What chinese white tea can be brewed with cold water?

What color is green tea supposed to be?

• I recently converted to loose leaf tea. The instructions that came with my tea says to green tea should only be brewed for 45 to 60 seconds. I wait until the water is simmering (bubbling a little bit but not fully boiling) and then pour it over my tea, but after one minute the water is still very, very light colored - It has a very subtle yellowish hint but it's not very impressive. I'm under the impression that tea should look darker than this - that when poured into a white cup, there should be a clear distinction in color between the tea and part of the cup above the water, but it's hardly noticeable unless I hold it under a light. It's jasmine tea, and I can taste the jasmine but I'm not sure if what I'm tasting is the full-flavor or not. What am I doing wrong? The conservative one minute limit seemed a little ridiculous to me but I don't want to over-brew the tea either.

• Answer:

  Congrats on your recent shift to loose tea. I am convinced that in the long-run, you will be very satisfied with this change! You can't always trust the commercial instructions that come with your tea. The ideal steeping time for tea depends both on the individual tea you're brewing, the amount of leaf used, and your own personal taste. I find that typically, for most loose-leaf green teas, if I only use one teaspoon of leaf per cup, 45 seconds would be way too short. For one teaspoon per cup, I shoot for 3 minutes as a starting point. For gong-fu style brewing (making multiple, short infusions), I would use much more than one teaspoon (3 or more, depending on how big the leaf is) per cup. For more information on tips on brewing tea, you can read this resource that I've created: http://ratetea.net/topic/brewing-tea/6/ Different teas have different colors too. Jasmine tea is hard to pin down too because it can have different base teas--everything from silver needle white tea, through various green teas, through pouchong or even lighter oolongs. Each of these will be a subtly different color. Different green teas are really different in color too...everything from Gyokuro (which is very green) to Anji bai cha (which is very pale, almost colorless, but not flavorless!). Many green teas are golden but there's a lot of variability. The color also depends in strange ways on brewing temperature. Some Japanese green teas will be richer in color if you use lower-temperature water, but other teas can display the opposite effect. The best way to figure this out is to keep experimenting. I would also encourage you to participate in tea community websites, like the one I run, or get active on specific tea forums or on twitter, talking to tea enthusiasts. If you want more general info on green tea, there's a ton of information on the site that I run, here: http://ratetea.net/style/green-tea/4/ Good luck, and please let me know through the contact form on my site if you have any more questions that you can't find answered there!