Today I started attending a tea class. At Cal (UC Berkeley), they have this DeCal thing, where the students (mostly undergrads, it seems) create and run a variety of “classes”. Basically, they are clubs. I found out about “TeaCal” after I went to the Korean tea colloquium yesterday. I’m late and the class is full, but Sam, the coordinator of TeaCal, lets me join in anyway. It happens at Teance every Wednesday 5:30-7:30 pm.
The class is huge already, there must be about 20-25 people. All undergrads.
The topic today is white tea. We have a guest speaker, Darius, who works at Teance.
Teas we try:
– Silver Needle
– White Down
– White Peony Longevity Brows
All three have a shade of citrine, depending on how long it is steeped. The steeping time is 60-90 seconds, I think… Silver Needle and White Down are both white varietals (just tea buds), Silver Needle is grassier and deeper. White Peony Longevity Brows is Silver Needle (tea buds) mixed with tea leaves for a starker flavor. We also smell Silver Needle infused with jasmine.
At the end, we also try lychee black tea (cold). Darius thinks it was oversteeped and tasted bad, but I don’t mind, and neither was the guy next to me. The lychee flavor sweetens it a lot.
The procedure to make tea:
– warm the gaiwan, the teapot (?), and the teacups with hot water.
– put the tea into the gaiwan, pour in a little hot water (~190F?) to wash the tea. Quickly pour out the water.
– steep in hot water
– pour the tea from the gaiwan into the teapot (with a sieve to catch the tea leaves)
– pour the tea from the teapot into the teacups.
We are also given a few sample teabags: rooibos chai, gunpowder green, and chocolate pu-er from Numi Organic Tea. I’ll try them sometime.