There is little better than the cool crisp days that come with the oncoming fall season. To me it is the ideal weather for warm tea, and lots of it. I also relish the cool weather days, as the weather is ideal where I do not feel like having a kettle on is counter productive to my comfort, or to my air conditioner. In fact I almost feel like it is an added bonus, I get to heat my apartment while getting the added benefit of preparing beverages I love.
It remains to be seen what my teas of this winter season will be, but due to my schedule I definitely feel the need for teas I can enjoy while doing other work. As such I almost feel Hong Cha is a must, for its wonderful ability to be brewed Grandpa style with little effort but often delivering a very drinkable and warm broth. But for some reason the desire to drink gallons of tea when it is cold out often has me turning to Japanese Sencha, which while not consumed at such a warm temp as say Hong Cha or most Oolongs, still on those very cold days is warm enough to make me happy.
I think it goes without saying that the roasted oolongs most notably High Fire TGY and Yancha are ideal cool weather teas, which if budget were no issue, would be my consistent go to tea.
Then of course there is the winter classic in Japan, which somehow is the tea often consumed the coolest of them all ( when making tea with hot water), is gyokuro. I think it has to do with the strong umami presence, and the extra soup like characteristics of this tea that make it incredibly ideal for the winter months.
So my question to my readers is, what teas are your go to winter teas?
1 comment:
Interesting post, I often find myself drinking green Taiwanese oolongs during the winter, so it's good to see that I'm not the only one who likes something green and fresh on a cold winter's day.
Traditional TGY is also one of my favourite winter teas, along with anything else with plenty of roast. Along those lines, I find aged oolong to be quite amenable to cold temperatures; it's tasty, it takes a high brewing temp, it's really easy to brew and is great in grandpa style if you can afford it, and its chaqi does wonders for warming up and getting the blood flowing (my family has notoriously bad circulation in the extremities, and aged oolong is one of few things that will the veins on my arms stand up).
-Eugenius
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