Don Mei : Hey teaheads.
This is Don from Mei Leaf.
In this video : Does boiled water make worse tea?
In this video I'm going to be taste-testing the theory that making tea from water that
has already been boiled makes for poorer quality tea.
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So, at every workshop that I give I'm always asked the question, "Is it okay to let the
water boil, and then bring it back down to the temperature in which you want to infuse
your tea?
Or should you always switch off the kettle when it reaches the right temperature?
The common knowledge that's spread all over the world - [and] all over the internet - is
that it is better for you to use water which has been brought to temperature, and not water
that has been boiled.
In China they have a way of measuring the water temperature by eye, using the size of
the bubbles in the heating water.
You've got: "shrimp eye water", you've got "crab eye water", [and] you've got "fish eye
water".
Then you've got "raging torrent", and "dead water", or "old man's water".
So in China there is also this theory that if you use water that has already been boiled
it makes for worse tea.
The generally communicated theory behind this is that when you boil the water it loses a
lot of it's dissolved oxygen, and that makes for poorer quality tea.
I have in here some [Yabukita?]
Sencha.
So this is our Sencha.
The reason I've picked Sencha is because we're brewing the tea at about 75 degrees Celsius-
which is, I think, about 175 [degrees] Fahrenheit - so [a] cool temperature.
If I was going to do this test with an Oolong tea then we'd be brewing at very close to
boiling, so there would be very little perceptible difference.
[In] this way we're getting to experience the biggest possible difference, so if there
is a difference we should certainly notice it in this tea.
In this kettle here I have water which has been boiled already.
It's been boiled, [then] held at boiling point for about five seconds, and then has been
allowed to sit here and cool down.
It's currently showing 73 degrees Celsius.
Here I've got a kettle of water that has not been boiled that is going to be brought up
to temperature.
I'm going to turn that on now and keep an eye on it.
It's already at about 50 [degrees].
I already pre-warmed it a little bit, otherwise this [would] take too long.
We have here Connoisseur tea brewers.
These brewers are great, because it allows me to brew at the same time, [and] push the
button at the same time so I can get an absolutely accurate uniformity between the brews.
For those [who] don't know, the Connoisseur tea brewer is a wonderful way of doing Gong
Fu brewing, but in a kind of desktop version - so without the tray and all of the teaware
you can have this on your desk, or at home, and you can brew Gong Fu style.
It's a small brewing chamber, so you can have a good amount of leaf-to-water ratio in here,
so you can put a fair amount of leaf in a small brewing chamber.
[Then] once it's brewed you push the button and that decants the tea into the bottom chamber
- so this bottom chamber effectively acts as a Gong Dao Bei, or "fairness cup", - and
then you can pour, serve and taste, and the leaf is ready for your next infusion.
Right.
We're going to now brew.
We've got 72 degrees [Celsius] here, and 73 degrees here.
I can see that there's still a bit of water from when I rinsed these Connoisseur brewers
out, so I'm going to pour them away, and I'm going to brew these at exactly the same time.
We have identical temperatures now here.
I'm going to pour these in.
I'm not going to do a rinse, because I don't want any other potential variables messing
with us, so these are being brewed at exactly the same time, [with] exactly the same amount
of Sencha per 150 [milliliters], and the same temperature [of] water.
The only difference is [that] this water has already reached boiling point.
Okay.
I think that is probably enough, so I'm going to now push these buttons and decant the tea.
These Connoisseur brewers have a nice filter, so [they'll] filter out most of any potential
tea dust.
Right.
Let's take a look at the colors.
I'm going to bring this closer to you.
Just a reminder, this one here is the liquor which has been made with boiled water, and
this one here is the liquor which has been made with water which has just been brought
up to temperature.
I would say that there's very little difference in color.
This one looks a little bit - to my eye, [but] I don't know about you - less vibrant than
this one here, [In] this one here the liquor looks a little bit more vibrant in color than
this one, but it's very hard to tell the difference.
Okay.
So this cup here has a yellow sticker, [while] this one does not.
I'm going to be pouring the tea made with boiled water into the one with the yellow
sticker, and I'm going to be pouring the other here, and looking down [from] here I really
can't see any visible difference at all, so it's not going to affect my ability to taste.
But I'll do it blind anyway.
How am I going to do it blind?
I'm going to need somebody to switch this around, [and] guess who's here?
Celine : Hello!
Don : Celine is here, so I'm going to close my eyes and you switch these around.
This one is the boiled, and that one is the one that has been brought to temperature and
not allowed to boil.
Tell me when you're ready.
Celine : Ready.
Don : Okay.
Let's see.
Okay.
We're not going to talk about the tea too much, but really, [for] the Sencha, one of
the quality markers that I look for [in] Sencha is not just that really fresh, marine air,
and [those] fresh grassy asparagus notes, and umami notes, but a slight bisquity kind
of warmth to it as well.
This is really nice.
It's been brewed Gong Fu style, [so] it's rich and it's flavorful.
I have no problem with this tea, [and] I think that [it's] a really, really good Sencha.
Let's taste this one.
Not much difference, I have to say, so far.
[Let me] give it another taste.
Okay.
The conclusions that I get from this tasting -- one more time.
Let me just do it one more time.
Wow!
There is a difference, but it's so small, the difference, that I'm not really sure if
it's something that should be bothering you.
I would say that this one here just tastes a little bit weaker, and a little bit flatter.
This one seems to be a bit more lively in terms of its aroma and aromatics.
The taste is pretty similar, but this one just feels dialed down, so if this is volume
"10" [then] this one might be volume "9".
I mean, it's close.
I'm not saying that there's a huge, marked difference, and if you served this one to
me I would have no complaints either.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : But when you A-B [test] them like this I notice a slight difference in this one,
[as in it's] slightly flatter.
So I would say that this is a slightly better tea.
Let's see if it actually makes any difference.
Were going to do the reveal.
Okay.
This is the tea that was brewed with the water that was brought to temperature, and this
one was the tea that was with boiled water.
Do you want to test this out?
Celine : Yes, I do.
Don : [Do] you want to close your eyes?
Celine : Yes.
Don : Did you switch these Connoisseur brewers around?
No, you didn't right?
Celine : No.
Don : Okay, so this one has to go in here, and this one in here.
One second.
And now...
Celine : Don't get them wrong this time.
Don : Hey!
That happened...
twice [laughter].
Celine : [laughter] Ready?
Don : Yeah.
Ready.
Go for it.
You can do this taste test.
Celine : Okay.
In color there's not much difference, but this one looks a bit darker, I would say.
Don : So, that one looks darker than that one.
Celine : MmmHmm.
Mmmm.
Very yummy.
Very umami.
Don : Umami?
Celine : Is that?...
Yeah.
[laughter] Mmm.
[There's] not much difference, I find.
Don : It actually really is not a huge difference.
I'm actually quite surprised.
Celine : I'm trying not to think about the color, but this one tastes a bit more [strong]
in taste than that one.
That one tastes slightly flat.
Slightly.
Don : I do see what you mean now.
Yeah, there is a slight difference in color there, but try not to let that influence you.
Celine : There's more "Oomph!"
in that one.
Don : So you're saying that that one has a little bit more extraction, [and] a bit more
going on.
Celine : It's almost like you had more tea.
Don : More leaf?
Celine : Yeah.
Don : Right.
Celine : Whereas this one [is like] just slightly less.
Don : Okay.
Finish them up, and then you can see if you had the same conclusion as me.
Celine : I was going to say [that] this one was this one, and this one was this one.
Don : Yeah.
You're saying this one is brewed with boiled water.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : Do you want to finish it?
Otherwise [we] can't see the sticker.
Okay.
Flip it...
Flip them around.
Celine : Which one is that one?
Don : Yeah.
You got it right.
Celine : Yeah!
Don : Okay, so there's two people that agree that the boiled water certainly seems to make
a slightly weaker and flatter tea, wouldn't you say?
Celine : Yeah.
Yeah.
Don : But the flavors are...
Celine : It's minor.
Don : It's minor, and really the truth is that most people would not actually boil the
water and then wait, because it takes about 20 minutes to go down to 70 degrees [Celsius].
Celine : Yeah.
It takes ages.
Don : What we do is boil the water - because you forget about it, you switch the kettle
on, and let it go to the boil - and then we add some fresh water just to bring it down.
I think it's worth us doing a little taste test here [and then] come back.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : We now know that the boiled water does have a small effect.
Let's see if we notice a difference between water that's brought up to temperature, and
water that's boiled, but then we've added a splash of cold water.
So we'll be back in a second.
Okay.
We're back, and we're back, and we're going to decant now, so you can push those buttons.
What we've done is taken water, brought it to the boil, and then we've added fresh water
to it to bring it to exactly the same temperature as here, which is 73 degrees [Celsius].
Basically, in the interest of time - we didn't want you to [have to] see the whole process
- this one here is water that has been boiled and then brought down to temperature using
fresh water, and this one has just been brought to temperature.
We're going to blind taste these, [and] so we've got the yellow stickers here.
The yellow stickers go on this one, and then we have the other one.
I can see a difference, actually, in color.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : If you take a look.
Celine : This one seems darker.
Don : Let me just -- people are always calling me whenever I'm filming, which is a really
annoying thing.
Celine : Yeah.
[laughter] [This is] literally like the fifth call.
Don : Can you hold it to the [camera].
Celine : Yeah.
Don : So this one here looks a bit darker than this one, I would say.
This one looks a bit darker, [and] a little bit more extracted than this one.
It's there, but it's relatively similar, although again, looking in the cup it looks [a bit
different].
You're going to have to do this blind, so close your eyes, because I don't want you
to get influenced.
Okay, you ready?
Okay.
That's your first one.
Celine : Mmm.
[It's] very strong.
Don : You have some Sencha on your face.
Celine : Ah, that's all right.
It's good for my skin.
[This one is] very strong [and] very fragrant.
Don : It's interesting that the color is slightly different.
Celine : Bloody hell -- sorry.
I tastes very different.
This one tastes a bit lighter...
Don : Speak up [into] the microphone.
Celine : This one tastes a bit lighter, and this one tastes stronger.
Don : Okay.
Do you have a preference, or is there no preference?
Celine : Mmm?
I like my Sencha quite strong, so I would say this one, but they're both good.
Don : Okay.
Celine : This one is lighter to me, and this one is stronger to me.
Don : Right.
That's interesting.
You can open your eyes.
The one that you picked that was stronger is the one that we brought to boiling point
and then added water.
Celine : Oh.
Okay.
Don : Let me try, as well, and see if I get the same result.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : We've used the same amount of leaf, and the same quality of leaf, so it's not
like one leaf is a lot more broken up than another.
Okay.
Well, there is definitely a perceptible difference.
Celine : Really?
Is there?
Don : This one is stronger.
Celine : Hmm.
Don : So I'm assuming that's -- yeah - the yellow.
Ah!
This is interesting.
What we've found was [that] when you have boiled water that's just been boiled, compared
to water that's been brought to temperature, the one that's been brought to temperature
seems to extract a richer brew.
Celine : Mmm.
Don : But when you boil the water and then add cold water to it, maybe - if oxygen is
the defining factor - adding the fresh water to boiled water actually adds more oxygen
into the water than if you bring it up to temperature.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : Actually, it extracts even more, but the temperature is the same.
The actually flavor profile is very similar, [but] it's just that the one with the fresh
water added seems to dial up the richness of the tea a little bit more.
So this is an interesting conclusion.
Why don't you go out there and do your own taste test and let us know, in the comments
section below, what you've discovered, because we would be very interested to see if you
get the same results as us.
But I do think that the commonly held knowledge that it's better to not let the water boil
is true, however, letting it boil and then adding some water may make even better tea.
Celine : Thank goodness, because it's faster [laughter].
Don : [laughter] Exactly.
That's it teaheads.
If you made it to the end of this video then PLEASE give [it] the thumbs-up.
Check out our YouTube playlists, and let us know if there are any videos that you would
like us to make.
If you're ever in Camden - or London - then come visit us at our teahouse to say "Hi!"
and taste our wares.
If you have any questions or comments then please fire them over.
Other than that, I'm Don, [and] this is Celine, from Mei Leaf.
Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from the tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because
nobody deserves bad tea.
Don and Celine : Bye.