Water and Tea
From Bud to Brew: Water's Role in the Growth of Tea
by Monique Balas
photographs by Ness/ Pace Studio

From the day it is harvested to the moment it is steeped and savored, tea makes a remarkable journey. The role of water in this life is crucial. Growing tea requires plenty of moisture and well-drained soils. Harvesting at the right time of day, when the leaves are not too wet,can make all the difference in proper processing.
   Once the leaf makes it's way to the cup, its steeping temperature will make the experience divine or disappointing. Each tea requires specialand different attention. Water's well-measured role is vital in meeting the needs of discriminating tea drinkers. Recognizing why teas are processed and steeped in different ways speaks to the uniqueness of each variety and what is needed on the farm and in the café to bring out its best.

The Growing Process
As an agricultural product, Camellia sinensis isn't all that much different from the beans and tomatoes we grow in the back yard. Tea requires a balanced amount of sun, shade and, of course, water to thrive.
   Depending on the region in which the tea is grown, there are different amounts of water that fall naturally on the tea.
   "Two things that I find all tea gardens to have in common are plentiful seasonal rainwater and well-drained soils," says Richard Guzauskas, founder of Leaves Pure Teas, consultant to China Mist Tea Company and Chairman of Specialty Tea Institute's Certification and Education Committee.
   While tea farmers will occasionally spray and irrigate the plants, the climate often provides enough hydration, and many farmers leave the plants to the care of Mother Nature.
   Whether to water or not usually "depends on the season and how dry it is that year, and also where the plants are," says Winnie Yu, founder, director and primary buyer for Albany, Calif.-based Teance. "If it's lower elevation where it's hotter and drier, [farmers] will have to water it most definitely, because you don't get any fog in lower elevations. That's why premium tea has grown for thousands of years in the same location, because conditions are suitable. It's hard to open a plot of land and start growing tea."
   Indeed, there is a reason Darjeeling, which grows in a region that can get 160 to 180 inches of rainfall per year, is called "the Champagne of tea": The near-perfect growing conditions usually produce a reliable harvest.
   As Guzauskas notes, "None of the estates I know of supplement the water that naturally falls onto their tea plants, but certainly all have been located in what promises to provide the right amount of water (often in the form of a monsoon) at the proper time during the growing season(s)."
   But there can be too much of a good thing. An overly rainy season can flush out the flavor characteristics of a tea and make it weak. Plantation owners lose money because rainy season teas can be priced down. To put even more of a wet blanket on things, overly wet teas can be more difficult to process.
   Insufficient waterfall, on the other hand, can make for an equally unsatisfying cup of tea. Too little moisture can take away key flavor facets or make it harsher than usual. But Guzauskas has noted an oddity in the arid arena.
   "An interesting aside seems to be that teas plucked and processed from plants that have recently endured a drought often have heightened and desirable flavor and aroma characteristics," he says. "Certainly this is a generalization we can't take to the extreme, but a drought-stressed tea plant does seem to produce a terrific tea."
   Yu points out that geography, like climate, is crucial for tea to be grown properly. "The altitudes of the mountains play a very big part in what the tea plants require," she says. "Tea grows generally in mountainous areas, generally on slopes maybe 3,000 to 5,000 feet with a 60- to 45-degree slope." She points out that Taiwan, for example, has an altitude of 2,600 to 4,000 feet, she says, and China's is about 3,300 feet.
   "The reason for (the altitude) is because of the water-you don't want it to collect or pool. It has to be dry, but there should be a continuous moistening of the root and leaf. Tea grows well on mountains because of the mist and fog," Yu says, but she makes the distinction that salty ocean air such as that in San Francisco isn't good for tea. Tea trees "require a very foggy, pure air so the leaves are wet pretty much through the morning. Then with the lack of good sunshine, the leaves are dry by noon so that they can start to pick the leaves during tea-picking season."
   There must be adequate rainfall but no snow; a little bit of frost, however, can kill a white tea bud but not necessarily a heartier plant.

The Drying Process
While water plays a pivotal role in brewing and growing tea, one of the most important elements involved in processing tea is removing water from the leaves. In doing so, producers "drop the moisture down to between four and seven percent, depending on the type of tea they're producing," says Guzauskas. "If it's not between four and seven percent, they'll bring it to that before they package it."
   Temperamental as tea is, each type has a somewhat different drying process.
   "Teas are processed according to what they are supposed to become," Yu says. "White teas are just dried naturally. Sometimes (the processor) will put it in an oven to dry it quicker."
   While green teas can be hand-fired on a log, oolong teas must be oxidized slightly, then baked at a high temperature and completely dried. "And drying the leaf, you have to go through a lot of steps," Yu says. "When you pick it at 12 p.m., it's a lot more preferable than picking it at 9 a.m., for example, because the sun has already taken care of the drying for you."
   "It's a real art," Yu says. With oolongs in particular, she says, "It will affect the overall taste if it's too wet because the leaves will become moldy. The inside of leaves is still wet, but the outside is dry, so it becomes brittle. That could become moldy. It wouldn't have the roasted aroma; you end up with a very strange brew, with almost no taste in the body."
   Bag leaves, on the other hand, are completely dried and oxidized. "The leaves inside tea bags are actually what's called the fanning, or the dust of the tea. These fall through the basket when the leaves are chopped up; they get swept up, and it's tea waste. It's tea trash. That's usually what ends up in the tea bag," Yu says.
   But like everything else about preparing this ancient beverage, it takes a mind-boggling series of steps to go from leaf to cup. The importance water plays, from a single raindrop to an evaporated molecule, is hard to fathom.
   "Everything is precise and nuanced, yet an art," says Angela Justice, a tea importer and consultant at Teance. "It's based on conditions, not making decisions based on rote. They say in China there are over 10,000 different types of teas, so there's an almost endless complexity. Depending on the tea leaf, whether it was picked in spring or summer or received enough water-that's something that I think makes it really magical, that everything can have an effect."

Taking the Temperature of Tea
These days, even Paris Hilton would have to acknowledge that tea is, well, hot-and in more degrees than Fahrenheit. The custom of a cuppa is growing increasingly popular, made obvious as much by the rise of specialty teahouses as the ever-expanding tea selection at the grocery store. But while this signifies better business for the industry, it's also a sign that Americans are gaining an increasingly perspicacious palate.
   There isn't just one level marked by the mercury-boiling-to signify that your water is warm enough. On the contrary, "boil" is a bit of a four-letter word among the experts. You dared to brew a green tea at 212 degrees? Better dump it out and keep it on the down low. While it may look like it has more body, "It would be unspeakably bitter," notes Bill Waddington, founder and owner of Twin Cities-based TeaSource.
   Trade secret: That is not how you get repeat customers. Okay, you say. So how hot can tea get before taste and quality reach the boiling point?

Testing the Waters
A digital handheld thermometer is the easiest and most precise way to test your water-and we know you're using the high-quality, filtered kind (read: no chlorine, no distilled water).
   Or you could do it the old-fashioned way. The practice of identifying stages of boiling by the size of the bubbles and the amount of steam dates back to traditional fifth-century Chinese practices, says Angela Justice, a tea importer and consultant at Teance in Albany, Calif. The first stage is called 'fisheyes' because of what they resemble. "They're very small bubbles, and they're lying on the bottom of the pan," Justice says. "It's very poetic." This cooler temperature is ideal for delicate green, white or some oolong teas, says Richard Guzauskas, founder of Leaves Pure Teas, consultant to China Mist Tea Company and chairman of Specialty Tea Institute's Certification and Education Committee.
   "The next stage is called 'string of pearls,' in which the bubbles start rising from the bottom to the top of the pan. In cross-section, these resemble strings of pearls," he says. The final stage, when the water reaches a "rolling boil" and the bubbles are rampant within the pot (212 degrees boil), is often called "ruined water" by Chinese tea traditionalists, Guzauskas says.

Matters of Mercury
While temperature guidelines are variable and are often up for debate, you can learn a lot simply from looking at a leaf.
   For example, gunpowder tea is rolled into a tiny little pellet and has a very hard finish, Guzauskas says. Intuitively, you can see it would withstand hotter water. But a delicate Min Mei or Mao Feng would wilt under hot water like a delicate leaf of lettuce. "
   What you're trying to avoid is cooking your leaf," he says. "Tea has three components: essential oils, polyphenols and caffeine. The essential oils are what give us our flavor and aroma profile." Ultimately, he says, "The hotter the water you steep tea with, the more quickly the essential oils dissipate, causing the flavor and aroma to leave the cup."
   Guzauskas believes that bringing water to a rolling boil can result in flat and "lifeless" water devoid of the oxygen needed to steep a good cup of tea.
   Generally, the guidelines operate like a sliding scale: Temperature goes down in direct correlation with the strength of tea being brewed. Being the strongest, black teas require the hottest water.
   "Pretty much for all black teas, if you make it with less than boiling water, it will come out weak and spineless. It won't have all the body, and it won't have all the flavor notes," Waddington says.
   But this, too, is up for debate. According to Yu of Teance, black tea should brew at about 200 degrees. Like Guzauskas, she maintains that boiling releases too much air from the water, making it taste flat.    Coffeehouse owners should beware, Waddington says. Most brewing equipment only reaches about 185 to 190 degrees-the ideal temperature for good coffee, but nearly 30 degrees lower than the good boil (212 degrees) needed to make a flavorful black tea. Many coffee retailers simply use the red hot water tab on their coffee equipment for brewing tea. That's ideal for oolongs. But use it for black tea, and "it turns out spineless, weak, muddy and undistinguished because it's made so cool that you don't pull the flavor out of the leaf," he says.
   (Another note about equipment: Waddington points out that electric hot water heaters programmed to keep water at a specific temperature all day are on the market, if you want to brew a particular type of tea).
   Oolongs, which are slightly less strong than black, require about 190 to 200 degrees. Green tea, considerably less strong than black, takes about 170 to 180 degrees. But more delicate types of green tea should be brewed with cooler water.
   White, the most tender type of tea, has the lowest degree of body and thus requires the lowest temperature to bring out its aroma.
   You can brew white tea at about 160 or 165 degrees. Very delicate white teas should steep at 140 to 160 degrees, says Justice.

While You Were Steeping.
Tea aesthetes know that preheating the pot is crucial to brewing a good cuppa. Simply swish a quarter-cup of boiling water around in the pot for 10 to 15 seconds to warm it before steeping. If you think this step is a tiresome task that can be skipped without consequence, think again.
   "I live in Minnesota," Waddington says. "If I were to take a pot off the shelf and I didn't preheat it, it would drop twenty to thirty degrees in five to 10 seconds. The pot will absorb the temperature of the surrounding air." If the water isn't hot enough, it won't steep properly and could turn out much too weak.
   "If you preheat the pot," he says, "you won't need to worry about the temperature as it's steeping. If you don't preheat, it does become a concern."
   Maybe you'll never look at a whistling tea kettle the same way again. But your customers will thank you. Remember when Mom would take our temperature to see if our fever was going down and we were healing? If we apply that same attention and care to the tea we brew, then it will get better, too.