Tuesday, June 2, 2020 - Kill Green

Video Subtitles:

hello Internet happy Tuesday June 2nd
today's virtual tea party is going to be
mostly about green tea and the important
step for green tea to quality tea
processing last week on Tuesday I shared
about withering harvests and and
withering of tea and how that is
actually the most important step in
quality tea processing but today I'm
going to talk about a step that is
unique and important to especially green
tea but also to long tea as well and
that step is called kill green there is
no kill killing itself going on other
than the DNA tree nor killing of sorts
of an enzyme so it's kind of a funny
name before I get into the tea education
portion of today's broadcast I'm gonna
do a little industry update I said as
Sin City sweet tooth I like that name
you guys have any sweet matcha I love
cooking with matcha
okay so industry update I haven't
provided an industry update in a little
while and really outside of India's
lockdown being extended for another
month there really is not much of an
update still a lot of chatter going on
within the industry about increased
ecommerce opportunities so people are
definitely purchasing more t online
these days which is great a lot of
companies are citing significant
increase in online T cells that I think
something to keep in mind when you're
hearing about these big growth numbers
of e-commerce is that prior to pandemic
online T sales even for large
established T Brad's were very limited
compared to other distribution channels
that they had specifically around food
service distribution so usually how it
works for a T business the specialty tea
or even commodity tea in the US yeah I
can definitely talk for the US I'd
imagine it's very similar in Europe as
well that the business model is split up
something like this
60% towards wholesale which is mostly to
restaurants another you know 30 percent
going towards in shop sales retail and
then the rest of it on online sales so
that kind of gives you a reference of
how powerful online sales were before
not devaluing websites websites have
always been very important to websites
to manage catalog and to manage your you
know placements in the hemisphere of T
brands it's very important to have a
beautiful website that tells your story
and
catalogs your products so that people
can see them and someone may actually
browse through your products it's very
common but the actual sale and this is
all pre-pandemic the actual sale most
likely was going to happen in the
restaurants or in the tea shop not to
say that online sales didn't do well
especially you know a lot of people
complain
I shouldn't say complain but they they
cite that there are no local tea
retailers for them to access especially
if they're living in a very isolated
smaller town that doesn't have boutique
retailers that would make specialty tea
available so there are some folks that
even before had exclusively bought their
tea online but even that and even a
connoisseur that wants to explore and
research and is constantly finding new
sources there wasn't a bunch of brand
loyalty so you know if you had done the
work or paid for the traffic to convert
a sale on your website it's not like
other products where there's a lot of
brand loyalty and you can be assured
that that investment to acquire that
sale to acquire that customer would have
long-term sustainability as far as the
customer coming back and buying over and
over again with specialty tea we found
that especially connoisseurs were very
interested in trying different brands
versus having allegiance to one or
another there are a few brands that have
done a great job through their video
content and also through their social
media content and creating a community
of exclusivity and of Apex oh I found
this brand so that's that's good
you know I won't name any names but you
can probably think of a few in your own
head that have succeeded in in building
brand loyalty and good returning
business on their websites but you know
a lot of these articles that are
currently that are talking about the
increase of online sales since pandemic
started really is you know due to people
not being able to go to the store you
know that that tea shop being closed and
so you know a lot of these tea shops do
have very avid offline communities and
and maybe they were connected the entire
time through an email list or through
website or social media and so then when
they promoted their online shop
conversions of sales were significantly
higher so some articles I'm seeing are
saying that there's been like 40%
increase the the the data that I think
is probably more serious is from
camellia research making at surveyed a
long list of specialty tea retailers and
the number he came up with up increase
sales was 7% which 7% is not that much
of an increase especially when your
principal number your starting number
was very low you know even for a large
company it wasn't a surprise to find out
that they didn't do more than you know
$300 a month and in online sales so now
you had some percent to that and that's
where you're at but hi Michele how are
you you know that so funny Michele was
gonna I was gonna look if I was watching
your live stream yesterday and you had
said that your husband is from Denmark
and I wanted to check your name to see
how it's spelt sand yes it is very
Danish my name is also very Danish my
dad is from Denmark well his family is
from Denmark I haven't been yet
so Marco says it'll be interesting to
see how the business changes when to
wholesale and food service industries
make a return yeah it will be
interesting and if you caught my chat
yesterday so yesterday I had a amazing
conversation with two friends of mine
one is a tea vendor one of our clients
that sources tea and and supplies in
restaurants in Miami and another one is
actually based here in oh good yeah so
you Marco you did see yesterday's
conversation yeah that was incredible
and you know it wasn't it wasn't so
optimistic it was it was actually quite
pessimistic and you know rather than
focus on being pessimistic you know I
want to focus on like how can we build
more resilience there because there's a
lot of chitchat you know even food
service is gonna open back up here in
Vegas it's been going for three weeks
now food service has been open at
limited capacity but every restaurant is
kind of treating it differently but
there's also a lot of chitchat about how
long is this gonna last how the
restaurants are working on very small
small markets smaller margins than
before and also those small margins are
made up of lower wages to be honest it's
something that I've heard across you
know this market here that a lot of
these restaurants that have reopened
have brought their staff back at lower
pay so it's a challenge how long will
that last and tea is definitely like the
last priority for these restaurants that
have have opened a trend of the
reopening of these restaurants is
simplifying menus and simplifying
ingredients lists so that the restaurant
itself can be more resilient because who
knows that the shutdown is gonna happen
again or what what the future is gonna
be so if restaurant is gonna reopen
they're not going to get themselves up
to where they were before pandemic
they're gonna be very smart about what
they stock
in there and there you know fridges
especially perishable things how much
money they spend and so they're
simplifying the menus so that they don't
have to stock as many ingredients and
you know kind of mitigating a lot of
that risk and unfortunately t you know
it's definitely not a priority in that
so that's something else to worry about
I have not seen an increase of our
wholesale business and I don't supply
restaurants directly so I'm not like
directly connected to the pulse there i
supply distributors who would then
supply to restaurant so there's like you
know kind of a delay but you know my
clients they have to be proactive
because they have to be ready for when
the restaurants and so you know they are
keeping the conversation open with their
clients to find out what their needs are
going to be once they reopen and and and
then proactively stocking their
warehouses to make sure that they're
ready and I haven't really seen any
urgency you know I was kind of expecting
clients to to be calling me up and
saying hey you know like we're opening
in a few days and everybody needs stuff
I need to order this this and that that
hasn't happened yet for us so you know
still stay optimistic that there are
ways to bring in resilience in this so
online t---cells is helping our launch
of teen it's people.com has you know
helped our SEO hasn't kicked in just yet
so you know we're not completely active
but it's getting there and you know I'm
grateful for that supplement of revenue
to support our business as well as the
events the tastes the people's tea which
yesterday I had made that the deadline
to get your order your tickets for that
to receive your tea in time for our
first event that's going to be next week
Tuesday but I've decided if you want to
get in today you could definitely get
your tickets still and as long as you're
in the u.s. if you're international I
can't guarantee you're gonna get your
tea in time but if you're based here in
the US
I definitely know I can get your tea in
time so if you put your order in today
if you go to tea and as people calm it's
just like the first thing when you go to
that page it's the first thing promoted
there which is the series of events
called taste the people's tea where we
will feature different tea makers within
our network and feature three different
teas within their catalogue and I'll
give a presentation on their stories
stories of their families stories of
their community and their terroir and
then of course we will drink those three
teas and then this will be in a private
zoom room so it won't be broadcasted
live like this
it is going to be premium content but
what's really cool about it is it'll be
interactive as well so in addition to
this storytelling elements and just kind
of an opportunity to drink tea together
and taste some new teas I can also walk
you through some of your own questions
you have even just about brilliant tea
if you have questions about your tea
where you want to show me something and
ask or your technique you know I'll be
able to engage with you on that level
and so yeah our first class is going to
be next week on Tuesdays should be a lot
of fun I'm looking forward to that so
yeah that's just like one example of the
diversification that I've had to
implement here to keep things rolling
and we're thriving you know we're doing
great you don't have to worry about
about us here and you know things
looking up on the horizon as I'm putting
together our buying strategy for this
year a little a little delayed in our
buying strategy but I just wanted to
make sure that everything had cooled off
and we had reduced
all the risks involved with importing
right now we do have a pretty
significant import that has been stuck
in India for months now and I am so
grateful for the patience of our clients
that are waiting for that that are being
understanding the flexible in this as we
as we wait for the lock down to open up
which now has been extend
until the end of June so there has now
been I think four different extensions
to the Indian lockdown and that brings
me up to another industry update I
wanted to give today before I get in to
kill green tea education and that's to
deal with India as well as Nepal so I
saw an article today you know talking
about some increased contention between
Nepal and Darjeeling that's you know so
we all know since 2017 second flush the
strike the work strike I mean it was
just a general strike but the workers
were striking and that definitely was a
big blow to the darjeeling tea industry
and their harvest for that year it had
forced some very significant supply
chains to be built between Nepal and
India and this is not like you know for
export majority of the tea that ended up
being imported from Nepal to satisfy the
darjeeling demand was actually for
domestic consumption in India so you
know it was the the Indian people you
know kind of scamming their own their
own people saying that this tea was
Darjeeling and this is mostly in the
urban urban market so Mumbai Delhi
Chennai those big markets as where this
tea is going to hire in coffee shops tea
shops cafes that want to have a
Darjeeling on the menu so the article
that I read today was you know some
contention between the Darjeeling tea
suppliers and producers who now are able
to run at 100% capacity as far as labor
so there was a problem with the first
flush and that the lockdown stopped them
from starting the first flush and then
once the government allowed 25% of
workforce to start working it was
already too late and so that that 25%
work workforce was pretty much just
reserved for what's called skipping and
so that's essentially pruning the deep
ishes they were already into bond G you
know Bob do you mean like mature which
actually you can make along T from
usually long T is made from the bond G
leaves the more matured leaf that's why
you don't see a bunch of the buds and
long - you usually see fool leaves but
it was already too late for the first
flush harvest so they used that 25% work
capacity to skip the bushes so that they
would get a second flush because if they
didn't skip it or they didn't remove you
know that matured first flush shoot then
the second flush would come out very
different so they did the skipping and
so now second flush is available and now
they are working at 100% capacity and
are producing tea but kind of at an
unfair advantage from Nepal who
technically had locked down you know
talking to my friends in Nepal they told
me they were on lockdown and they didn't
know what to do but then there's other
stories and Nepal is a much more remote
place it's a lot easier to get away with
not following orders there because it's
such a mountainous terrain you know even
though the yoga randomly will be walking
out in the tea fields and you'll see
like a lineup of of military people with
guns in the middle of the tea tea
Mountain is confusing but I think it is
a little bit easier for you know people
to go against orders there because it is
more isolated and so the complaint is
that the tea factories in Nepal have
actually been producing the entire time
and so they're able to provide a
consistent flow of product into India
and so the India tea producers and the
Indian tea board are you know making a
petition to close the border and close
the trade between Nepal and India and
again this is for domestic consumption
of the tea this is not for bringing into
India getting labeled as Darjeeling and
then sent out for export this is just
for domestic consumption
so yeah just a little bit of drama
between Darjeeling and Nepal as usual
and just so interesting to see how you
know something that may seem so
insignificant could be so significant so
we'll see how that unfolds and I of
course will keep my eye on it and share
information with you as it becomes
available so that's that now we can move
on to tea education yeah I'm talking
about kill green today I'm gonna be
drinking a green tea this is a steamed
green tea and I chose this tea just
because steamy and green tea is not a
super unique form of kill green it's how
most Japanese green teas are processed
but this one is unique because this is a
steamed green tea from India and all I'm
going to show some videos and some
photos that kind of exemplify but what I
mean here so let's see I'm gonna show a
video first this is part of our tea 101
series which is available for rental and
for purchase on our Vimeo video
on-demand page if you just visit Telecom
slash T 101 you'll also be able to sign
up for updates and and download the
video from there it's a 45 minute 5
chapter video that covers history of tea
processing of tea with you know like and
you'll see in the video now or you'll
hear at least if you're on it well maybe
I'll turn the video on Instagram you
guys can watch it and the spread of
teeth so you know where did it spread
from China as well as busting some myths
common myths myths on tea and brewing of
tea and again that's a really awesome
video you know we actually made this
video for service staff for our clients
that serve
coffee shops and whatnot so you know if
a coffee shop or a restaurant is
introducing really good quality tea is
really important that their staff has
even this a minimal understanding of how
T is made and what our basic
considerations to tamp hua not that they
need to be an expert or you know having
their own go through tea practice which
we encourage you know so when I'm
engaged in training and empowering a
staff to do tea that's really important
for me is to empower them to develop
their own practice but the purpose of
this video is just to give you a basic
understanding so I'm going oh sorry
Michelle is it storming there is that
why your Internet's going out all right
I'm miss earth video don't reverse the
process of denaturing the Browning
inside of tea these enzymes denature at
about a hundred and fifty degrees
Fahrenheit this is a very important
process for greening and long teas which
shows the tea masters craft could easily
be naturing the enzyme throughout the
batch batch after batch the two methods
that are most commonly used in the
kilgrave step of processing our pan
firing and staining
steam is most commonly used in Japan and
is quickly becoming a favorite for small
tea producers in India as the technology
is affordable and efficient pan firing
is the most traditional process and is
usually done in large walks and about
well-ventilated wood fires drum dryers
are commonly used to kill green large
heated drums that spin the tea leaves
inside to evenly distribute the heat
blanching is another way of performing
the kill green step but is not commonly
used each method of denaturing the
browning enzyme imparts different flavor
and quality characteristics
it is the art form of the tea master to
choose a method that best fits 13th
browning enzymes will denature as
moister content declines which is white
dehydration for processes such as Sun
drying is another method of starting
oxidation this is the mechanism behind
white tea really blonde and black tea
are processed
I'll save this this little subject for
another time but so this tea that I'm
having right now that I'm going to drink
right now is from heritage so this is
their Factory and this is you know the
leaf that's going towards their green
leaf he's preparing the trees now and I
just wanted to show you their their
system it wasn't that video but it you
know might have passed by quickly so
this is their steamer here and it's a
very simple technology very foolproof
way of doing the processing and as long
as you fill these trays these trays are
going to go inside the steamer here and
the steam will rise through the
apparatus and perform the job but just
like last week when I was talking about
withering that the consistency and the
you know full exposure of air to each
individual leaf is very important to
consistent processing so if he had
stacked like another layer of leaf on
top of all of this it may have led to an
even processing there we go
see if you can see these are the shelves
of where those trains will go inside the
steam is being generated underneath here
and rising through the space and will
process the tea leaves just like this
and it doesn't need it doesn't need much
time like I said the temperature
required to denature this enzyme is not
very high so you know you don't have to
heavily process it
and the steam is kind of cool because
it's kind of a passive thing and in the
standing machines for the Japanese green
tea like the Sencha factories are
usually running on conveyor belts so as
long as you have a consistent flow of
steam going and your conveyor belt is
moving at the same rate you'll have very
easy consistent processing very passive
processing this is batch processing so
you know you do have to time things and
make sure that you pull these trains out
in time and so that saves job you know
just to make sure that everything is
evenly processed so this is it's closed
I think this is after yeah this is the
leaf after it's been killed green so you
see how kind of wilted it looks and the
color the color is different than it was
before it definitely had like a more
crisp vibrant green before but you know
so that's doles down a little bit but
this is actually like walked in you know
even though it's told a little bit it
has locked in some of that green color
and usually these these spaces are very
difficult to work with them because the
steam you know steam is a funny thing
because it's hot duh but it's like
energetically it's more hot than even
boiling water because the amount of
energy required to convert non boiling
water to boiling water and convert it
from a liquid state into a gas form
which is what steam is then there's you
know it's a big release of energies so
you know that's what I mean by being
hotter than boiling water like
temperature-wise it may be the same
temperature or even lower in temperature
but energetically it's it's got a lot of
power energy and in it because of that
that conversion so yeah you know getting
steam to the face right here is
it could be good oh here's a nice shot
of the leaves after a killer green and
then after this stuff they would go into
rolling and then to the trying but you
know like in the case of pan firing
these are getting ready to roll it and
then this is the dryer this is the dryer
they use and that's the final product
what I'm going to drink is very similar
to this so this is Pam firing and again
this is unique because it is in India
and Pam firing is typically a step of
call Aditi processing step you see in
China but you know this guy this is
Prabhu from T near T and South India and
New Guinea he's kind of just created
uncie if I got a shot up here it is so
this kind of gives you an idea of what
it looks like it's like a walk it he
just created this himself
he made this himself like this type of
tea processing is not common in India
even at like the tea estates and like
Darjeeling that are trying to do very
fine quality high quality teas to get
thousands of dollars a kilo for it
they already been using this small-scale
operation this is very common to what
you see in ax where you know they have
that accessibility to small batches so
this is just a big walk and then he's
rigged it over I think it had its
electric fire to fire up the walk and
this is the leaf here is these thing
just his hands to constantly roll the
leaf around because again you want even
processing you also don't want to like
burn part of the leaves so you don't
want to like leave it on this hot this
is a very hot surface you don't wanna
leave it there for too long so you're
constantly tossing it around
and additionally when you're doing this
pan firing like this with this
manipulation
there's definitely additional value in
this step for shaping belief not just
killing the green but also shaping the
leaf interesting see they're throwing it
around and then this leaf over here is
kind of sitting there so then on its
next go-around with his hands he's gonna
make sure he grabs all of this stuff up
because it's it'll get burnt like these
little ends right here they'll get burnt
if they stay just in one spot for too
long so that explains kill green and how
cool green works it's a very simple
process so the what you're killing the
kill green is your denaturing the the
enzyme the enzyme is protein all enzymes
are proteins enzymes they are compounds
that accelerate a process something
that's enzymatic means it's been
accelerated by some some other factors
some other compound that's that's there
so the there's several different enzymes
that are involved in the oxidation of of
T wheats but the main one and the one I
always talk about is one called
polyphenol oxidase which is a very
common enzyme in the food science world
and so that's why I always talk about it
because that's one that we can all
relate to and that's the enzyme that
exists in avocados and apples when you
cut those fruits they start to brown and
you see it it's very visible it happens
very quickly but it only happens once
you cut the flesh open and expose that
flesh to oxygen so that enzyme is not
the one
actually doing the work what that enzyme
doing is helping bind together the
oxygen with the the other compounds to
you know create the oxidation to create
those tannins and convert those
polyphenols I like it green this is
another interesting thing about this tea
is that in addition to being steamed
processed I showed you the photos past
process it's also smoked after complete
process is finished so after the tea has
been processed and dried then they smoke
it with with local wood a very aromatic
local wood I forget exactly what would
they use for smoking so this this T is
called heritage firewood green welcome
to put the link up so you guys can take
a look at it
and it's a very popular team and it'll
actually be a part of taste it's
people's taste the people's tea tasting
series for Raj and Bruna who is the tea
maker at Heritage that we'll be
featuring in that event and it's popular
and that like it is like a fresh crisp
green tea and very clean looking I mean
gypsy the licorice you won't be able to
see liquor too much from inside my bowl
but you you could have seen from the
poor here that is very clean yeah I
guess from the the camera angle up there
you guys can see how how clean looking
the tea is I should have used the glass
picture so that way you could have
definitely seen it hi Gabby happy
Tuesday this bowl I got it from a studio
in Seattle I forget the name of it it's
very small just came across it years ago
when I think we were there for the
Northwest tea festival maybe in 2013
2012 I forget when but he is an
enthusiast of Japanese tea culture and
he collects wabi-sabi ceramics and there
was a whole series of bowls like this
none of them were the same of course but
different sizes and this one felt felt
the best I love this bowl I usually use
a test pitcher but it has a beautiful
nice pouring spout to it nice feel in
the hand it's beautiful
so you definitely get like upfront I
think it's the guy that runs it I think
his name is Tetsu but maybe I'm wrong -
I don't wanna I don't want to like give
the wrong name but I think tattoo is the
guy that owns and I forget the name of
it it wasn't a big place and he's not
he's not even online so it's not even
like you'd be able to find him online
and try to order one online it's it's
one of those things that you just gotta
go in person and feel all the ways that
he has and actually if I remember
correctly a lot of the stuff that he had
was not 40 it was just other ceramics
that he had collected and I think the
artist that made this is not even
Japanese he has features of all the
different artists of the the different
where said he has the cup and this go
together they're from very different
places so this is from in my forgetting
die-ie-ie style of pottery in giovanna
and Zhu Kong last time I went and we
went to a big studio very big studio
there pumping out lots of stuff but the
style of I'm not into that style it's
like really rustic it really really
rustic I mean and this is this is pretty
rustic like these two things are as
rustic as I like to get I do you know
but a lot of this stuff is unglazed and
I don't know I just really wasn't drawn
to it but this cup I was really drawn to
because it does have a nice glaze on it
and it's like a state s and glaze so it
has a really nice texture to it as well
as being smooth like the rest of this
stuff didn't have that some texture and
I think maybe that's what it kind of
didn't draw me to it but what's really
special it's like this intoxicating I'll
let you got the Sun come on and get some
Sun in there this like beautiful
intoxicating blue color that you can
just get lost inside the cup I really
love that I just like saw this cup and
I'm like okay this is this is the only
thing I'm buying there was a lot of
beautiful things to buy there though a
lot of nice statues but that's the thing
about when you're in China you see stuff
like that it's like how are we gonna get
home so yeah I was always saying the the
tea has upfront very crisp fresh cut
grass and so that's something that you
can always kind of expect from a green
tea and that's because of the kill green
stuff and the sooner you do that kill
green stuff and the more efficiently you
do that and evenly you do that step you
will lock in that that fresh fresh-cut
leaf taste and you know we think of
grass because that is that the memory
that we all have right you know when
someone Mose mows the lawn and you walk
across you smell it it's just really
incredible earthy fresh smell but then
after that you get the smoke and the
smoke is really subtle and this is not
smoke that you probably if if you're in
North America probably experienced with
like a lapsang souchong which is what
people usually draw to and they talk
about smoke to tease and and really to
be honest lapsang souchong like the real
authentic one is is not smoky that
smokiness that we think of with like
James Bond you know he was saying this
very like in lapsang souchong that is a
very like Western interpretation of that
tea and again especially North American
palette is really attracted to like the
sexy like just come on real strong up
fronts and so that the the best way that
you connect with that is an aroma and
the best way that you optimize aromatic
experiences is through perfume or you
know whatever version of perfume you
want to call it be at essential oils and
be it what's the new trendy word they
use for that terpenes and the the
cannabis industry that's the word they
like to say for it but these are pretty
much just like concentrated volatiles
that trigger that olfactory response and
sensations so how you get that with
smoke is it's literally like liquid
smoke flavoring that you can add to your
food and your cooking to give it that
that strong aroma so you know a lot of
the lot songs Shu Xiang's especially
from like the blended tea companies the
blended tea vendors those are actually
flavored and if if I was tasting that
tea right now that would definitely be
the first note that I would connect with
it was like that intense smokiness on
this tea the first note I connected with
was that earthy fresh-cut grass and then
the smoke came after and the smoke
that's coming is like a subtle smoke
that's just kind of more textural than
than it is aromatic and that's because
this is real smoke it's not a perfume
it's not a concentrated volatile
solution that that is hitting me first I
mean of course you can you can heavily
smoke a tea and that has actually
happened and it was an unintentional so
in the same tea factory and a tea maker
Rajan Bora he works with small tea
growers in a rural Pradesh which is you
know hill country just north of us on on
the other side of the Brahmaputra and
they are they have a small-scale
artisanal factory and the first year
that we got tea from the tea was really
exciting and really good and then
next year we got a green tea from them
the our guitar longleaf some of you may
remember some of our wholesale hi it's
Ben remember that tea and we got it in
2017 I believe was here at 18 I forget
one of those years the lot that came to
us was just like overly smoky it was so
smoky it was astringent and the the
Australian see that you sensed from the
tea did not feel like it was astringency
coming from the green tea so you know
green tea is especially when you over
brew them heavily brew them it can bring
out an Austrian to see in the tea if
it's not you know of the most elite
quality the Australian see that we were
sensing from this tea didn't feel like
it was even coming from the greenness in
the tea it felt like it was coming from
the smoke and it wasn't meant to be a
smoked tea and so you know I hit them up
and I say hey what happened to this tea
they said oh we're very sorry the whole
area had very heavy rains this year
which caused all of their burning wood
that they use for powering their
steaming machines empowering their
drying machines a lot of these like
really rustic small-scale factories are
using wood to as a heat source to heat
these big machines and the would we if
you've ever made a campfire with wet
wood you know what happens right make
steam and so they had no choice but to
use waterlogged wood to burn for their
equipments and that ended up steaming
out the entire facility the entire
factory they didn't have proper
ventilation to handle that and so all of
their teas came out super steamy again
so see me it was astringent it was like
unpleasant to drink so on this steep I'm
on the second steep down there was a
little bit of the first steep that I
kind of stacked on it which is fine I'm
not you know critical about trying to
keep steeping separate you know I'm a
very casual tea drinker and I like to
encourage other people to have a a
casual attitude or you know whatever
boundary of casual you
want to establish with your practice of
tea to not be too stringent to follow a
certain protocol unless you want to
those are your own boundaries and your
own consent set but i steeped the second
steep much longer than the first one I
like to do that generally with my teens
especially with green tea I like to do a
very short easy steep from the first
steep and then let it steep longer as
the steep eenz go on so the flavor
expression is a lot different on this
cup a lot more intense a little bit more
stringent than the first one the first
cup was just super smooth very easy to
drink this one has a little bit of that
bite but not much I mean this this is
probably typical to what most people
think of and enjoy in green tea we have
found in this tea I don't know if it's
like a factor of the smoking or just a
factor of how quality the the processing
is but in this particular tea we found
that it's a lot more resilient to more
intense steeping than other teas other
green teas you know they always say to
you know people say oh I don't like
green tea and often times it's just
because they've never had a properly
brewed cup of green tea but this one is
more resilient so this is actually a
good green tea option for the restaurant
setting and the cafe setting because in
those settings the staff are busy or you
know there's high turnover so they're
not very well trained or maybe they're
just not impassioned about serving green
green tea or tea in general to their
customers so you often will see over
Stephen happening and so tea vendors
have to curate what teas are made
available to them based off of knowing
them that there is a high potential than
being over steeped and so that's why
this tea as well as so like with the the
Yankee teas which are also
stained the that's the Darjeeling small
tea maker that we work with when they
have a green tea where they have two
different green teas that we currently
have in our stock one of them is called
mock Cuccia which will be in gong coos
tastes of people's tea tasting events as
well as panacea and they're both steamed
they have different plucking standard
and different processing standard and
the the mole Cuccia is extremely
temperamental it's a lot sweeter and a
lot more nuanced and complex and so
that's where you can tell it's premium
quality over the other green tea but the
panacea is a lot more resilient to
stronger brewing the volk to TIA if you
brew it too strong it can come out
bitter and astringent there's another
green tea from Nepal that also has that
feature called moonshine moonshine is
it's mostly a green tea but it has the
aesthetic of a white tea and technically
could call be called a long tea because
it's rolled and there's some limited
oxidation but there there's a very fast
kill green step I don't it's an
interesting team but that one is
extremely temperamental but when you do
dial in your brewing just write that tea
is like crazy good because it tastes
like tastes like cotton candy in my
opinion so this tea that I'm drinking
right now is from Assam India so
heritage a song from Raja tipper he's
he's in deep regard but earlier I was
talking about a green tea from the
NOPD's that was from tea near Prabhu I
was showing his you know small operation
oh yeah Michael knows the moonshine so
you know Michael have you had experience
with that moonshine over brewing
you know steeping it too intensely
sometimes that to you scares people so I
tend to not put it on to foodservice
menus because I know it freaks people
out like once they tasted / brewed
they're like oh no this this is he we
can't have it a couple of restaurants
like every green and Jenny Wong she
serves the moonshine in her restaurant
she does a great job on it but you know
my best experience with moonshine was
actually cold brewing it in soda water
and I guess so seltzer and soda water I
think the same thing just like non
sweetened non-flavored bubbly water and
let it cool brew in that and aw man it
tastes so good tastes like a soda it
also tastes good cold brewed and nitro
tapped that is definitely a luxury that
I don't get to experience too often yeah
just try I know it's it's heartbreaking
to waste some tea but it's not wasting
if it's education in just a small amount
but yeah that's smart to do the short
steeps because that tea like I said if
dialed and right is so good but if you
over steep it oh yeah I try the cold
brew and maybe once you try the Kover
you won't go back and you can do you can
do a hot brew that a cold brew but the
thing with doing the hot brew and then
cold brew is that if you do the hot brew
you are going to be extracting a lot
more of those astringent and bitter
compounds if you do the cold brew like
none of them will come out it'll be like
completely mild completely soft
completely sweet you won't have any
tinge of bitterness to it which for
green tea you kind of want that right if
you want to fit that profile of what
people think of a green tea you want to
have a little bit of that astringent
bite you know that fresh-cut green grass
bite how long do cold brew in the soda
uh I you know I I always like to do cold
Brews for at least nine hours the thing
that's great about cold brew is that
there's no rules like I have set up a
cold brew and two hours later
someone said I want a cup and I you know
decanted some of them for them and it
tasted okay it was maybe a little white
which is why I just like to say nine
hours and I'm Plus that's easy if like
at nighttime you set it up and go to
sleep and then by the next day it's
ready and that's usually you know nine
hours is a good time for that overnight
process but if you over if you go over
nine hours it's fine too
and if you re steep it that's also fine
so you know my cold brew picture at home
that I keep in the fridge and I'll just
cold brew in the fridge directly I don't
you know I don't do like the Sun the Sun
tea or you know like keeping it out on
the counter to do the brewing I will
I'll leave it in the fridge and you know
I have like a cool picture that has like
a filter on it so the leaf doesn't come
through so I don't even have to decant
it and I can just steep it in the fridge
and then once I drink all of it I can
add more water and put it back in the
fridge so you can treat the leaf
especially if it's good quality you can
do either you can you can steep it
either at room temperature or the
refrigerator I personally like the
refrigerator I don't think it has too
much of a difference of how the tea
brews but it does it does add you know
just like an extra layer of luxury that
the tea is already chilled when you g
cans it so you don't have to add ice and
that is one issue with either iced tea
or cold brew tea when you add ice and
that ice melts dilutes your tea and cold
brew is not typically a concentrate so
you know people making iced tea that
want to take that into consideration
will hot steep a concentrated tea so
then when they add the ice and the ice
melts it balances out the Peru but if
you're cold brewing you can't make a
concentrate I mean you can try using
more leaf but it doesn't really make it
more concentrated
you know I typically for my coal brewery
and I do 15 grams of leave to a gallon
of water I've got a bunch of these glass
gallon jars so that's what I use for my
coal brewing and that just makes the
easier 15 grams to gallon pretty easy
and and you know once you do the math
that's kind of the same ratio if you're
doing gongfu
if you're enough steep 15 grams of leaf
and and get the most seeps out of it
you're gonna need a gallon of water it's
a pretty pretty good ratio there
I appreciate you asking questions and
engaging with this Deepak where are you
located Deepak you in India
I am also feeling quite alert from this
teeth oh yeah so deepak asked if we've
we've added fresh fruit to the tea yes
definitely that is a very good idea
even to like when you're steeping the
tea in the soda water it's really nice
to person through in there too and I
feel like the soda water because of the
agitation of the fizziness the bubbles
in the water that it helps extract more
I actually world tea Expo 2014 I saw a
really cool thing that like really
inspired me and I haven't seen it since
and I'd love to see it more or play with
it more was coal brewing with ultrasonic
technology so you know like sonic pulses
sonic waves dental offices will have
these like pools they're like small pool
that creates a sonic wave inside the
water in that solution with the sonic
wave is actually sterilizing I believe
and that's you know why there's use for
it in the dental office to sterilize
tools or things but they were using one
of these stainless steel like sonic
ultrasonic baths too steep different
leaves dried leaves it wasn't tea but
just like dried leaves different plants
this was like a newer tea company that
was just trying to introduce some new
products to the market and I think the
the the sonic brewing was not a part of
their product it wasn't a part of their
company or pitch it was just how they
chose to sample their teas at world tea
Expo that year but I was really
impressed with it because you know the
belief the products that they were
featuring were not complex or artisanal
in themselves but the tea that they were
brewing and sharing with people was
actually very soft and actually had like
a very surprising texture like fool fool
innocent
sure to it and I think that a lot of it
was due to how they were brewing it so
so yeah it's kind of like cold brew but
the sonic waves accelerate the process
so maybe you can brew your tea in 30
minutes versus nine hours something like
that so that's an idea I always like
throw out there someone wants to get
creative or she had access to Sonic I
wonder if you could do that they say the
the sonic toothbrushes that they create
a sonic way like on your teeth and
that's like part of its its value and
antibacterial power I wonder if you
could do that
you know just in your steeping vessel is
put the the toothbrush buzzing in the in
the water to get it to create the sonic
waves so that it'll sleep that way
yes deepak is very interesting he is
interesting it is you know it's the
funny one I started this journey of
sharing tea and trying to popularize the
culture of tea here in the US this was
like eight years ago nine years ago I
never would have thought that I find so
many cool things to share about tea but
yeah definitely finding more and more
things every day my hour is almost up
and I feel like I have effectively
introduced the kill green step to you
all and gave some interesting insights
related to green tea and steeping of
green teas so I feel satisfied on that
there's no more questions but tomorrow
tomorrow we will Thank You Michelle
tomorrow we will be discussing in the
constitution so not too much tea
education all course be drinking some
tea and hopefully getting getting
enlighted and enlightenment from the tea
but yet tomorrow will be the third
edition of my Constitution study group
so same time same way will be here
tomorrow
bring your questions and your interest
in the Constitution we're gonna be going
over articles two and three which
highlights the executive and the
judiciary and then you know I'm hoping
to bang out some more of the amendments
but I'm gonna kind of keep it open-ended
because of what we're dealing with right
now in the protests and the response to
the protest I think that there's a lot
of opportunity for us to dig deep into
what's written to the Constitution about
how we can apply it to the questions and
feelings that we may have around the
write and reaction to peaceful protest
or even non peaceful protest so I look
forward to navigate elections I look
forward to it by Instagram see you
tomorrow and everybody else much love
much Aloha
Pirlo hat and