Friday, March 30, 2012

Roll Your Own

No,nothing to do with smoking! I have heard many times mention of gunpowder tea,but had never really known what it was until it came up in a story on my Kindle. Kindles allow you to instantly see the meaning of words by simply putting your finger on the word,a box pops up with the definition,a very helpful feature.
Gunpowder tea is a form of green Chinese tea in which each leaf has been rolled into a small round pellet. It is believed to take its English name from the fact that the tea resembles blackpowder grains.
The tea leaves are withered,steamed,rolled,and then dried. Although the leaves were formerly rolled by hand,most today are rolled by machines. Rolling renders the leaves less susceptible to breakage and allows them to retain more of their flavor and aroma.
When buying gunpowder tea look for shiny pellets which indicate the tea is relatively fresh. Pellet size is associated with quality,larger pellets being a mark of lower quality.
Zhu Cha

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