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Exploring Black Tea Brewing Technique With Yunnan Pure Bud

The ‘Pure Bud‘ Is a very interesting member of our Black tea collection. Black teas generally tend to have a five year shelve life in which time it will mature in flavour And mellow out. I would suggest that fresh black tea shouldn’t be drunk, the leafs haven’t been given enough time to settle down. After four to six months it’s ready to cup up and very tasty. The sweet spot in age for a Black tea will vary on each blend. The Pure Bud started out life very bright and fiery in nature but two and a half years in the notes are rounding off nicely with a viscous mouthfeel. I simply love the fact that tea never stands still, it’s always changing and you can often get a nice surprise when revisiting an old favourite!

As well as the leaf evolving in flavour there are other things you can do that will help you fully explore a tea. The way that you brew really can make or break your tea session. I was recently asked “How do you like to brew the Pure Bud Black Tea?” My knee jerk reaction was “Ah, just my standard brewing method really, 90c water, ditch the first infusion with five second steeps gently raising the steep times.” Then I got thinking and remembered some advice I received on brewing Black Tea a while bad but never tried out…

Apparently the true way to brew a Hong Cha is a long twenty second infusion time and then subsequent short infusions afterwards. The idea being that you will wake up the leafs enough in the long steep all infusions will be large in flavour for the get go. I’ve been putting off this little experiment until now but in our latest Youtube video we conduct a side by side review on these two methods. Watch the full video to find out the verdict. As always please feel free to like, share and subscribe for future videos!

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