Fermented tea made from leaves of garden and wild plants (master class)

written by those who have never done it themselves
That's when you start treating people to tea and tell how it is done, then more than one person told me that they had read about it, but, they say, they realized that each leaf of Ivan-tea must be twisted separately and immediately dismissed this venture

I tried to make fireweed according to the same magazine "Science and Life". In the early nineties. Something went wrong, I don't remember what. Even though Ivan-chai was heaps around then, it didn't work out. Probably not so the stars were formed in those days. And then, on the same day as Luda wrote the treatise, I pulled away! Moreover, she is supported by her husband, which is also surprising ... This, Luda, you have such charisma. Exactly, teacher!

I tried to make fireweed according to the same magazine "Science and Life".

Checkmark, so I did on this magazine. Rather, not from the magazine, but quotes from it. I gave a link to this magazine in the recipe. And the article was called "The Forgotten Drink". Posted by Odintsov. I also did not immediately get tea from fireweed. But at the same time, I began to make from cherry and apple trees. I managed. And this inspired me to further action.

What year is the article? I seem to have read it.
Only Science and Life was freely available to me in the late 1980s, in the school reading room. In more later and earlier periods I read irregularly.

Interestingly, after such a description, many will make good tea ???

Now we all understand how to do it, so the recipe is clear and correct to me. Only we, spoiled by the pictures accompanying the recipe, now do not pay attention to a few lines. Most won't convert, anyway.

Yeah, I found it - 1989! Exactly - at school!

Luda, how do you imagine "putting the leaves in a box?" and dry "on a baking sheet for 40 minutes" ?? And that's ALL information. At what temperature to dry? I burned my only cherry

Or are we really spoiled too

Gal, I wrote that knowing, I now understand it. It is clear that those who wrote this note did not even expect that someone would make tea on it.
In fact, I practically made my first teas according to such a note. This is now a little more information appeared. And still not enough.
And the leaves were fermented in wooden boxes before. And now in China they also ferment in boxes.

Wow, well, dashed off until you catch up ...
And I'm drying the tea now, an apple tree with a cherry, though there are 2-3 times more apple trees. And this was not the last bag ...
Girls, I don’t know where to ask, I’ll ask here, they know everything here. What to do with fresh barberries? I got a couple of kilograms today. Part of it is dried in a dryer. I read a lot about it, and you can add it to tea.
I remember that Lenochka-Kubanochka grows a lot, but she rarely appears here.

[Did we make good tea]

Girls, today we'll talk about how to evaluate Did we make good tea... I will say right away that the text is about leaf tea.
Sometimes it is not easy to assess the quality of tea. For this you need to know the criteria for this assessment... There is even such a profession - tea testers - tea tasters and evaluators.



Tea testers are evaluated by 5 indicators:
1. Agony of leaves.
2. Color of tea infusion.
3. Astringency and bitterness.
4. Taste.
5. Aroma.
Let's consider the first two indicators.

1) Agony of leaves... Leaf Agony is a tricky titester term that refers to how dry tea leaves react to boiling water, how quickly and strongly dry tea leaves unfold in boiling water.


When brewed, quite good tea unfolds into such highly aesthetic pieces

Perfect agony leaves should be (a) quick and (b) strong.
«Rapidity”Means that for the optimal brewing time (on average 3 minutes), dry tea leaves should have time to fully unfold and extract as much as possible, that is, give all soluble substances to the infusion.
«Force"Means the degree of unfolding of dry leaves. That is, we put a dry leaf into the teapot - small and wrinkled, and under the influence of boiling water it straightens out, becomes large and smooth. Roughly speaking, strong leaf agony means that after pouring 2 teaspoons of tea leaves into the teapot, after pouring boiling water, we get leaves swollen on the creeper.
Leaf agony indirectly reflects how well the tea leaves were rolled before fermentation and / or drying.... And the better they were rolled, the more aromatic and extractive (rich) the tea turns out. Of course, in a quality tea, leaf agony should be quick and strong.
2) Tea infusion color... The color of the tea infusion has (a) specific characteristics and (b) non-specific characteristics.
Specific characteristics are associated with a specific type of tea. For example, high-quality Assamese teas of the first assembly, as a rule, have a light golden-yellow-ocher color of the infusion. There is even a separate term in the titester jargon to denote such a color of high-quality assam - "biscuit" color. (Imagine the top crust of a well-baked biscuit ...)
Non-specific characteristics universal and suitable for assessing the quality of any tea infusion. These characteristics are brightness and transparency tea infusion. Transparency tea infusion is easy to define. It is easy to see even by eye - clear tea or cloudy.



Let's notice right away that cloudy tea is an indicator of low-grade or spoiled tea. The higher the quality of the tea, the more transparent the infusion.
Brightness tea infusion is a complex optical characteristic. Like a quality gemstone, tea should sparkle, glow, “play” in the light. The tea infusion should be beautiful and bright. This can be seen by pouring freshly brewed tea into a clean glass thin-walled glass and looking at it in the light (not in direct sunlight!). In principle, the brightness and "play" of good tea can be seen even in white porcelain or earthenware.
The opposite characteristic of brightness is dullness, fadedness, inexpressiveness of tea infusion. We also add that, contrary to popular opinion, the color has nothing to do with the "strength" of tea, with its astringency and tonic properties.

To be continued...

These characteristics are also suitable for us. Especially for those who make leaf tea, and for meat grinders and the second indicator.

Girls, I don’t know where to ask, I’ll ask here, they know everything here. What to do with fresh barberries?

Anya, I had a friend who made me a present every year - barberry syrup. It was so delicious with tea that we drank it very quickly. Do like any syrup - pour sugar over the berries (1: 1), a little water, leave for 12 hours under the lid, bring to a boil, turn off, insist again. Do this 3 times. Then strain through a sieve and bottle. This year I made raspberry syrup this way, because there was nowhere to put raspberries. It turned out very tasty.

And I'm drying the tea now, an apple tree with a cherry, though there are 2-3 times more apple trees. And this was not the last bag ...

And even less cherries. I am now drinking tea, where cherries are 0.5 parts. But how it sounds! So you should have everything super!

[Ludmila]

Ludmila, thanks, we need to think. It's just that the berries have been picked today, they are already kind of semi-dry.

I was stunned:
In Crimea, there are about 10 species and subspecies of this plant, including:

Nothing behold! And where to find it?

And even less cherries. I am now drinking tea, where cherries are 0.5 parts.But how it sounds! So you should have everything super!

Yes, cherry is always strongly audible. I don't put much of it in the Village on purpose, or I do it in mono. It turned out today almost 2 baking sheets of twisted tea. Everything fit into a standard black baking sheet, but in a very thick layer, so I divided it.

It's just that the berries have been picked today, they are already kind of semi-dry.

Anya, that's why you need to pour some water. The fact that it is dry is okay. A friend of mine always used to do it.

[Anya]

Anya, I always dry barberry. Then it in pilaf, with meat to darken, or now in tea. And yesterday I decided to bake a loaf of something in the oven, and not in KhP. Yesterday I put a "cold" dough, now I baked it. Here is:
It will cool down, cut it, take a photo, show it.

[Linadoc]

Linadoc, handsome! I also need to bake a loaf somehow. Believe it or not, I have been baking bread for 2.5 years, but I have never baked a loaf. Now, in general, they temporarily switched to cakes from the "5-minute" dough from Anis.

I have been baking bread for 2.5 years, but I have never baked a loaf. Now we have temporarily switched to cakes from the "5-minute" dough from Anis.

And I have been baking for 13 years, 3 HP burned out from daily use. Now the fourth, Panas, has been holding on for 4 years. I use "5 minutes" more for pies - fast, tasty, cheap and everyone is fed.

Girls, and I just brewed "autumn" fireweed - I collected the leaves in the fall, they were almost all red, even burgundy and very tough (I only make leaf tea - I only have time when the child is sleeping, and I have a meat grinder, so I twist handles, but quiet). So, when I brewed it almost immediately, I didn’t like some strange aftertaste, I put it off. I brewed it about a month later - the aftertaste seemed to become weaker, but still something was wrong. And today I brewed it - well, I liked it sooo much, this aftertaste turned into some kind of astringency, or something. Tea is straight black-black! He stood in the mug for several hours, but the aroma did not disappear (although this is not a spring-summer honey-floral, namely, a "tea" aroma!) Even my husband said - "Here! Really Tea!")))

I haven’t tasted my Ivan tea either, I only smell it, but the smell immediately after drying was brighter
Yesterday I tried my alder, finally no color, but the taste .. there is something in it barely expressed, I carried it away, but stopped still, I'll try again later.

And the leaves, and, indeed, used to be fermented in wooden boxes

Luda, so they would write what kind of box it is, in my understanding, for some reason, a box from under the fruit, the bottom of the rails

[Linadoc]

Linadoc, take off my hat,

[laid out on a flat surface in layers approximately four inches (10 cm) thick]

so they would write what kind of box it is, in my understanding for some reason a fruit box, the bottom of the rails

Galya, the box can be the same as you wrote, so long as the tea does not fall out. In general, the information about the fermentation tank is so contradictory that I begin to feel like a complete layman in tea production. Odintsov writes about the fireweed:



And in the production of traditional tea for direct fermentation, the tea leaves are transferred to large, cool, humid and darkened rooms where they laid out on a flat surface in layers approximately four inches (10 cm) thick The surface should not chemically react with tea phenols, and usually sheets of aluminum or specially treated dtree... Here is a photo from tea factories in Abkhazia. Look, the tea is not covered by anything during fermentation.


Fermentation takes place on such large trays ...


Tester-fermenter of a wide profile. Checks the degree of fermentation ...

This year I had a shift in consciousness ... I began to make more tea in one batch. If fermenting a large batch is simple, then drying is problematic - not all tea fits on baking sheets. I began to do this: I put tea on baking sheets and sent them to the oven to dry. And she scattered the rest of the tea on a tray in a thin layer to wait for her turn. And for about 1 hour this tea lay open with me.I did this in order to stop (as I thought) the fermentation. And here's what I noticed: tea from the delayed batch was always tastier and more aromatic. It turns out that the oxidation of tea in the air is a very important component in tea production.
And this is what I think now. Judging by the fact that in tea factories tea is not closed deafly in boxes, why does everyone who makes tea from fireweed recommend closing tea in a bowl? Maybe we don't need to cover our tea, except with a damp cloth?
Dilemma!!!

and I'm completely at a loss ... I close my rolls with a cellophane bag, put oppression, that is, a minimum of oxygen is obtained. Lyudochka, thank you for a thorough study of the process, for analyzing the processes. It seems to me that we ONLY EXPERIENCE, ourselves and no one except us will study tea made from willow tea and other herbs like that. There is no sensible and detailed information anywhere. Moreover, each of us will receive his ideal tea for himself. But each batch of tea will still be different)).

I need air. The process is called enzymatic oxidation. This means that the air access must be regulated together with the moisture content of the raw material, not overdried. That is, cover the raw materials, and not batten them down forever, with some loose lid, and a damp cloth on top. I still covered the top with a loose lid when it was summer. And the fermentation process, if it has started, is stopped by heating. On a scattered baking sheet, he will go like a nice little one, and not slowly.

The process is called enzymatic oxidation. This means that the air access must be regulated together with the moisture content of the raw materials,

I totally agree. Oxygen access is required, since oxygen-dependent microbes and yeasts take part in fermentation.

[Galina Iv.]

Galina Iv., Veronica, Lina By the way, in my first year, I never closed a container with tea with a lid, only with a damp cloth through which the air passed. And even a couple of times I shaken up the tea in the container so that there was access to oxygen. Then she began to close the lid not tightly.
Now, studying the theory deeper, I realized that there are 2 types of processes occurring with the tea leaf - oxidation (due to oxygen in the air) and fermentation (due to enzymes inside the leaf and external enzymes - bacteria). There is also the term "enzymatic oxidation". There is also controlled oxidation, and sometimes spontaneous. In general, depending on what we want to make tea, we need to use one or another method. Here's how the Chinese do it for different teas:

Green tea - no oxidation (almost). That is, in the leaves after harvesting, the greens are "killed" by frying or steaming, and then dried.
Yellow tea - no oxidation.
White tea - light spontaneous oxidation (8-15%)
Oolong Tea - Partial Oxidation Controlled During Production (15-80% Level)
Black tea - complete oxidation controlled during production
Pu-erh is fully fermented, not fully oxidized, there are two main directions:
- Sheng pu-erh - raw, original, or "green" pu-erh - uncontrolled oxidation, although minimal spontaneous oxidation may be present
- Shu pu-erh - ready-made, ripe, or "black" pu-erh - controlled oxidation as essential for the "aging acceleration" process

That is, in fact, only puerh is fermented, and all the rest of the tea is oxidized by air ... And if we tightly close our tea with a lid during fermentation, this is an attempt to make puerh. If we do not cover with anything other than a damp cloth or leave the container ajar, then the rest of the teas or combined ones.
That is, pu-erh tea is a tea that is fermented without oxygen, due to anaerobic bacteria that work only in the absence of oxygen. This takes place according to the principle of silage of grasses for fodder production - in silos. If there is oxidation in pu-erh, it is only what happens in the first stages - when collecting leaves, withering and rolling. And during fermentation it is gone.In other teas, enzymatic oxidation takes place with the participation of aerobic bacteria, which works only in the presence of oxygen.
Conclusion: you can do this or that, depending on what kind of tea we want to get ..

you are welcome to drink my Puer
they are stunning !!!

nooo, like my head is spinning

please drink my Puer, they are stunning !!!

Thank you Checkmark! They say that real pu-erhs really "flatten". More or less like this:



Or like this:

They say that real pu-erhs really "flatten".

Logical chain. From pu-erhs it flattens - pu-erhs are made like silage - cows eat silage - they give milk that we drink - this means that the conclusion: from the milk that cows that have eaten silage should "flatten" to the fullest!

Today I brewed strawberries with raspberries, which I made at the end of October. The color is black, but there is no smell, in general, it's a pity. Well, it can be infused, but tart, when I used to drink store teas before, I brewed very strong, so this one is the same.

From pu-erh flatters - pu-erh is made like silage

my tea doesn't smell like silage but! but!!!
caramel-fruit-berry-floral-fragrant aroma

Today I brewed strawberries and raspberries,

I also made such tea at about the same time, and today it is perhaps one of the most delicious, meat grinder, with sourness and finally, delicious, tastier than mono raspberries!

Galina, right brewed the made silage has an awesome floral-fruity aroma! I feel that we will catch up and surpass the Chinese in the tea business only in this way!

yes we are already ahead of the whole universe

No, not yet ahead, but already breathing in the back. We will also invent and try a bunch of everything!

yes, I already set the task on the trail. a year to make batches of tea separately and describe the process

[we already have 96 voted]

Girls, well done! This is the attitude! With this attitude, we will move mountains in our business.
Look at the vote - we already have 96 voted ! There is very little left to 100. Will we last?

Galina, you're right. I also had the idea for a long time to keep something like a diary. I already have one, a garden one. So I'll tie the second one to it with a rope. Because now I barely remember which tea from which apple tree or from which neighbor I cut off another cherry, well, I almost don't have bushes and trees, I beg ... So I'll start lining up the notebook soon!

[taste, astringency and bitterness.]

We continue to evaluate the quality of our tea. Yesterday we looked at the first two indicators - leaf agony and the color of the tea infusion. Today - taste, astringency and bitterness. For tomorrow we will leave a very important indicator for us - aroma.
I would like to note that Shumakov's article discusses the quality indicators of traditional tea. So, the bitterness of tea is given by caffeine, which is not in our tea. I will quote the article without cuts, that is, I will also write about bitterness, which, in principle, we should not have ..

3) Astringency and bitterness. The very first taste characteristic of strongly brewed tea, which catches the tongue (by analogy with "striking" ;-))) is its astringency, or, as people often say, bitterness. Despite the fact that astringency and bitterness in the everyday sense are almost the same, from the point of view of tetesters equating astringency and bitterness is completely wrong... Bitterness is actually taste, and the degree of bitterness in tea is directly related to its caffeine content. In 99% of cases, the more “caffeinated” the tea, the more bitter it tastes. This is especially true for unfermented (green) teas. (For bitterness, see also earlier, where about the brewing time)
There is one very subtle point related to brewing (and tasting) tea. The fact is that caffeine is not actively extracted into the tea infusion immediately, but 3-5 minutes after the start of brewing.
If you do not want the caffeine bitterness to overwhelm all other flavor nuances of tea, then it is very important to catch the very moment in brewing when essential oils, tea polyphenols, etc. have already entered the tea, but caffeine has not yet been released to the full ... Only then will you feel the real taste of the tea. (Of course, for different teas this very moment of caffeine bitterness is different. This can only be verified experimentally.)
Astringency – it is NOT a gustatory, but an exclusively tactile sensation... As my daughter said as a child, having tasted strong tea: "Some kind of roughness in the mouth." Astringency is an astringent tactile sensation resulting from the tanning effect caused by tea tannins.... We also add that astringency is more inherent in black medium and small-leaved teas, in green teas (with the exception of certain varieties) it is usually less pronounced.



4) The taste of tea. In general, science knows only 4 tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty. It would seem that everything is simple, but the number of all possible combinations of these tastes is huge. In addition, there are many flavors (there are dozens and even hundreds of them), and besides, the taste is inextricably intertwined with the sense of smell, that is, the smell strongly "edits" the taste.
Some teas have a very unusual taste. In, for example (Genmancha), fish and pome fruit notes are clearly felt.
From this you can reasonably conclude that the task of describing the taste is quite difficult. Especially for those products that are multivariable, that is, they combine several flavors. Tea is also such a flavoring drink.
Traditionally, testers believe that tea is a harmonious unity of three tastes: bitterness, sweetness and astringency. Caffeine gives bitterness to tea, fruit sugars give sweetness, tannins give astringency. Earlier, I wrote that astringency is not a taste, but a tactile sensation, but nevertheless, at the level of a holistic perception, it is closely and inextricably linked with the taste of tea.
According to the tasting rules, in a good tea, all three flavors should be evenly expressed and balanced. If one of the flavors is absent or prevails too much, then the tea is of poor quality.
Besides, tea can have different flavors. Good flavors are considered those that "set off", "sharpen", enhance the basic tastes. For example, flavors that enhance the sweet taste in tea - almond, honey, spicy (cinnamon), malt, etc., are considered especially valuable. Bad tastes Consider those that are non-edible (eg metallic) or that conflict with the main flavors of the tea (eg sour taste, as is the case with tainted tea).
Interestingly, in the menus of many traditional cuisines, we find that products that can be combined with quality tea without spoiling its taste are usually selected according to the principle of complementary flavors. That is, good tea is best drunk not with sweets, but with something sour (hence the lemon in tea) or salty. Then the taste of the tea itself will be felt stronger.



Tea is also distinguished taste and aftertaste. Taste - this is what we feel directly at the moment when the tea is in the mouth; aftertaste - This is the taste that remains in the mouth (on the tongue) after the tea is swallowed. High-quality tea usually has a pronounced astringency and partly bitterness as a taste, and sweetness and partly astringency as an aftertaste.
Remember also that you also need to taste and evaluate the taste of tea correctly... At first, tea should not be very hot, because high temperature suppresses taste. Secondly, tea should not be swallowed immediately, but kept in the mouth for a whilebecause different parts of the tongue are responsible for different tastes. If the tea is swallowed too quickly, then the tongue simply will not have time to perceive all the flavors. Thirdly, the taste is best tasted like this: a sip of tea - a sip of pure water - ... (etc.). For example, wine is tasted in a similar way, but this method is also good for evaluating the taste of tea.

To be continued...

Girls, I wonder if your tea has astringency, bright taste and aftertaste? If there is one, then you can be proud of yourself - your tea turned out right.

[50 gr. tea costs more than 1000 rubles.]

Girls, feel like the owners of the fortune. In general, I found an online store selling various teas, including herbal ones, including Ivan tea. So, 50 gr. tea costs more than 1000 rubles.
For example, this tea. Pay attention to the feed! If you don't want to, you buy it. Well done!

"Mountain Energy in a Clay Pot"
Collection: 2014, ecovillage Chachzhaevka, Altai foothills
Net weight - 50g. Cost - 1106 rubles.
Ingredients: Ivan tea (narrow-leaved fireweed), White tea, Fireweed flowers, Thyme, Oregano, Meadowsweet.
An excellent herbal collection based on alpine willow tea, collected and processed by hand in the Altai mountains with the addition of wild herbs, flowers and white tea.
The drink will delight you with an excellent balanced taste and a bright bouquet of aromas: a blooming mountain meadow, clear morning freshness, fruit tones ...
It has a number of beneficial properties and effects: it restores and soothes (normalizes sleep), balances breathing and puts the intestines in order. It is a valuable vitamin agent (high in vitamin C).
Note! Keeping the idea of ​​environmental friendliness, we pack our collections in natural fabric bags, each of which bears a unique embroidery, made with love by our craftswomen. Then the tea is packed in clay pots, made by hand on a potter's wheel.
This tea is a unique gift!

py. sy. so I wanted to buy a potter's wheel and heap the bags.

I wanted to buy a potter's wheel

why not?

Luda, this afternoon my husband was hanging out on the net and reading about Ivan-tea (!). Suddenly he asks the question: how much fireweed did you make? My surprised look ... Clarification: I found a website that sells teas. There 50 g costs 250 rubles. So he decided to estimate the savings. Since the summer, he never drank ordinary black tea with me, he says he doesn't want to. But his favorite is still Ivan tea.
It is difficult with a circle, but you can raise bags, what can we, needlewomen, do!

why not?

Tanya, go to the circle and need a special oven.

but you can raise the bags, what can we, needlewomen, do!

Yes, it is easier with bags, especially since it was the case - I was embroidering ...

A dehydrator of the Sedona type is quite suitable))) since it is not necessary to burn. It's just packaging.

I went to the site where they sell teas. There 50 g costs 250 rubles. So he decided to estimate the savings.

This is not the biggest price tag yet. So the savings are tangible. And if you consider that I made 17.5 kg of tea this year, then the figures are decent ...