In the daily introduction of green tea, you always can see such warm tips:
"Shang Tou Fa is recommended, lower water temperature, 85 ℃ is advisable, you can better experience the fresh sweet taste."
But often you just remember the tips at that moment, and get confused when brewing tea.
“Shang Tou Fa” or “Xia Tou Fa”?
Don’t worry, after reading this article and understand the reasons, you won’t hesitate when brewing green tea.
1.“Shang Tou Fa” , “Xia Tou Fa” and “Zhong Tou Fa”, how to make it ?
First, let's pay attention to the order of casting tea and water.
Shang Tou Fa: First fill water to be 70% full, then put tea into cup .
Xia Tou Fa: First put the tea into the cup, then pour the water until 70% full.
Zhong Tou Fa: Also known as "sandwich method", first fill water to be 30%,then put tea into cup , and then pour water to be 70% full.
Many tea lovers encounter green tea and brew it blindly with a spontaneous method, which is very easy to spoil the fresh and sweet buds.
However, only understanding the various methods is not enough, to understand the temper of teas you are brewing is also a must.
2.It depends on how much hair the tea leaves have.
Before studying this topic, I heard a kind of "barycenter theory".
"Like the curving biluochun & jingshan tea, because of gravity subsidence after floating up, it will fall naturally, so it is more suitable for “Shang Tou Fa”.
It seems to make sense, but it's not very reasonable.
Due to the gravity subsidence, the curving teas sink fast, but it does not mean that the method will be the better one to get good taste, they are not relevant definitely .
Actually here is the secret, for the green teas with more hair, better to use “Shang Tou Fa”.
Two reasons:
A) Once the tea hair is impacted and burned by the boiled water, it is easy to make the tea muddy, commonly known as "hairmix".
B) In particular, some of the early spring tender tea, using “Shang Tou Fa”, let the hair naturally flow down, the tea soup tastes sweeter and fresher.
Not so tasteless as to just two brewings.
3.The factor of processing
The consideration here is the degree of compactness and shape of the tea leaves.
So when it comes to the tea hard to brew and get the taste, you might as well try Zhong Tou Fa but not Xia Tou Fa, by which you maybe get even more amazing result.
“Zhong Tou Fa” demonstration in detail:
1)After warming the cup, fill water to be 1/3, and then prepare a fair cup to cool some boiling water for later use.
2) Wait for half a minute and pour in 2.5g tea, just enough to cover the surface for one millimeter.
3)Turn the glass slightly to let the tea soak in. It's also a good time to smell the tea. Don't miss it.
4)Then pour in water that is cool to be about 90℃ until it is about 70% full.
Tea is dancing with the water flowing, you can enjoy it after a good appreciation.
Simply put, “Zhong Tou Fa” can speed up the endogenous precipitation of tea by softening and soaking the tea leaves, making the aroma richer and tea soup mellower.
4.The relationship with pluck standard
The famous excellent green tea picked in early spring has much more amino acid and tastes fresh, with tender treatment is appropriate.
But for the older tea picked relatively late, Xia Tou Fa is a better choice, because high temperature & high impulse can stimulate the aroma of tea to a large extent.
So let’s summarize,
Shang Tou Fa, suitable for the delicate green tea with much more hair , such as biluochun, it won't destroy the tea form, amino acid.
Xia Tou Fa, suitable for green tea with large shape or large bud leaves, such as lu 'an guapian, so as to better brew tea flavor and aroma.
In contrast, Zhong Tou Fa is more suitable for the tight knot and flat green tea. By softening and soaking the tea leaves, it can accelerate the precipitation of the tea's inner quality and get the tasteful soup.
Like fresh taste or mellow taste? Now it is easy to get it.
