Harris Decaf Tea, Cold Brewed, Offers Life Lessons

This post is about drinking tea that falls quite far outside my normal comfort zone, both in terms of the choice of tea itself, and the way it was prepared.

Pictured here is a pitcher of iced tea that some of my friends brewed up:



This is Harris Tea's decaffeinated black tea, cold brewed. The two pitchers are the same tea, but the strength of brewing is different; the darker pitcher is obviously stronger.

I found this tea interesting to sample, because it was well outside the zone of teas I would brew up on my own. I tend to avoid decaffeinated tea, instead preferring naturally caffeine-free herbal teas if I am looking for something without caffeine. I strongly prefer loose-leaf to tea bags, and I tend to avoid the brands of tea most commonly available in supermarkets. I also rarely cold brew iced tea, as I find it tends not to produce the results I like the best. For this reason, I wasn't comfortable writing an actual review of this tea on RateTea.

I wasn't crazy about this batch of iced tea. It was perfectly drinkable, but a bit bland. I suspect this tea, however, might taste a bit better to me if brewed the way I would prefer it.

Compared to the worst loose-leaf tea:

As much as I love loose-leaf tea and prefer it to tea prepared in the manner described above, I want to note that my experience with the tea above was still pleasant. I drank a cup of the iced tea, and it was refreshing, only a little bland. There have been some loose-leaf teas that I've brewed up that I've placed great care into preparing, only to pour them out without drinking them because I found them so foul tasting.

I think there's an important life lesson here. Life is a bit unpredictable; sometimes, even if I do everything the way I think is best, things can come out in ways quite different from what I want. At other times, the setup in a situation may seem close to the worst possible, at least by my standards, but things might surprise me by turning out in positive ways.

Delving deeper: what else is going on here?

I think there is one observation about the tea situation here. The tea pictured above was brewed weakly, and I did not expect much from it. When I put care into brewing loose-leaf tea, I usually brew it more strongly, and I usually expect more from it. Thus, it has much greater potential to disappoint.

A life lesson:

I've often found that situations involving people are a lot like this. Sometimes, it seems like I would have a lot in common with someone, but I struggle to relate to them, or find myself coming into conflict with them in odd and unpredictable ways. Sometimes I've been excited about a class or a teacher, only to find that I absolutely hate it, and either drop it or find a way to barely scrape through it.



Other times, I've interact with people from vastly different backgrounds, sometimes even people that others have told me are "difficult to deal with", only to find I get along with these people just fine. I've also taken classes or read books that I did not expect to find remotely interesting (like Numerical Linear Alegbra, or the accompanying text Matrix Computations by Golub) that I ended up finding absolutely captivating.

I think the lesson here is not only that life is unpredictable and full of surprises, but also that delving into something too deep, and becoming heavily vested in a certain outcome of a situation without first getting a taste of that situation, can lead to disappointment. With a cup of tea, you can just pour it out, but in life, sometimes you are stuck with greater consequences to deal with. I find I am both happiest and most productive when I embrace the unpredictability of life, and make decisions in such a way that acknowledges the uncertainties, leaving ample room for both unexpected disliking and unexpected liking.

How about you?

Do you relate to my experience of this batch of iced tea? How about my experiences with life and with people? How about Matrix Computations? Do you get excited about that?

Energy Saving Tips for Making Iced Tea

There is a hot week in store for many parts of the U.S. this week, and I'm gearing up for more iced tea brewing this week. Currently I have two batches made for today, one an herbal blend of fresh spearmint, fresh lemongrass, and dried lemon verbena, and one a straight black tea, an English Breakfast blend. While many of us get ready to brew more iced tea, I want to share a tip or brewing method that I have found is very easy and saves considerable time and energy.

When I brew iced tea, I always recommend steeping a large amount of loose tea leaves (or tea bags) in a small amount of hot water, because the process of cooling water to make iced tea is both time- and energy-intensive. Then, you can dilute the concentrated tea to taste, to make a large batch. However, even if you are already practicing this method, there is an additional step that can save you both time and energy.

What is going on in this photo?



This is a photo of my kitchen sink. In this photo, I have already brewed the concentrated cup of tea, which I will later dilute. I have then poured this hot tea into a jar, which I have closed with a lid (this is important--otherwise the aroma of the tea can escape into the air). I then place the jar inside a large pot and fill the pot with cold water. Avoid using delicate or temperature-sensitive glassware--a quick hot/cold contrast can shatter some glass.

The cold water from the tap, which is typically well below room temperature even in the summer, rapidly cools off the hot tea to below room temperature. If you want to speed the process, you can let it sit for a couple minutes, pour off the water in the pot, which will have warmed up, and then refill the pot with cold water.

Now, after a few more minutes, your tea can be diluted with additional hot water, and chilled in the refridgerator, or can be poured directly over ice if you want to drink it immediately.

The benefits of this method:

• Time-saving - Other than pouring the hot tea over ice directly (which requires a lot of ice), this is the fastest way to make iced tea--the water will cool much faster by this method than if you set hot tea to cool in air, or if you place hot tea in the fridge.


• Energy-saving - By cooling the tea as much as possible before placing it in the fridge, you save considerable energy required to cool the hot tea to the temperature inside the fridge. The low temperature of the cold tap water is free, in the sense that no electricity or energy is required to cool it. Keep in mind also that making ice requires energy, so if you use this method so that you reduce the amount of ice needed to make iced tea, you are still saving energy.


• Cool-saving - Whenever you save energy on refrigeration, you also save excess heat from moving out into your kitchen. A refrigerator simply moves heat--pumping it out of the interior and into the exterior, which is your kitchen. If your home is not air conditioned, you will enjoy the additional comfort of a slightly cooler kitchen; if your home or kitchen is air conditioned, however, this additional savings will translate into additional energy savings because your air conditioner now has less heat to remove from your home or kitchen.

Conserving energy is both valuable in its own right to reduce the negative impacts that humans have on the environment, and it is also immediately beneficial to you in a financial sense, by reducing your electric bill. This method will not only save you time and help you to get your iced tea quicker, but, if you pay for your own electricity, it will save you money as well, and regardless of whether or not you do, it will help protect the environment.

How do you brew your iced tea? Do you do anything in your iced tea preparation process to save energy like this?

Iced Teas of the Day: Pure Tea, and Herbal Blends

Today is a very hot day here in Philadelphia. It's currently 91, and the projected high was 96 but I see it's now downgraded to 94. I don't mind the heat, honestly, but I have switched to iced tea after a single cup of hot tea this morning. I have two batches brewed up:

Iced Ali shan oolong:

The caffeinated iced tea I'm drinking, the only true tea, is an iced A Li Son Oolong from Tradition, which is a surprisingly inexpensive whole-leaf Taiwanese high-mountain greener oolong. I have never made it iced, and I'm curious how it would turn out.

It's good, not my favorite iced tea, but good. One thing that is very interesting to me, however, is how different the aroma and flavor is of the iced tea compared to the hot tea. This is a tea that I normally brew with multiple brief infusions, although I have brewed it with a single, long infusion to compare. With iced tea, I make only a single, long infusion (this one was about 15 minutes--this is a whole-leaf tea with very large leaves, and it needs a long time to fully infuse.)

The result is a pale yellow-green cup with surprising opacity (contrasting with the very clear cup if brewing this tea hot--does anyone have a clue as to a scientific explanation of this?). The aroma is honey-like, with tones of wood. Much more floral, and with a lighter overall character, than when drinking it iced. Smoother flavor. It really tastes as if I have added honey, and I have not added any.

An iced herbal tea:

My other iced "tea" was an herbal blend, containing no actual tea. For a four-cup batch, I used two teaspoons of rooibos, two heaping teaspoons of lemon verbena, and about the equivalent of two teaspoons of dried lemon balm, which I had grown myself in my garden in Delaware. This is a similar blend to an iced tea+herb blend and an iced herbal blend I wrote about earlier. I have been refining it and I love this batch, but now I'm out of lemon balm so I'll need to switch it up.

Lemon balm is interchangeable with lemon verbena; I find the two plants are most similar of all the lemon-scented herbs, which makes sense as they are the most closely related, both being in the Lamiales order (which contains the mint family and the verbena/vervain family, as well as other food plants such as olive and sesame, and some favorite floral scents including lilac). I also have been buying fresh lemongrass, which is available at the reading terminal market, and have been experimenting steeping it fresh in hot water to make an herbal tea, which I have tried both hot and iced, and I hope to write more about that soon.

More Iced Green Teas: Bancha, Bi Luo Chun, Huangshan Mao Feng

The past two days brought record-setting heat, with a high of 99 in Philadelphia yesterday. I have been drinking a lot of iced tea.

Besides herbal teas, I made three separate batches of iced green tea over the past few days. One was straight bancha, one was straight bi luo chun, and one was a blend of bancha with Huangshan mao feng. The blend is pictured here:



I did not photograph the other two blends and now I wish I did. The pure bancha produced an intensely cloudy iced tea, which is interesting, as when I brew it fresh it is relatively clear. The photo above shows only a slight cloudiness. The bi luo chun produced a very pale light green, surprisingly pale relative to its intense flavor and aroma.

The current batch of bi luo chun in my cupboard, which I have yet to review on RateTea, is extraordinarily inexpensive for this usually high-priced tea, and yet of impressive quality. I will write more about it later. What I have noticed about this tea, however, is that its astringency changes radically based on brewing temperature. At 170 degrees Fahrenheit, it is sweet, mellow, and mild, whereas at 180 degrees or higher, it becomes highly astringent, but in a way I find pleasing. Some green teas that I've tried, including Chinese, Japanese, and Indian green teas, acquire unpleasant "cooked vegetable" tones if the steeping temperature is too hot, but thankfully, this tea does not. I find a certain amount of astringency refreshing in iced tea, so I used 190 degree water to brew the one batch and it came out delightful.

I tried brewing the bancha in the same way, and the result was much too astringent. That batch was a little too strong, but I watered it down and it was fine.

The blend, pictured above, however, also worked surprisingly well. I used lower temperature water to brew it. I paused for a second about blending a "high end" tea such as Huangshan mao feng, with a "common" tea such as bancha, but I found that the blend worked very well. It was about half-and-half by dry leaf, with perhaps slightly more mao feng.

In all of these cases, I brewed a batch of four cups of iced tea using tea. I have also developed a very simple energy-saving method for quickly chilling the tea, which I will share in a future post.

Also, to experiment, I drank a single cup of iced Hubei Keemun, Upton's ZK22: Hubei Province Keemun Ji Hong, again, which I have yet to write a detailed review of (hot). Pleasing fruity tones came out in the tea, but I found, too mellow overall...failing to achieve the refreshing effect. There is a certain sharpness or edginess that I crave in iced tea, especially on very hot days.

Iced Herbal Tea: Green Rooibos, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Balm, and Vana Tulsi

With another four hot days in store here (tomorrow they are forecasting 98 degrees in Philadelphia), I have decided to make more iced tea, including both true tea and herbal tea. Like the previous batch, I made about four cups worth, which fills about three of the tall glasses pictured:



As a side note, I really like the view out my window in my new apartment. This is the view looking out from my work desk. You can see the amber color of this tea; the color is significantly darker than one would get from brewing a typical green tea in the same manner. I believe it is the green rooibos and vana tulsi which impart the darker color.

I chose vana tulsi for this blend because it has a fresher, more herbaceous aroma, and is a little lighter, whereas the other types of holy basil have a more warming, spicy aroma which I think would blend less well with the other herbs.

The Recipe:

• One teaspoon vana tulsi.
• 
  
• One teaspoon green rooibos.


• Two teaspoons lemon verbena.


• (Equivalent?) two teaspoons Lemon Balm (home grown!).

It's hard for me to get a good estimate of the amount of lemon balm used, because I grew and dried it, so it is much coarser in leaf texture than the other herbs. The amount I put in occupied much more space than the other herbs, but if it had been crushed to a similar texture as the lemon verbena, I'm estimating it would have been about two teaspoon's worth.

I steeped this batch for about 8 minutes, in one cup of water which I heated to boiling, then I diluted with cold water and cooled it in the fridge before drinking it. I did not add any ice.

The Result and Review:

In this blend, the vana tulsi overpowers the other herbs, so next time I'll use less. Surprisingly, with all the lemony herbs, I notice the lemon least of all in the aroma. The overall character is very herbaceous, summery, and reminds me of a garden. Pleasing, delicately spicy, yet refreshing. With a balance of warming and cooling aromas, this is not a "straight cool" herbal tea the way iced mint tea is. Flavor is mild, not much bitterness or sourness, but there is a fairly astringent aftertaste. Overall strength was moderate; flavorful, but I could drink it in quantity too.

This blend was very enjoyable, but I think it could be improved. Next time, I'll use less vana tulsi.

Pokka Canned Green Tea Review

I recently tried something that I normally would not drink, while at a hole-in-the-wall sushi restaurant in Newark, Delaware, Mayflower. You can read my review of Mayflower on Yelp. At any rate, what I tried was green tea from a can, from the Pokka brand:



People who know me or read my writings will know that I am not a big fan of bottled or canned teas, and I prefer, when drinking iced tea, to brew it from scratch. But I do like seeing unsweetened products for sale, and I was intrigued by the fact that it was unsweetened, originating from an Asian (not American) company, and available for $1. I had to try it out of curiosity.

The Review:

Like most things from a can, especially drinks with a more subtle flavor, the aroma and flavor was highly metallic. However, I could notice the tea. It had a mild sour flavor, and a hint of bitterness, sweetness, and umami. The aroma was very vegetal, with more of the cooked vegetable and seaweedy tones, and less of the grassy tones, than I expect from a typical Japanese green tea. It was drinkable, and, in my opinion, much more enjoyable than soda, but it was nothing compared to fresh brewed iced tea, even a typical generic black tea.

This tea was produced by Pokka corporation, based in Singapore. I could not find much more information about it. I'm glad I bought it and tried it.

Iced Tea: Bancha w/ Green Rooibos & Lemon Verbena

The temperature in Philadelphia has broken 90 degrees Farenheit for two days in a row now. While I love hot weather (including the extremely humid heat of the east coast of the U.S.), temperatures this high do make me switch to iced tea.

I brewed up my first batch of iced tea of the year, and it was delightful.

The recipe for this batch:

• Four teaspoons bancha.


• Two teaspoons green rooibos.


• One teaspoon lemon verbena.

I steeped these in one cup of hot water for 3 minutes, then added three cups of cold water and chilled it.

The brands are not particularly important, which is why I have not featured them prominently; if you wish to make something similar, I would recommend using whatever loose-leaf source you have. I used lemon verbena and green rooibos from Upton Tea Imports, and Hime bancha.

I was drinking this by myself, so I only made four cups worth. The result was delightful: surprisingly lemony, but without being sour, mildly astringent from the bancha, and with a refreshing, grassy aroma. If I could change one thing, I would use slightly more green rooibos. In working out the proportions, I forgot how green rooibos tends to blend into the background when combined with green tea or lemon-scented herbs.

Do you have any favorite iced tea blends that you've made from scratch, either of pure tea, pure herbals, or a blend of tea with herbs?