It's All About Tea — brewing techniques

While butter tea usually causes confusion in most not familiar with it, it actually has a rich and interesting history. It has been a staple for people living in the Himalayas for centuries and continues to be so.

WHAT IS BUTTER TEA?

Butter tea has many names in different languages but is commonly known as po cha. It originated in the Tibetan Himalayas but is now commonly enjoyed throughout Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India, western China and Mongolia. To make butter tea, four ingredients are needed: tea leaves, butter, water, and salt. (Read more)

There are two schools: one that says no to boiled water, and one that says that boiled water is totally fine. So some carefully watch (or listen) to our tea kettles, waiting for the perfect time to cut the flame off. It's true, every tea type has the ideal temperature that allows the tea leaves to open up to us in all their beauty. The perfect aroma, perfect taste – balanced brew. It is crucial to learn this.

However, during the Tang Dynasty (618 ~ 907), tea was brewed very differently from what we are used to today. People boiled tea! (Read more)

There are many ways of making a delicious cup of quality loose leaf tea. Luckily for us, the methods required to brew the perfect cup have been meticulously studied over the past centuries. Listed are the 5 main methods of brewing loose leaf teas. (Read more)

Nowadays, boiling tea is often seen as a way to spoil perfectly good tea leaves. However, if done right, this method of brewing tea deserves much more credit than it gets.

Boiling tea leaves is the most ancient method of making tea.
Back in the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907), when tea culture was gradually at its rise, tea leaves were boiled for prolonged periods. Sometimes they were cooked together with different spices. Different kinds of herbs, roots, fruits, and even chili and scallions weren’t uncommon accompaniments to tea leaves. (Read more)

Grandpa style brewing actually is not as mysterious and fancy as it sounds.

And I’m sure we’ve all drank tea grandpa style before without even knowing it... (Read more)