Does anyone know of any resources, handbooks or recipes for making tea from
the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant?

Has anyone ever made their own "homemade" tea? Please share any suggestions.

Thanks!

Winston

> 2. Put the leaves on your table. Take a little quantity in one hand, amd
> massage it lightly between your 3 hands.

I don't think I could manage this. Is there a procedure that requires only
two hands?

"Dog Ma 1" (reply w/o spam)> wrote in message

> > 2. Put the leaves on your table. Take a little quantity in one hand, amd
> > massage it lightly between your 3 hands.
>
> I don't think I could manage this. Is there a procedure that requires only
> two hands?

Ooops ! Maybe if I stop tea, I'll manage to type one with "2" hands...

Fukamushi-Kuri (killed by the heat !)

Funny you should ask. I happen to be right in the middle of processing my
very first batch of tea from the C. Senensis plants I mail ordered about 2
years ago. I have 2 plants: one a large leaf variety, and the other a small
leaf variety. I live in Dallas, which is damp enough (marginally higher
average rainfall than Seattle), but exceedingly hot, and with very dry
summers. This spring and summer has been unusually wet, and I recently
repotted the small leaf much more carefully, and the thing has absolutely
taken off. Anyhow, two days ago I trimmed many branches of the gangly,
sprawling plant to try to train it more upright. Since I had never actually
processed any of my tea, I decided to try it with the more tender leaves I
had picked. I read online many accounts of the orthodox method used in
India, and tried to kind of adapt it to my own environment. For what it's
worth, here's what I've done so far...

1. Seperated leaves from stems.
2. Laid all leaves outside in full sun (on a dry birdbath in my yard) for
24 hours to wilt. One evening to the next.
3. Hand rolled the leaves. This is by far the most labor intensive part of
the process (this took probably 15 minutes, and I talked with my wife the
whole time). I did this last night, so it's fresh in my mind. I tried
several methods, including rolling them in a kitchen towel, using a rolling
pin etc, but settled on a far less high tech method than even those. I took
a small quantity of leaves (4 - 10), and rolled them in my hands like I was
making worms out of clay. This requires pressing very hard, and rubbing
very fast. Fast enough that your hands get warm doing it. I wound up
actually breaking a sweat doing this, but afterward the leaves were
uniformly and tightly curled, and very wet. The fewer leaves you do at a
time, the more thorougly soggy and gummy they get, which seems to be the
point.
4. Spread the leaves outdoors in the shade to oxidize. I put them on a
small childrens table under a patio shade (along with several orchids and a
couple of bromeliads).

Today they are much browner/blacker than yesterday. I've moved them indoors
(my 2 year old got in to them while I was cooking dinner tonight). I plan
on leaving them until the day after tomorrow (Saturday), then firing them at
250 F in my oven. Depending on how the leaves feel and smell, I'll probably
try a pot soon thereafter.

If anyone would like, I have some pictures of the rolling process, and of my
tea plants. If there are any responses to this, I'll post pictures of the
final product, and give tasting results of the processed tea.

- Steve

"winston" > wrote in message
...
> Does anyone know of any resources, handbooks or recipes for making tea
from
> the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant?
>
> Has anyone ever made their own "homemade" tea? Please share any
suggestions.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Winston
>
>

Funny you should ask. I happen to be right in the middle of processing my
very first batch of tea from the C. Senensis plants I mail ordered about 2
years ago. I have 2 plants: one a large leaf variety, and the other a small
leaf variety. I live in Dallas, which is damp enough (marginally higher
average rainfall than Seattle), but exceedingly hot, and with very dry
summers. This spring and summer has been unusually wet, and I recently
repotted the small leaf much more carefully, and the thing has absolutely
taken off. Anyhow, two days ago I trimmed many branches of the gangly,
sprawling plant to try to train it more upright. Since I had never actually
processed any of my tea, I decided to try it with the more tender leaves I
had picked. I read online many accounts of the orthodox method used in
India, and tried to kind of adapt it to my own environment. For what it's
worth, here's what I've done so far...

1. Seperated leaves from stems.
2. Laid all leaves outside in full sun (on a dry birdbath in my yard) for
24 hours to wilt. One evening to the next.
3. Hand rolled the leaves. This is by far the most labor intensive part of
the process (this took probably 15 minutes, and I talked with my wife the
whole time). I did this last night, so it's fresh in my mind. I tried
several methods, including rolling them in a kitchen towel, using a rolling
pin etc, but settled on a far less high tech method than even those. I took
a small quantity of leaves (4 - 10), and rolled them in my hands like I was
making worms out of clay. This requires pressing very hard, and rubbing
very fast. Fast enough that your hands get warm doing it. I wound up
actually breaking a sweat doing this, but afterward the leaves were
uniformly and tightly curled, and very wet. The fewer leaves you do at a
time, the more thorougly soggy and gummy they get, which seems to be the
point.
4. Spread the leaves outdoors in the shade to oxidize. I put them on a
small childrens table under a patio shade (along with several orchids and a
couple of bromeliads).

Today they are much browner/blacker than yesterday. I've moved them indoors
(my 2 year old got in to them while I was cooking dinner tonight). I plan
on leaving them until the day after tomorrow (Saturday), then firing them at
250 F in my oven. Depending on how the leaves feel and smell, I'll probably
try a pot soon thereafter.

If anyone would like, I have some pictures of the rolling process, and of my
tea plants. If there are any responses to this, I'll post pictures of the
final product, and give tasting results of the processed tea.

- Steve

"winston" > wrote in message
...
> Does anyone know of any resources, handbooks or recipes for making tea
from
> the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant?
>
> Has anyone ever made their own "homemade" tea? Please share any
suggestions.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Winston
>
>