Drinking great tea is one of our favorite things, but sharing great tea is even better. We love to help others appreciate their tea experience, and if you love tea as much as we do, you probably do too. Yet making sure everyone gets the perfect cup can be a challenge, especially when brewing for a group. Today we’re breaking down the best brewing methods for serving a crowd, whether you’re hosting a serious tasting, pairing tea with a meal, or preparing refreshments for a party.

One of the most difficult aspects of flavor to put into words is texture, or mouth feel. Though it is theoretically simple to describe the way a tea feels in the mouth, direct comparisons to other foods are often tied up in flavor. It can be hard to pin down the definition of a word like ‘rich’ without conjuring specific tastes like those of cream or dark chocolate. Yet words like this are truly attempting to convey texture, rather than flavor. The creamy sweetness of milk might be present in a ‘Milk Oolong’, but the dominant flavor profile is usually more floral in character.

In the broad context of processing teas, the term maocha refers to an unfinished stage: wilted, partially roasted, or otherwise not fully dried and finished. While this unfinished tea might be tasted to gauge the development of flavor or sold to third party roasters, it is almost never offered for sale to consumers, since it is not preserved for storage. On the unusual spectrum of pu-erh production, however, maocha also includes teas that are dried or pressed but not yet aged.

Many guides to traditional brewing methods recommend a 5-10 second rinse of the tea leaves before beginning the brewing process, but we typically omit this step from our instructions. Though there are a few contexts in which it is acceptable, we do consider it optional for most teas, and downright wasteful for others. More importantly, many of the reasons commonly cited for this practice are purely mythical. Today, we’ll separate the truth from the myth to clarify when to rinse, and when not to.

Tannins are commonly discussed in the context of tea tasting, but usually poorly understood. Cited as a source of bitterness and astringency, their presence is often considered a sign of low quality tea, but their role is a bit more complex than that. As a natural part of every tea plant, tannins contribute to the growth process and health benefits of all teas, as well as the color and flavor.

During our annual sourcing trips to China and Taiwan, we are presented with a variety of teas at each farm we visit. Some farms grow many different varieties of the tea plant, but every farm produces many lots of tea throughout the harvest season, with differences based on the exact day of harvest and minor adjustments in crafting techniques. Our job is to discern the most subtle of flavor differences and curate our selection to include only the very best. To ensure we get an accurate tasting, we use our own version of the gong fu cha brewing method. Here are the steps we take to gauge the quality of every tea we get the opportunity to taste.

Though it is common for most tea drinkers to add sweeteners to their tea, we delight in finding teas that don’t need anything extra to satisfy our sweet tooth. Describing these teas is difficult, however, because of the prevalence of teas which are crafted with artificial flavorings or sweeteners. A tea described with flavor notes such as “creamy”, “honey” or “molasses” is often assumed to have some additive included, but in fact, these flavor notes occur naturally in many teas. Today we’ll explore how these naturally sweet characteristics are derived through traditional harvest dates, natural growing methods, and careful crafting styles.

The powdered Japanese green tea called matcha has taken the world by storm, with green-tinged baked goods and claims of health benefits thrusting it into the public consciousness all over the world. However, high quality matcha teas are difficult to find internationally, as they use only the best leaves, are labor intensive to grow and craft, and are typically reserved in Japan for ceremonial uses. More common “cooking-grade” matcha is easier to find, but rarely tastes good without sweeteners, since it is intended to be used among other flavors in culinary dishes.

The inherent rarity of high quality matcha means prices are usually high, and while the suspension of powdered leaves delivers all the caffeine and health benefits of the tea in one concentrated shot, it also means a fresh serving of dry leaf is required for each new cup. In addition, matcha teas go stale quickly and must be consumed while fresh, given the large amount of surface area exposed when the leaves are ground to a fine powder. By contrast, whole leaf teas that are properly dried and finished can last at least a year before going stale, and deliver flavor through at least three infusions of the same leaves.