Green tea is gaining popularity nowadays as a healthy beverage. How to make a cup of good green tea? How to make green tea properly so that we can fully enjoy its healthy ingredients, and at the same time having fun with it? For some high quality loose-leaf green teas, such as Dragon Well or 龍井 (Longjing), there are much more fun than only the taste of the tea. For example, have you ever watched tea leaves dancing?
To make this happen, we need a teaware that is transparent, and it must have enough space to allow the leaves to dance. An earthware or ceramic tea pot is not approperiate here, because it doesn't allow us to see what's going on inside of it. In China people like to use a tall and plain glass to steep loose leaf green tea, and we can see it makes sense for this purpose. In the West it is sometimes not easy to find such glassware that is also heat resistant. Indeed, people in the west drink more cold beverages than hot ones. Fortunately there's one thing that is both readily available and ideal for making green tea -- A Glass French Coffee Press! -- Of course, a glass tea pot can do as well, but my experience tells me that this kind of tea pots are usually expensive and function not as good either.
A glass coffee press is transparent, tall, and heat resistant. And it has a mouth that makes it easy to distribute the liquid. You can easily get a regular coffess press from the market. For the purpose of making green tea, however, we should NOT use the plunger, because if we press everything down to the button, we can't see the dancing of tea leaves which is part of the enjoyment of making green tea! So we take off the plunger and leave it aside. Then, you probably need a pitcher and a regular filter. Now I'm ready to make a good cup of green tea with this new tool!
Bring the water to a boil. Take off a proper amount of tea leaves -- the amount depends on your own taste, and put it into the coffee press glass. Remember, never pour boiling water directly onto green tea leaves -- it will damage the taste of the tea, and the tea will become bitter. The ideal temperatrue for green tea is about 80 to 90 F. You can use your own experience or a thermometer for cooking purpose to measure the water temperature. The easiest way is to first pour boiling water into the pitcher, and then transfer it into the glass.
When pouring the water, you should try to direct it towards the wall of the glass, so that the water flows in a motion that can bring the tea leaves up and down in a circle. Now, it's the time to watch the tea leaves dancing. They will descend to the button and then floating up to the cerface. Some will repeat this motion for three times! There are special names to describe the tea leaves in this fashion. The tip of sprout is called "spear" 槍 and the second and third leaves are called "banners" 旗. You see spears and banners ecountering in motion, just as they are in a battle field -- but in a peaceful manner!
When most of the tea leaves settle down in the glass. It is also about the time the tea is ready. Pour the tea on the filter resting on the pitcher. And then distribute tea from the pitcher into individual tea cups -- now you and your guest can enjoy the tea.
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