[tea profile] Green Tea - Organic Gunpowder Green Tea 有機珠茶

TG0201
Organic Gunpowder Green Tea

Origin: Dazhangshan, Jianxi, China 大鄣山‧江西‧中國
Style: None fermented, light roasted, medium bodied, fried rice aroma
Season: 2007 Spring
Loose leaf style: Ball
Loose leaf color: Iron green
Wet leaf style: Dark green
Tea color: Honey gold

Gunpowder Tea, also known as “Zhucha” or “Pearl Tea”, is a style of Chinese green tea first produced 1200 years ago in Tang Dynasty. Gunpowder is originated from Zhejianng Province of China (浙江，中國), and indroduced to Taiwan in the 19th century. It is tightly rolled into a small ball. Its English name “Gunpowder” is believed to be referred to the gunpowder pellets used for cannons. There’s another saying indicates that in the old time, when Chinese people served this tea to others, they would say “the tea is just brewed” (gang-pao-de) for polite. For English speaking people, it sounded like “gunpowder”.
Gunpowder Tea belongs to the category of “Fried Green Tea” (chao-qing-lu-cha 炒青綠茶), which means it undergoes the process of pan or cylinder frying as a process of stopping oxidization and partial dehydrating. This procedure is called “Shaqing” (殺青). After frying, it is rolled into small balls, and going through another twice pan frying for fully dehydrated. In the ancient time, all procedures were hand processed, extremely labor consuming. As other green tea, Gunpowder Tea is non-oxidized and non-wilting. However, processed with many frying procedures, it is full of fried rice aroma, and the tea liquor is more yellow than green.
Gunpowder is also exported as material for Moroccan Mint Tea. You can add some sugar when making Moroccan Mint Tea.

Brewing: Green tea is better with lower temperature infusion. For roasted green tea, water temperature around 80℃ - 85℃ can reduce the dryness and bitterness of tea. For steamed green tea, try lower temperature around 70℃ for starting.
Gunpowder tea is very tightly rolled, use 0.5 tsp for 150cc 80℃ - 85℃ water (or try lower), steam about 60 seconds for the first brew to unroll the leaves, add 10-20 seconds for the following infusions. Provides at least 5-9 infusions. The tea leaves need to be fully expanded in the container, remember not to put too much loose tea to avoid over packed. One tip to keep in mind is the amount of dry loose tea should be around 1/5 or smaller of the teaware or container, after brewing, the tea leaves will expand to 80%-90% of the container. Once you get familiar with the tea, you may explore your own brewing method.

Teaware: Gaiwan, glassware, clay teaware, porcelain teaware are best for Green Tea. Gongfu teaware or Yixing pots also can be used for Roasted Green Tea (not recommend for Steamed Green Tea).

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