I should also add that my brewing methods typically come from what I know about a type of tea and what I’ve learned previously. I’m intransigently neglectful of accompanying instructions provided by tea companies, plus I tend to approach many of my tea drinking adventures as science experiments in the first place. In the case of the purple orthodox tea I don’t remember what information I started out with, but I knew that this was not a tea I would want to brew with boiling water. I didn’t want to emphasize the astringency as much as I wanted to bring out the grapy sweetness.

Some of my initial experiments were underwhelming and even jarring, so I knew I had to find better methods. The dry leaf seems kind of like a black tea, and kind of like a green tea, so it was not obvious what variables of leaf quantity, water temperature, or brewing time to choose for it. I could tell that this intriguing tea had the potential to brew into something I really enjoyed, so I set about figuring out how to get satisfying and consistent results (and document my methods to help other people while I was at it).

The Camellia sinensis clonal bush (Clone TRFK 306/1) that produces this purple tea has been in development by The Tea Research Foundation of Kenya for the past 25 years, and has been cultivated to produce unprecedented high levels of anthocyanins, which are the antioxidant pigments that make leaves and fruits red, blue or purple. As a result, the very dark leaf can result in an abrasive and harsh brew. But that same element can produce a very pleasant and surprising wine-like note above the underlying tea taste.

Through trial and error, and retesting my steps, this is what I determined worked for me:

• Pour boiling spring water into a small ceramic teapot (about 6 ounces of water), and then empty the water into a serving pitcher to cool.
• Place 1 teaspoon of dry leaf into the teapot (2 grams).
• Pour boiling water from the kettle onto the tea leaves, filling the teapot about halfway.
• Immediately pour out and discard this initial “rinsing infusion.”
• When the water in the serving pitcher has reached 170 degrees f. pour the water into the teapot.
• Steep the tea for 5 minutes.
• Pour the tea out into the serving pitcher through a fine mesh strainer.

For a second infusion use the same temperature of water and the same steeping time. If you want to try to coax a third infusion out of it, use boiling water and steep for about 7 minutes.

This is what I determined worked for me, but adjusting the variables can result in emphasizing different qualities of the tea, according to taste. Adding a minute or two to the steeping time or using slightly more leaf are possible options. Of course the initial rinsing infusion could be omitted, but I found that it tamed the tea in a way that produced a much smoother liquor, which I liked better.

You can read more about the properties of purple tea on its product page on the Phoenix Tea website.

You can also read about purple tea on Lazy Literatus’ post, Four-Eyed No-Horned Flightless Purple Tea Drinker, and the article on T-Ching written by Joy M. W’Njuguna, one of the founders of Royal Tea of Kenya.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Part II of the interview with Nigel Melican
• Fair-Trade, Organic Farming and Sustainability
• Tea Review: Organic Silverback White

The second part of my interview with Nigel Melican is now available for you to read on Cha Dao. Excerpted:

Cinnabar: I guess there are really two focuses of organic farming. I wasn’t even thinking about how it affects the end product, because it seems like that’s not the same conversation. The impact on the land is quantifiable and obvious, but the land doesn’t know the difference between a molecule of nitrogen, whether it’s certified organic or not, right?

Nigel Melican: No the land won’t, but — and this is why there’s the argument — people say that organic meat tastes better than inorganic meat, and often it does, because the guy who grows organic takes better care of his animals, is a better animal husband, and that shows up, and it’s the same with plants.

C: And that’s clearly the case with tea. If you’re using practices that end up contaminating the end product with dangerous toxic chemicals, the end product is going to taste bad, so that’s not going to fly.

NM: Ultimately you’re right, but if you had — God forbid — tea contaminated with mercury you wouldn’t taste it, and similarly, many of the ways that you fertilize don’t have an effect on taste. Where you do have an effect with organic on tea is that you’re putting on less nitrogen. Nitrogen leads to fast growth, and fast growth tends to be more about kilograms than it is about quality … so slow growth, as in the spring flush. Everyone says, go for the spring flush. That’s because it’s growing slowly, and the quality is definitely better. So organic should come out with slower growth.

C: But in reality, the quality of a lot of product that’s labeled as organic tea is terrible.

NM: Yes.

The image above, of mercury on cinnabar is from a photograph by Parent Géry on Wikimedia Commons.

Note: Cinnabar is a compound of mercury, and I have a strong affinity for the toxic element in its liquid metal form as well. But I wouldn’t want my tea to be tainted with it!

Note two: For an additional connection of tea and mercury, milliners during the Victorian period often suffered from mercury poisoning due to the use of mercury in the process of transforming fur into felt for hats, thus we have Lewis Carroll’s “Mad Hatter” and his uproarious tea party. In addition to insanity, mercury poisoning produces hard looking red skin, which I would expect to result in those afflicted looking a little like they were made out of cinnabar.

Possibly Related Posts:

• 恭喜發財 – Happy Year of the Water Dragon!
• Experiments with purple tea
• Pure Pu’er
• ATB Blog Carnival: AdagioTeas’ “Roots Campaign.”
• World Tea Expo 2011

A couple of weeks prior to the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas last year Corax, of the consistently excellent tea blog Cha Dao, asked me to engage in a bit of information gathering during my time there, which would ultimately become a guest post. He also solicited Nigel Melican of Teacraft Ltd, who agreed to sit down with me for an interview on the topics of fair-trade practices, organic farming and sustainability with regard to the tea industry.

If you are not already familiar with Nigel Melican, he is one of the most knowledgeable tea professionals in the world today, particularly with respect to the science of tea production. But his thirty-plus years in the tea industry (and a few more in the world itself) have also given him a breadth of understanding of the socio-politics of worldwide agriculture, which was essential to our topics of inquiry.

The source discussion resulted in quite a lengthy transcription, so the piece will be published in three separate sections. The first is now available for you to read:

Sustainable, Organic, Fair-Trade: A Conversation with Nigel Melican [i]

With the intention of inspiring you to read the rest, here is a small excerpt of our conversation:

Cinnabar: There’s a lot of controversy about fair-trade practices in tea production in India. There’s been a lot of backlash saying that workers aren’t actually getting any benefit from it. Even though the plantations get certified, there’s no follow-up after that to make sure that the benefits are actually going back into the community.

Nigel Melican: Yes, it’s looking bad. There are certain companies who, if someone in the company really believes in it then they’ll follow it up and make sure that happens. But it can either slip between marketing and, I suppose, human resources, although very few tea companies have the sort of human resources department on the producers’ side, and there must be some direct exploitation as well. Generally I think they go into it for the right reasons, but it doesn’t always deliver in the way that it’s supposed to.

The photo at the top of this post is of a group of Chinese workers and foreign traders during the Qing Dynasty.

Possibly Related Posts:

• 恭喜發財 – Happy Year of the Water Dragon!
• Experiments with purple tea
• Pure Pu’er
• ATB Blog Carnival: AdagioTeas’ “Roots Campaign.”
• World Tea Expo 2011

The Silverback White is, in essence, very similar to the white teas grown in China, but as I had anticipated, the differences in environmental conditions between China and Kenya result in a significantly different character of tea. DAVIDsTEA’s description:

“Kenya has done a magnificent job of growing Asian tea plants and producing traditional teas with flavours all their own. This organic white is a prime example. It has a luxurious, oolong-style flavour, and a rare, haunting finish that evokes the vast African landscape. The nutrient-rich soil, heavy mists and bright sun have all contributed to create an exciting tea worthy of our reserve collection.”

The liquor of the Silverback White is aromatic and sweet, with a faint and pleasant hint of clove. But its most distinctive aspect is the incredible silken feel of the tea in the mouth. In general I would say that compared to other white teas that I have tasted this tea is more fully flavored and slicker. The taste is also a little less grassy. The mouthfeel and scent are quite reminiscent of honey, brought out most prominently in the second infusion.

Like any white tea it should be brewed gently, at around 185 degrees and with the best quality water available. I would recommend brewing it in glass or porcelain. A gaiwan works nicely, but a glass teapot is also appropriate. It exhibited the best of its qualities when I brewed it in a small glass gongfu teapot using lots of leaf and short infusions. This tea can yield four infusions without losing its flavor, although the second is notably the best of the four.

Silverback White is a very lovely and exceptional tea. It is interesting to compare it to Chinese white teas, but it stands admirably on its own merits and is well worth a try. I have tasted it several times and have found it startlingly good each time.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Experiments with purple tea
• Reading “A Tea Reader”
• Lan Xiang Xian Zhi (Orchid Fairy Twig, 蘭香仙枝), a wonderful green tea sold by Life In Teacup
• Part III of the interview with Nigel Melican
• Part II of the interview with Nigel Melican