Roasting your own tea?

[Jackie]

Have you ever roasted your own tea leaves? I saw a post on G+ recently from someone who had panned their Tie Guan Yin at home because they wanted a heavier roast. Interesting experiment, something I’ve never tried. When I just saw @lazyliteratus‘ tweet about enjoying an “accidentally smoked Darjeeling” I was reminded to put this question on here. I have no idea what Geoff meant by “accidental” – not sure if he accidentally set his kitchen on fire destroying most of it, I sincerely hope not. Looking on the bright side though, maybe that’s just what produced his awesome smoky tea. So, you see everyone, it’s good to be upbeat and cheery even when you no longer have a house. If tea doesn’t get you through it nothing will.

[Xavier]

I never thought of that.

Perhaps @lazyliteratus could tell us more about that.

[Robert Godden]

I think that is exactly what happened to Geoff.

[riccaicedo]

I’m glad @lazyliteratus didn’t burn his kitchen down.

I sometimes roast my own Houjicha, it’s very easy to do at home. Just put your bancha (or any other loose-leaf green tea) on a pan and roast until it gets brown.

If you want to see some pictures, I wrote a blog post about it: http://www.myjapanesegreentea.com/how-to-roast-your-own-houjicha

[Jackie]

Great post, love it. Also the reminder “not to use any oil.” Yes, that might be a good idea indeed. You probably saw I mentioned your post on G+ too.

[riccaicedo]

Thanks @jackie, I haven’t checked G+ yet but will do so now.

[lazyliteratus]

@riccaicedo – Do you roast over charcoal?

[riccaicedo]

@lazyliteratus no, I haven’t tried that yet, it’s hard to do in my small apartment : )

I just roast in a pan.

[Jackie]

I thought it was fascinating to read that @worldoftea‘s Tony roasted his Tie Guan Yin in the crock-pot! Apparently his 4 year old tea thus acquired new life. 

Which kind of gets me thinking (bear in mind that it’s late here) that one could always roast marshmallows with stuffed tea leaves…

[Jackie]

Here’s another older article on tea roasting worth reading. Don’t roast your tea at high temps! 

[bram]

* Yes, there is, somewhere in infinity.

[Jackie]

@bram The prospect of “tea in infinity” makes things look very rosy for Tea Trade.

@jopj Thankfully you don’t have to worry about roasting your own leaves since your gas cooker isn’t cooperating. Wait, not sure that’s a good thing at all ; )

[Robert Godden]

As an Australian, I can confirm that you can roast tea by chucking it on a barbie, or ‘barbecue’ as virtually the entire country except Paul Hogan calls it.

The only thing we would never ‘throw on a barbie’ is a ‘shrimp’, because we don’t use that word in Australia. The marketing gurus at the time believed that Americans are too dumb to know what a prawn is, even if someone is actually holding one whilst talking about it.

I have barbecued pork rolled in tea, rosemary and salt, and it was excellent. It must be said the leaves were not exactly fresh when roasted, having sat in the salt for 6 months.

[Jackie]

I’m re-posting @jopj‘s reply as I just lost it. Here it is again:

Reply by jopj:

@bram @jackie I wonder if I could roast tea leaves on the “Barbie.” I’ll have to ask @thedevotea.

[Jackie]

Not to go off topic here too much @thedevotea but I believe that a shrimp and a prawn aren’t one and the same. Perhaps the differences were a touch too complex for you down under 😛

[Robert Godden]

* @jackie, There is no confusion on my part. We do not use that word for that crustacean. One goes on the barbecue and is a prawn, one in unlikely to be barbecued and is called a shrimp.

I imagine, though, that someone somewhere has added shrimp, blue green algae and duck livers to some Japanese tea, thus “improving’ it and exciting all the Japanese tea nerds. Shrimpmaicha, anyone?

[Jackie]

@thedevotea – I think you might be on to something. I expect to see Lady Petersham’s Shrimp Matcha 1984 in your store soon. 

[Warren Peltier]

*Yeah, baking, it can be done. Usually Yancha and black tea are baked here – often in the little shops. That’s necessary because there’s high humidity in summer and lots of rain here.

To bake tea, you need a heat source directly under your tea. The temperature should be extremely low – about the same as body temperature. Then slowly baked over a period of hours, allowed to cool, then re-baked, while turning over the pile. 

I baked some of my TGY in my toaster oven – but not long enough I think. I was in a hurry.Better to bake large amounts (KGs) rather than just a few grams.

There is a downside to baking though – once the tea is baked – it takes on a darker, stronger, roasted flavor and aroma. Then the floral aroma and taste of the original tea becomes lost. The degree of that all depends on how heavily the tea is roasted.

[Anonymous]

I’ve heard of doing a sort of “micro roasting” to breathe life into a stale oolong.  I’ve seen it done by simply holding the tea leaves in some parchment paper and (very carefully) heating it over a candle flame.  I’ve never tried this trick though.

[Author]

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