Roast Tea | Jhentea

Tags

烏龍茶, 老茶, 台灣老茶, 台灣茶

今年的老茶出爐了，為了使茶的儲存更便利與美觀，從年初我們就開始尋找陶藝家幫我們量身訂做，手拉坏的土窯甕！為了這一個拉坯的茶甕、你知道嗎？我們排隊足足超過了半年。

每一甕都是獨一無二，好東西真的需要等待！

提盒設計

我們的包裝求字是我最困擾的難題，後來感謝書法家朋友”許志聖”老師情義相挺贈我墨寶，茶葉禮盒才能順利製作。

紐約畫家好友kerri 是一位現代又細心的女生，繁忙的工作外幫我畫”中國國劇臉譜”這一個部份我們也等了一年以上。(今年是女生國劇臉譜、明年是男生國劇臉譜喔！)

設計的部分是設計師妹妹親自幫忙，製作紙盒的成全紙器王老闆來回宜蘭數次、溝通、修改

還有我的好友們跨刀力挺幫我封罐，感恩在背後付出和支持的朋友們！我們老茶，因為有你們才能從無到有一點一滴的完成。

我們以2002年製成的宜蘭烏龍茶

存放期間只是選擇通風乾燥的場所，讓茶葉在長期酶化作用下，產生特殊香氣與口中不斷變化的層次感，這就是我們推出的2014年老茶。

Do you have teas that have been sitting on your shelf for so long that they lost their aroma and flavor? Or maybe, sometimes you want to mix different teas to blend a new flavor? Here are some simple ways to roast your own tea in your own kitchen.

One way to process tealeaves is to roast them. Roasting reduces the water content of the tealeaves at their primary process, it also lowers the amount of impure content resulted from the lengthy tea-making process. Roasted tealeaves are more stable in fragrance and quality and are able to be preserved better for a longer period of time.

Use one of the following roasting tools to roast your tea:

Rice cooker:

Place water-absorbent paper in a rice cooker. The amount of tealeaves roasted in the cooker cannot exceed 0.5 cm in height. Do not cover the rice cooker fully, leave some space so that steam can go vaporized. Do not add water in the rice cooker and keep the cooker in the heat-preserving mode when roasting. It takes at least 3 to 4 hours before tealeaves change when roasted in a rice cooker. But the plus side is, it is easy to clean a rice cooker and it produces less odor; also, roasting tea in a rice cooker does not change tealeaves so rapidly that tealeaves might get ruined in just a blink of the eye when left unattended.

Oven:

Your oven should not have the smell of BBQ meat or cakes. Place water-absorbent paper in an oven. The amount of tealeaves roasted in the oven cannot exceed 0.5 cm in height. Preheat your oven to 80℃. Remember to stir and toss tealeaves frequently. Tealeaves are expected to change in 10 minutes and you can start tasting your tea now. An oven is good in that it takes shorter time for tealeaves to change, but that also means tealeaves undergo a more drastic change when roasted in an oven and are more easily to get burned.

Professional tealeaves roasting oven:

Don’t forget to stir and toss tealeaves so that they can be roasted evenly. Be gentle when you stir so that you can avoid the smell of scorching resulted from the tea dust that fall into the oven and got burned.

Heat induced from roasting changes the impure contents, tannin and catechuic acid in tealeaves. This change lowers the bitter and acerbic tastes and brings out the sweetness in the tealeaves.

The changes of tea are defined by the changes in their bitter and sweet tastes. It is not difficult to roast tea and I encourage you to give it a go. Roast just a small amount of tealeaves each time you try, and I am sure you will get the result you love the most. Just do it! You might not roast your tea to its perfection, but the taste of imperfection itself is just equally worth exploring.

Roast at 60℃ for about an hour and you will see obvious changes in tealeaves.