Qualities of the tea plant and grades

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“Flush” is a term that will often come up in the topic of teas, the flush refers to the harvest that the tea is produced in, usually teas will have a first and second flush: 

-First flush is usually in springtime, typically between March and May, the teas produced in the first harvest tend to be lighter and use the youngest and most tender parts of the plant, and as a result have been said to produce the purest and freshest cup of tea that the plant physically can, as well as being higher in nutrients, for this reason first flush teas are said to be of the best quality.

-Second flush is usually in summertime, typically between May/June and October, the teas produced in the second harvest tend to be stronger in flavour, despite teas produced in the first flush typically being higher quality, in Assam the second flush teas tend to be of the better quality, likely due to the warmer climates and use of the Assamicavariation of the plant, this variation of the plant has a stronger and bolder flavour than the original Chinese variation.

Teas can be decaffeinated through various differentmethods, the two most popular and widely used methods being:

-Ethyl acetate: the teas are moistened with water or steam and placed in ethyl acetate, an ester that naturally occurs in teas, this process selectively removes the caffeine from the tea, as the tea dries the ethyl acetate is naturally removed, although this method causes the flavour of the tea to slightly deteriorate and often leaves behind a “chemical taste”, Tetley use this method.

-Carbon dioxide: the tea is pressure cooked, the high pressure and temperature causes the carbon dioxide to turn into a solvent, which then attracts smaller caffeine molecules and leaves behind the larger flavour molecules of the tea.

-2.5g – 3g for 200ml of water

-5g for 330ml of water

-Use filtered water, as its rich in oxygen and filtering the tea removes unwanted deposits like limescale and chlorine as they can affect the true colour, taste and aroma of teas

Temperature of the water:

-White tea – 80 degrees C for 4 – 5 minutes

-Yellow tea – 80 degrees C for 3 minutes

-Green tea – 70 – 75 degrees C for 2 minutes (1 – 2 minutes for Japanese, 2 – 3 minutes for Chinese so 2 is optimum time), for some high quality green teas like Gyokuro or Matcha 50 - 60 degrees Celsius

-Jade Oolong – 80 – 85 degrees C for 2 – 3 minutes

-Dark Oolong – 85 degrees C for 2 – 3 minutes

-Delicate black teas (such as Darjeeling teas) – 85 – 90 degrees for 2 – 3 minutes

-Black teas – 95 – 98 degrees for 3 – 5 minutes (do not let the water reach 100 degrees as it destroys the leaves, 98 degrees is the maximum temperature, most black teas brew around 95)

-Dark/ Puerh teas – 95 – 98 degrees for 2 – 3 minutes

The bud is the part at the top of the plant which has not fully opened, the difference between tips and buds are that buds are less matured, and tips are unopened and do not form flowers.

  The quality of the tea increases as the plant goes up, the bottom part (which lapsang souchong is made from) is the lowest quality whilst the top (where the bud is) is the highest quality.

There are different plucking methods:

-Imperial plucking (1 bud and 1 leaf)

-Fine plucking (1 bud and 2 leaves)

-Coarse plucking (1 bud and 3+ leaves)

Traditionally, the Orange Pekoe grading system (only used for black teas) simply refers to the placement of the leaf on the Camellia Sinensis plant, being the first leaf after the bud and Pekoe being the next leaf after, Souchong refers to the twisted leaves towards the bottom. This system was created by China to assess the quality of the leaves based on their placement on the plant. The flowery pekoe of the plant is also known as the bud.

-Souchong, the twisted leaf from the bottom of the plant

-Pekoe, usually the second leaf after the bud

-Orange Pekoe, the first leaf after the bud

-Broken Orange Pekoe, when the Orange Pekoe leaves are broken to release more flavour

-Flowery Orange Pekoe, Orange Pekoe with the addition of some buds or tips

-Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, Flowery Orange Pekoe with tips or buds that are golden in colour

-Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe with an abundance of golden tips or buds

-(Special) Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, usually made from an estatesfinest teas, comprised mainly of golden flowers, buds and young leaves

-Fannings and Dust, the leftover particles from when the whole and broken tea leaves have been sorted, this is usually used for lower quality tea bags