404707 Thu May 24 07:32:55 -0700 2007 4 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 2597970 i'm big on iced tea and i'm FAR from a tea snob -- i grew up using lipton/luzianne bags to make sweet tea, branched out into making green, white and red teas (rooibos) and also have enjoyed making iced yerba mate. i just bought some oolong (numi, loose - bai hao) and i'm pretty sure i got a great deal at $16 pound. i just brewed some using my normal well water, water just below a boil, 1st steep 3 minutes, next steep 5 minutes - then poured some over ice to try. yum! what a unique, fruity kind of flavor. i'm doing a longer third steep that i'm going to pour into some already brewed and chilled black tea/green and red rooibos mixture. i've just started doing the boil brew thing again --- previously i was just putting some green and white tea into a closed jar of water and letting it sit in the fridge over night. i was amazed at how well fridge brewing works for green and white teas -- there is absolutely no bitterness in the green tea infusion when i've made it this way. anyway, i'm now a new oolong convert and would love to hear of anyone else's tea experiences, ideas, recipes....... Thu May 24 07:32:55 -0700 2007 51618 hitachino 1 2599641 Yup, it's good stuff - a great tea for coffee drinkers, with the same kind of richness. Even the branded supermarket stuff is noticeably fruitier than Lipton or Luzianne. I don't have any recipes or methods - just make it like Grandma did, brewed double-strength then poured hot over ice. I prefer the Southern method of sweetening the hot tea it very lightly before icing it, but since Mrs. O uses that stuff in the little blue bags and I *gotta* have sugar (and she likes it a lot sweeter than I do), we just brew it straight and I deal with trying to make the sugar dissolve...or don't bother at all. When we were in China I got a tin of oolong flavored with lychee, which I was starchily informed by a Chinese friend must have been offered as a sop to the tourist trade. Sop or no sop, I enjoyed it very much, but then I consult only my palate rather than any Sacred Texts... Thu May 24 15:13:41 -0700 2007 2597970 11478 Will Owen 1 2600549 Flowery oolongs like the bai hao make excellent cold tea but the trick is cold brewing it. To do this just spoon 4-6 tablespoons into a quart container and fill with cold water. Let it steep in the fridge over night and strain. The resulting tea is very smooth without the astringency that would result if you had iced some hot tea. This trick works with most green teas as well. If you dig the bai hao try some other oolongs such as tiguanyin, bao zhong, or dong ding. Tiguanyin (AKA Iron Goddess of Mercy) is my personal favorite. It has an earthiness that really balances well with the nectar like flavors. Thu May 24 21:16:33 -0700 2007 2597970 62405 cheapertrick 2 2601574 I'm curious about this cold brewing method. When I make hot tea, I usually wash the leaves for thirty seconds to eliminate some of the caffeine. Have you tried doing this with the tea leaves before adding them to cold water? Wondering if that extra step would change the taste in a negative way. Fri May 25 09:31:11 -0700 2007 2600549 11819 Low Country Jon 3 2603298 I don't think washing the leaves will really be necessary. Cold water doesn't extract caffeine or the polyphenols that the caffeine is attached to as easily as hot water. I can't be too certain but I know that boiling water extracts more caffeine than the cooler water used for green teas hence part of the reason green tea has a lower caffeine content. Any tea leaf can be made into green, oolong or black tea. Oxidizing the leaf won't change it's caffeine content, it will just activte the enzymes within the leaf to change the flavor and make the caffeine easier for the water to extract. This is the other reason green teas have less caffeine. Washing the leaves with hot water will certainly ruin the smooth flavor of cold brewed tea and bring out the bitter polyphenols you're trying to avoid. You can try it but I would bet you end up with a bitter cup. That said I never worry about caffeine in tea since it's bonded with the polyphenols it disipates, once you consume the tea, very slowly in your body. Other compounds within the leaf tend to counter act the effects of the caffeine. I would only worry about it if you have health issues since the caffene content is really low to begin with but is necessary in the leaf for good flavor. Some Japanese teas such as Kukicha and Genmaicha are almost caffeine free. They have less caffeine than a decaf cup of coffee and make delicious cold brewed iced tea. They are both quite popular cold brewed in Japan and Korea. The teas that are high in caffeine are usually teas from Assam, Yunnan, and Ceylon since they grow the larger leaf varietal there. Tea from Eastern China, Taiwan and Japan are typically lower in caffeine. Fri May 25 19:23:36 -0700 2007 2601574 62405 cheapertrick