9/17 Darjeeling #61-65 Mango Tango

mango-passionfruit

Darjeeling is from the Darjeeling district in West Bengal, India. This was our last batch of DavidsTeas Second Flush Darjeeling. We brought 6 cups of water to boil in a pot, removed it from heat, added 28 grams of tea and steeped for 4 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added a cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY. We’ll let it ferment for seven days before bottling.

We harvested this on 9/24. It tasted sweet and not very vinegary even though it had a few generations of SCOBY. We flavored it with Santa Cruz mango and passion fruit juice and 1/2 tbsp of sugar. We’ll let it ferment for five days in bottles.

9/10 Oolong #41-45 Plain

oolong

Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. For this batch we brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 28 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added a cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY.

We harvested this on 9/17. It didn’t have a lot of SCOBY so it tasted pretty sweet. We added 1/2 tbsp of sugar for the second fermentation.

9/10 Darjeeling #30-35 Mango Passion Fruit (7 day second fermentation)

passion fruit

Darjeeling is from the Darjeeling district in West Bengal, India. We brought 6 cups of water to boil in a pot, removed it from heat, added 21 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added a cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY. We used starter tea and a SCOBY from our Oolong batch and retired the Darjeeling SCOBY.

We harvested this on 9/17. It didn’t have a large SCOBY family so it tasted a little sweet although not as sweet as the Oolong. We added 1/4 cup of Santa Cruz Mango Passion Fruit juice and 1/2 tbsp of sugar. We will let it ferment in bottles for 5 more days before refrigerating.

Oops, we were a couple of days late moving this batch to the fridge. We’ll see what a seven day 2nd fermentation does for our Mango Tango.

9/3 Oolong #11-14 Babuchka

plain bottles

Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. For this batch we brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 35 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added a cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY.

We harvested this on 9/10. It tasted sweet so we added 1/2 tbsp of sugar.

9/3 Wild Black Yunnan #21-25 Black Jack

yunnan

A high end gourmet black tea from China’s Yunnan Province. When oxidized, these beautiful buds turn gold rather than black, resulting in a rich, smooth flavor. This is our second batch made the Master Lee way. We brought 6 cups of water to boil and removed from heat. We added 28 grams of tea and steeped covered for 4 minutes, stirring once midway through. We then added a cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, stirring to dissolve the sugar. We added 5 cups of cold water and brought it to room temperature. We then added 1 1/2 cups starter tea and the SCOBY.

We harvested this on 9/10. It tasted good. We flavored it with 1 tbsp of sugar and will let ferment in bottles for nine days.s

I thought this turned out pretty good but the boss prefers Darjeeling and Oolong.

8/27 Oolong #1-5 House Buch

logo

Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. For this batch we brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 35 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added a cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added enough water to leave room for 1 1/2 cups starter tea and the SCOBY.

We harvested this batch on 9/3. It is our first Oolong made the Master Lee way. It tasted strong but good and a little sweet. we added a heaping 1/2 tbsp. We may reduce the amount of tea used to 28 grams depending on how this batch turns out.