Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth

In short

Usually a mismatch between leaf grade and filtration, and occasionally a sign that the leaf is more broken than it should be. Grandpa-style brewing has its own version of this and its own answer.

Likely causes, in order

Most likely first. Answer the question under each one before moving on — several of these look alike in the cup and are told apart only by what was done to the leaf.

1. 1. Broken or dusty leaf with an open filter

   Leaf quality

   Check: Is there visible dust in the bottom of the packet?

   Fix: Fine material passes any coarse filter. A paper filter bag or a fine strainer catches it; a basket infuser will not.

2. 2. Grandpa style with the wrong leaf

   Technique

   Check: Is the leaf loose in the glass, and is it broken rather than whole?

   Fix: Grandpa style needs whole leaf, which sinks and stays put. Broken leaf is genuinely unpleasant to drink around and no technique fixes it.

3. 3. Pouring the last of the liquid out

   Technique

   Check: Do you empty the vessel completely down to the leaf bed?

   Fix: In a pot brewed loose, the last centimetre carries most of the sediment. Leaving a little behind costs almost nothing — though in gongfu the opposite rule applies, because liquid left behind keeps extracting.

4. 4. Leaf clinging to a dry vessel wall

   TechniqueInferred by TeaHQ, not established

   Check: Did you put dry leaf into a dry pot and then pour?

   Fix: Rinsing the vessel first, or pouring the water in before scattering the leaf, keeps fine material off the sides where the stream cannot reach it.

Tea types this applies to

• Green tea

Brewing methods this applies to

• Grandpa style — Leaf loose in a tall glass or flask, topped up with hot water through the day and drunk around the leaf. It is how an enormous proportion of tea is actually consumed in China, and it needs no equipment whatsoever.
• Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.

Related problems

Sharing a cause category, a tea type or a brewing method with this one.

• My leaf floats on top and will not sink — Dry leaf sits on the surface in a dry-looking raft, and the tea underneath is pale long after it should have been ready.
• Tea from my flask tastes stewed by mid-morning — Tea that was fine when it went into the flask is dark, thick and harshly drying an hour or two later, and worse again by lunchtime.
• My matcha is harsh and I think it is a cooking grade — A matcha bought to drink is dull-coloured, gritty and aggressively bitter, and the tin says culinary, cooking or ingredient grade — or says nothing at all.
• My matcha latte is lumpy and the powder sinks — Whisked straight into milk, the matcha forms lumps that will not break up, and within a minute a green layer has settled at the bottom of the glass.
• I cannot taste the difference between my expensive tea and my cheap one — Two teas at very different prices taste much the same in the cup, and the tasting notes on both packets describe things you cannot find.

Sources