Local experts say whole leaf is best when it's time for tea | The Olympian

It's hard to believe one plant can spawn so many different kinds of drinks over so many thousands of years. But that's what the tea plant has done.

Considered to be the second most widely consumed beverage on earth (second to water) tea occupies a venerated and ancient place in Asian cultures and somewhat a faddish one in Western. But, it seems to be a fad here to stay.

Many people’s idea of tea is a glass of iced Lipton at the local diner (sweetened in Canada and the American South) or one of numerous flavored teas that are churned out like Beanie Babies by big manufacturers.

There have been many health claims about tea in the last few years leading a manufacturing rush to include just about every food and beauty product possible with tea.

Yet, few Americans bother to take the time to investigate what real tea is.

First, let’s get straight what tea isn’t. There’s only one plant in the world, Camellia sinensis, that grows tea leaves. The plant is finicky. While it can grow even here in the Pacific Northwest, it prefers certain climates and soils that limit it to equatorial regions in Asia, India and Africa to grow tea-worthy leaves.

While herbal teas are a huge market they are not, technically, tea. Peppermint tea? An infusion. Chamomile tea? Lovely, but still not tea.

The tea plant contains caffeine as does coffee, chocolate and other plants (see box). The lighter teas have less caffeine than darker ones. But most teas contain less caffeine than coffee. Nevertheless, a few cups will quickly add up. Proceed with caution if you are caffeine sensitive or have high blood pressure.

At Tacoma’s Mad Hat Tea Co., co-owner Tobin Ropes offers only whole-leaf tea in his convivial space filled with a tea bar, art, tea-making implements and a lounge.

While the tea plant has many varieties, the dramatic differences in tea come mainly from its processing, Ropes said. It can be as simple and light as white which is processed in a manner of hours by simply dehydrating. Or it can be as complex as Puerh, an oddity of a tea that is sold in compressed bricks and rings with only a few Chinese practitioners knowing the secret process that involves composting and yeast.

There’s one thing that all tea purveyors seem to agree on: The best tea is whole leaf. Tea bags are filled with dust and fannings, the leftovers of tea processing. Felix D’Allesando, who along with his wife Carol Welch owns Olympia’s Tea Lady, agrees. And they sell hundreds of teas by the bag. But the bags, he argues, are for convenience.

And convenient they are. Using whole leaf teas is a bit of a commitment. It requires measuring, an infuser and cleanup. D’Allesando calls it a ritual. But the result, Ropes says, is a world-class drink that can be made for pennies. Nothing can be beat the human hand, carefully selecting a bud and two leaves.

“Manufactured tea is like robots making wine,” Ropes said.

And wine is something Ropes knows a little about. He spent 20 years as a wine distributor, a world where a $200 bottle of wine sells for its reputation as much as its taste. It was a world that Ropes was only too happy to leave behind.

“I got over the whole ‘I’m right and you’re wrong (thing).’”

Now he chooses only what he and his customers like. But that’s not to say his wine background hasn’t taught him to be discriminating. He turns down five teas for every one that he chooses.

Both D’Allesando and Ropes agree that how you make tea is crucial to its enjoyment. First, use filtered water, not tap. Tea generally is a subtly flavored beverage and you don’t want chemicals to divert the flavor. Heat the water in a kettle, or pot; just don’t use a microwave. Different teas need to be steeped at different temperatures. Generally, the lighter the tea the lower the temperature. While the temperatures in the chart below are optimum, don’t sweat the digits. Just keep the water from boiling. Only pureh needs boiling water.

Generally, use one teaspoon of tea per cup. A benefit of tea is that it can be re-steeped. White, green and oolong can be re-steeped two to three times. Black teas can be re-steeped more.

Both Mad Hat and The Tea Lady have tasting bars where you can try just about any tea in the two stores.

Craig Sailor: 253-597-8541 craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com

Green

Process: Leaves are briefly withered

Characteristics: Grassy, assertive

Color: Chinese is yellow, Japanese is bright green

Steeping temperature: 170-175 for Japanese, 180-195 for Chinese

Variety to try: Dragonwell (Chinese) and sencha (Japanese)

Black

Process: Leaves are withered at length and heavily bruised

Characteristics: Strong, but less nuanced in flavor

Color: Amber to brown

Steeping temperature: 195-210

Varieties to try:

Darjeeling – the champagne of tea; Asam – strong; Ceylon – vibrant; Chinese – softer, forgiving, not brisk and Kenyan – the newcomer on the tea scene

White

Process: Leaves dried with heat

Characteristics: Soft, gentle, light, earthy

Color: Very pale green

Steeping temperature: 180-185

Variety to try: Pai Mu Dan

Pureh

Characteristics: Extremely strong

Process: Secretive process involving composting and yeast.

Color: Dark brown

Steeping temperature: Boil

Oolong

Process: Leaves are withered, bruised and heated

Characteristics: Floral to dried grain

Color: Green to amber

Steeping temperature:

Variety to try: Ti Kwan yin (green) and formosa (amber)

Tea by type

This illustration details the different kinds of teas that are produced by different methods. Generally, the darker the tea:

 • The more it’s oxidized (fermented in tea parlance)

 • The stronger in flavor (tannic)

 • The more caffeine it has.

 • The more it can be re-steeped

 • The longer it needs to steep

Other notables varieties

Scented: Jasmine

Flavored: Earl Grey (with oil of bergamot)

Matcha: A Japanese green tea made up of finely powdered tea leaves meant to mixed and consumed with hot water.

Sources: Tobin Ropes, Felix D’Allesandro

Tea Sources

MAD HAT TEA CO.

1130 Commerce St./1127 Broadway, Tacoma

253-441-2111, www.madhattea.com/

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

GREEN SPOT TEA HOUSE AND ART GALLERY

3318 Bridgeport Way W., University Place

253-565-2832, www.greenspottea.com

Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m., MondayFriday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday

Tea Lady

2828 Capitol Blvd S.E., Olympia

360-786-0350, 877-330-7521, www.tea-lady.com/

Hours: Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday: Noon-5 p.m.

Ubiquitous Journey

15011 Meridian E. Suite C, Puyallup

253-445-6128, www.ubiquitousjourney.com/

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday-Saturday