I do so love words! Where they came from, what they mean, and how they have changed over the years; this is one of those semantic puzzles that has fasci-nated and stumped me for quite a while. A bit of a tiff continues to be waged between two words, which seek to describe the process of making a drinkable liquid from the leaves of the camellia senensis. The question on every tea drinkers lips is: Do you 'steep' or 'brew' tea? What's the big deal anyway, and who cares? Well, the people who ask those kinds of ques-tions and take that attitude don't take their tea drinking very seriously. To be honest, I'm by no means a "serious" tea drinker, but I do enjoy a good, and I mean good cup of tea, but I'm by no means a tea term extremist. Well, maybe I am, I do like using the correct terminology in any subject. And so, I am going to tackle this issue.
I have read many explanations from experts and also regular Joes regarding these two terms, and I have considered them all, as to what makes them different, or even synonymous. After taking in all of the information, and digesting it, I think I have finally realized the real and
definitive difference between these two words, and how they relate to the process of making a pot, or cup of tea. And the answer to this tea time conundrum appears to be more simple than one may think.
I have read many explanations from experts and also regular Joes regarding these two terms, and I have considered them all, as to what makes them different, or even synonymous. After taking in all of the information, and digesting it, I think I have finally realized the real and
definitive difference between these two words, and how they relate to the process of making a pot, or cup of tea. And the answer to this tea time conundrum appears to be more simple than one may think.
Heat
The difference between steeping and brewing is as easy as whether or not there is continual heat applied to the immersed tea leaves. Steeping involves the soaking of an item in a liquid, in this case, tea leaves in water, and that liquid can start out to be either cold, or hot. Brewing involves the continual application of heat from an outside source, like from a flame or burner. That is why beer and whiskey are "brewed" beverages, while tea is in fact, steeped. And that's why brewing involves steeping, but steeping doesn't involve brewing. There! Now that wasn't so difficult, was it?
Back In The Day...
Once upon a time, believe it or not, people outside of China didn't really know what they were doing when it came to the preparation and consumption of tea. Some people stewed the leaves and threw out the cooking water, and then spread the sopping leaves on buttered toast - a sort of tea leaf jam. Yuck! Then there were those who brewed it like coffee, keeping it on their camp fires, a very bitter brew I'm sure. Then finally, people learned to steep the tea in a hot water bath, allowing the tightly wadded up leaves to unfurl, and release all their flavorful goodness into the surrounding hot water. At last! The proper tea preparation perfected!
Mystery Solved!
To give you way more information than you may want, I will provide some etymological evidence for my discovery. These definitions are from the On Line Etymological dictionary.
brew (v.) Old English breowan "to brew" (class II strong verb, past tense breaw, past participle browen), from Proto-Germanic *breuwan "to brew" (cognates: Old Norse brugga, Old Frisian briuwa, Middle Dutch brouwen, Old High German briuwan, German brauen "to brew"), from PIE root *bhreuə- "to bubble, boil, effervesce" (cognates: Sanskrit bhurnih"violent, passionate," Greek phrear "well, spring, cistern," Latin fervere "to boil, foam," Thracian Greek brytos "fermented liquor made from barley," Russian bruja "current," Old Irish bruth "heat;" Old English beorma "yeast;" Old High German brato "roast meat"), the original sense thus being "make a drink by boiling." Related: Brewed; brewing.
steep (v.) "to soak in a liquid," early 14c., of uncertain origin, originally in reference to barley or malt, probably cognate with Old Norse steypa "to pour out, throw" (perhaps from an unrecorded Old English cognate), from Proto-Germanic *staupijanan. Related: Steeped; steeping.
And so, as you can see dear reader, brewing involves heat applied to the steeping grain in the process of making beer, or gain alcohols, where all of the soaking ingredients are brought to a boil. The process of preparing the beverage known as tea only involves the steeping of the tea leaves in water, that has come to the boil apart from the leaves being added. However, I would like to point out that if you are applying heat (via a tea warmer) to the pot where the leaves remain without being decanted, then you are in fact, brewing your tea! As for me, I prefer a steeped and decanted pot of tea, because there is much less likely hood of having a bitter "brew" that way. I hope this little exercise in semantics as enlightened you my dear reader, and you will use the proper term for the process of steeping a cup, or pot of tea!
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