Most disappointing green tea was not a poor leaf. It was a good leaf scalded. Boiling water pulls bitterness out of a green faster than it pulls sweetness, and the finer the leaf, the faster it happens. Brew a Darjeeling green the way you brew a Darjeeling black and you will taste the kettle, not the hillside.
The measure
For our green, the numbers on the caddy are the ones that matter:
- Water — 80°C. Off the boil, then two or three minutes' rest, or pour a splash of cool water into the pot first. No thermometer is needed; patience does the same work.
- Leaf — 3g for every 150ml. A modest measure; the leaf is whole and gives willingly.
- Steep — 2 to 3 minutes. Taste at two. The cup should be pale green-gold, fresh grass and steamed greens with a soft, sweet middle.
- Again — 2 to 3 infusions. The same leaves, a fresh pour, a minute longer each time.
What to leave out
No milk — the cup is too light to carry it. No sugar before tasting; the sweetness is already in the middle of the sip. And no long, forgetful steeps: a green left ten minutes in the pot is not stronger, only sadder.
The warm-weather pour
The monsoon green takes kindly to ice. Brew it as above, slightly stronger — the same leaf, a minute longer — and pour it hot over a full glass of ice. It cools into something clean and quietly sweet, which is what a rain-season afternoon asks for.
A whole leaf gives more than one account of itself. If the first cup is the garden speaking, the second is the same story told slower — and with a green this gentle, the second telling is often the one that stays.