A Cup a Day-All Day Long
Tyler, one of our fellow tea enthusiasts here at Art Of Tea, recently wrote about our Ti Kwan Yin as an “all day tea”. As a writer I spend alot of time at my computer, juggling characters and story lines and who knows what else. So the simple idea of a tea that I could sort of prepare once and then just add hot water to throughout the day was more than a little appealing.
Now, I haven’t branched out into Oolongs like the one Tyler was describing yet, but I’ve definitely been busy consuming every variation of green tea I can get my hands on. And recently, I’ve become a huge fan of the Gyokuro Uji. This beautiful Japanese tea, with its clean refreshing taste, is perfect for sipping through a long day of writing - or pretty much anything else.
As a bonus, I’ve found that just a single teaspoon is more than enough for hours of multiple brews. The tiny blade-like leaves blossom into this gorgeous, dense lush green when I pour hot water over them in my individual tea infuser at home. The first cup is a strong, classic “green tea” but with every subsequent steep, you get wonderful bits of subtle, crisp flavor that beg further exploration.
I’ve since begun experimenting with several teas for this same all day effect and, for my own taste, I’m finding some definite standouts. My other favorites in the “all day” category right now are the Green Pear(with just a hint of sweet that I love so much I can literally go on about it for days), and the Moroccan Mint(hands down, my favorite mint tea of all time).
A word of advice: With all tea, you want to be careful how long you steep the leaves when you brew. This is especially true of green teas, which can become bitter when over-steeped. With everything I’ve mentioned above, 3 minutes per brew is all you need.
