Drinking tea is not a difficult task for every one, while to make a good pot of tea is not so easy. There are a number of secrets. With the tea of the same quality, one can have different tastes of tea when using different water, tea sets and brewing techniques.
Making a pot of tea, one should pay attention not only to practicability and scientificity but also to its artistry. Practicability requires one to take into consideration the actual need and condition, whether to make an ordinary big-bowl tea or a pot of top-grade tea. Scientificity requires one to know well the specialty of each kind of tea as well as the scientific brewing techniques in order to bring out the best quality of the tea. Artistry requires one to choose suitable tea sets and adopt graceful and civilized brewing manners.
1. Know well the specialty of each kind of tea
Before making a pot of tea, one should first know well the specialty of the tea. By doing so, one can choose the most appropriate brewing technique suitable to a specific tea and bring out its best quality. One fascinating thing about tea is that its quality is affected by various factors, such as weather, land and grower. Even the same cluster of tealeaves, grown by the same person in the same place and at the same time, their quality differs slightly from each other. If one masters the characteristics of various kinds of tea, she/he will be able to make at least a good pot of one special kind, which is both appealing and tasty and invites the feeling of being fascinated at the first sight and first sip.
2. Control the amount
How much tea should be put into the pot depends on the specialty of each kind of tea as well as the brewer's habit. Generally speaking, the standard amount (the amount used by the professional tea brewer when making a pot of tea) is 3 grams of tea brewed with 150 cc water for 5 minutes. Usually use cap-cup to drink non-fermented green tea, fermented black tea, slightly fermented white tea and scented tea. Use the purple clay pot to make half-fermented Oolong, with an amount of 2/3 teapot if use uncooked tea, 1/2 to 2/3 teapot if use half-cooked tea, and 1/3 to 1/2 teapot if use cooked tea. All these are general standards, and one can adjust the amount according to one's own habit. The following principles may of a reference: 1) increase the amount if one likes to drink strong tea; 2) reduce the amount when brewing top-grade tea; 3) shorten each brewing time when using a large amount of tea while increase the number of times.