sweetness. It also had some dryness in the back of the throat.
Boiled 1 Minute
Description: The leaves were blanched in boiling water, then cooled in an ice-water bath, dried in a salad spinner, rolled and left to dry.
Notes: I had never thought of making tea via boiling/blanching before. The dry leaves smelled like boiled spinach and were fairly dark in colour. After infusion, the leaves gave off a very faint nutty smell.
The liquor itself was a pale yellow with a very faint vegetal smell. I wasn’t able to detect too strong of a taste, it was faintly vegetal with some quick dryness that coated the mouth.
Boiled 2 Minutes
Description: The leaves were blanched in boiling water, then cooled in an ice-water bath, dried in a salad spinner, rolled and left to dry.
Notes: Boiling at 2 minutes did not make a strong difference. The leaves also smelled boiled and were only slightly lighter green in some sections of the leaves. The wet leaves smell like a mixture of spinach and floral. The liquor was a light yellow-green with a very faint vegetal taste with some tail-end of bitterness. The liquor was a light yellow-green with a very faint vegetal taste with some tail-end of bitterness.
Sous Vide 10 Minutes
Description: Leaves are vacuumed sealed then placed in a 156F sous vide bath. Then they are rolled, shaped and dried.
Notes: Sous Vide was another method I had not considered before! This one required a bit more preparation because the leaves had to be vacuumed sealed in bags first. However, the nice thing is, since sous vide created an even temperature, so there isn’t a concern of burning. The dry leaves were twisted smell like pine trees. The wet leaves were green with a nutty sweet, and vegetal taste.
Liquor wise, it is a light yellow colour with a faint grassy smell. It had a nice mellow vegetal taste and was sweet and grassy. It also had some floral notes and tasted very fresh.
Sous Vide 20 Minutes
Description: Leaves are vacuumed sealed then placed in a 156F sous vide bath. Then they are rolled, shaped and dried.
Notes: Visually and smell wise, the leaves looked very similar to the 10 minutes version, dark green and twisted with a pine smell. The wet leaves were a forest green colour with some grassy smell. Tastewise, it had a much more vegetal taste, it also had some nutty sweet notes. It the vegetal taste is quickly replaced by dryness.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I have to say, I am so glad I went to the workshop! I learned a lot! I never thought about trying to make tea at home. I had some hands-on experience making steam for 2 minutes and pan-fried for 10 minutes.
Despite varying results, I feel with some practice, the teas could become decent. Now, the only problem is finding fresh tea leaves in Canada! I would like to try sous vide at home.
Make sure to read my recap of the World Tea Expo: Part 1 & Part 2
The question of the post: What method would you try?
3 comments
Oh wow, it’s so cool to see how all the different processing methods affect the leaves. That is such a cool workshop – wish I could have gone!
It was a lot of fun indeed! Thank you for reading!
[…] at the back of the throat. This tea reminded me of the tea processing experiment I apart of at World Tea Expo, but much better quality, of course (4/5 […]