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ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

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Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#21

Post by Tijdreiziger »

satvikpendem wrote: post #16
bumby wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the preferred temp for herbal teas?

Around 70-80 C, you'll have to play around with it as it's a little different for each tisane. Fun fact, tea is technically only the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant, all the permutations of black, green, white etc teas are how the leaves are processed by humans after cultivation, they're not different species of the plant. Any "teas" that are not of the camellia sinensis plant are technically called tisanes, al…

The French are quite particular about that, referring to herbal teas strictly as 'infusions'.

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#22

Post by JasonCEC »

I work with tea both professionally[0] and semi-professionally[1] and will clarify that:

- this is for commercial tea, not specialty or "ceremony" grade tea

- all of the big commodity houses, blending houses, brand buyers, etc have their own modifications on the standard, and this ISO tea prep standard is most definitely not the "standard"

- From elsewhere in the thread: all great tea can be brewed with boiling water. The idea that green tea (or any other type of whole leaf tea) should be brewed with something under ~100C is a technique used by merchants to sell you bad tea.

[0] www.gastrograph.com

[1] teatechnique.org/

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#23

Post by petters »

satvikpendem wrote: post #12

The tea temperatures are all wrong, they should be: Black tea - 95 C Oolong Tea - 80-90 C (depending on oxidation level, more = higher temperature) Green Tea - 75 C Yellow Tea - 70-75 C White Tea - 70 C Using boiling water will scald the leaves and leave a bitter taste.

There has to be a proper blind test for this somewhere. I can only find those for coffee, where it's does not seem to matter much.

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#24

Post by petters »

OJFord wrote: post #14
bumby wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the preferred temp for herbal teas?

All teas are herbal. I'm not (just) being facetious - I don't think it can be well answered, because you're obviously thinking of something specific, and someone's going to answer with their own probably different specific 'herbal' tea in mind.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is not an herb, i.e. not "a plant whose stem does not become woody and persistent (as in a tree or shrub)"

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#25

Post by unwind »

OJFord wrote: post #14
bumby wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the preferred temp for herbal teas?

All teas are herbal. I'm not (just) being facetious - I don't think it can be well answered, because you're obviously thinking of something specific, and someone's going to answer with their own probably different specific 'herbal' tea in mind.

Fun! Another hidden trap when English is not your native tongue, I guess. Today I learnt that "herbal" does NOT mean "with herbs", but instead means "with PLANTS". All of them! Thanks, English.

In Swedish, the word for non-tea tea is "örtte", where "ört" means "herb". Very confusing.

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#26

Post by lonjil »

satvikpendem wrote: post #12

The tea temperatures are all wrong, they should be: Black tea - 95 C Oolong Tea - 80-90 C (depending on oxidation level, more = higher temperature) Green Tea - 75 C Yellow Tea - 70-75 C White Tea - 70 C Using boiling water will scald the leaves and leave a bitter taste.

For most kinds of tea, boiling is fine or even preferred if the tea is of good quality. I would never steep any of the white teas I own below 90°C, and most days I prefer boiling. Likewise with green (and yellow) tea, unless Japanese. Oolongs and blacks I always steep at boiling.

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#27

Post by gswdh »

petters wrote: post #24
OJFord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All teas are herbal. I'm not (just) being facetious - I don't think it can be well answered, because you're obviously thinking of something specific, and someone's going to answer with their own probably different specific 'herbal' tea in mind.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is not an herb, i.e. not "a plant whose stem does not become woody and persistent (as in a tree or shrub)"

* a herb

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#28

Post by OJFord »

petters wrote: post #24
OJFord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All teas are herbal. I'm not (just) being facetious - I don't think it can be well answered, because you're obviously thinking of something specific, and someone's going to answer with their own probably different specific 'herbal' tea in mind.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is not an herb, i.e. not "a plant whose stem does not become woody and persistent (as in a tree or shrub)"

I don't know where you got that definition, but it's obviously not right. It excludes mint and rosemary leaves, for example.

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#29

Post by lonjil »

jet_32951 wrote: post #18
yakubin wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read in one of previous threads about it that it's for the purpose of comparing different teas accurately. It's not supposed to result in the best possible tea. Instead it's supposed to make the tea's aroma and taste as clear as possible and it's supposed to be used uniformly across different varieties of tea, so that they can be compared accurately without much error margin introduced by the preparation itself.…

It's just odd that one would not make green tea at anywhere near the right temperature. Green tea is simply not comparable with black; they are fundamentally different. It is as if there were an ISO standard on the quality of fruits and they are "compared" by assessing color (deviation from yellow is a fault, increasing by reflected wavelength difference).

It's not about comparing quality, it's about comparing consistency. Brands want their blends to be consistent from year to year. So every year they might create hundreds or thousands of different combinations of the specific teas they've acquired, until they find one that tastes as similar as possible to the blend they had last year.

Also, green tea is just fine at boiling, if it isn't of poor quality :)

Re: ISO3103 Tea Preparation [pdf]

#30

Post by isk517 »

aloe_falsa wrote: post #8
pwnSh wrote: post #2

The method consists in extracting of soluble substances in dried tea leaf, containing in a porcelain or earthenware pot, by means of freshly boiling water, pouring of the liquor into a white porcelain or earthenware bowl, examination of the organoleptic properties of the infused leaf, and of the liquor with or without milk or both.

> the liquor with or without milk or both Both with and without milk? Must be how Zen monks drink it.

The student came to the Zen master and ask 'Would you like your tea with or without milk?' to which the Zen master replied 'I will take my tea with milk, without milk, and both.'
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