Flash Steeping

[Cofftea]

How do people feel about flash steeping? First, rinse the tea, which is simply running water through the tea. This is to remove any impurities and warm up the leaves to release their true flavor. Then steep for 10 seconds up to 1 minute depending on the type: Whites and Greens 10-25 seconds, Oolongs 15-35 seconds and Blacks 35-60 seconds. To me it seemed like you would be drinking lightly flavored water and in my opinion that's a waste of money and tea. Recently I recieved Den's Tea's Apple Sencha. They suggested steeping it at 190 (10 degrees warmer than I normally heat my water for greens) and while they didn't suggest rinsing the leaves, they said to only steep for 30 seconds. The result was surprisingly good. I'm on the 2nd infusion now (40 seconds) and it tastes a little bit stronger, almost like I'm drinking my tea backward- weakest to strongest.

[bpfeifer]

Hi,

What you are describing sounds normal for gong-fu style steeping. I'm not sure what the difference is between flash steeping and gong-fu steeping.

In gong-fu style, the first brew usually has a weak flavor, but the strongest aroma. Over the next couple steeps, the aroma slowly drops off while the flavor strengthens and becomes more complex. Eventually everything falls off and it's time throw out the leaves and put some new ones in the pot. I also enjoy watching the developing color of the liquor after each steep. The ever-changing characteristics are part of the beauty of tea drinking for me.

[Cofftea]

Sweet! How does the max number of infusions you get from the same leaves differ between gong-fu style steeping and regular steeping?

Hi,

What you are describing sounds normal for gong-fu style steeping. I'm not sure what the difference is between flash steeping and gong-fu steeping.

In gong-fu style, the first brew usually has a weak flavor, but the strongest aroma. Over the next couple steeps, the aroma slowly drops off while the flavor strengthens and becomes more complex. Eventually everything falls off and it's time throw out the leaves and put some new ones in the pot. I also enjoy watching the developing color of the liquor after each steep. The ever-changing characteristics are part of the beauty of tea drinking for me.

[bpfeifer]

That's a complex question, in part because I don't know what regular steeping is.

I find that in gong-fu you can adjust the number of steeps you get based on how much tea is in the pot. More leaves and less water usually translates into shorter steeps, but many more. This is limited by how much the tea will expand and the quality of the leaves.

For Example: I have a pot that's about the right size for 4 grams of oolong. That will brew up six or seven times if I use a decent quality leaf. Because Pu-ehr doesn't expand much, I can fill it with 8 or 10 grams of leaf, and generate dozens of quick (5 to 20 second) steeps.

I can't imagine most flavored/scented teas handling multiple steeps, with a few exceptions like some good jasmine teas. I also think of Japanese green teas as one-shot deals also because of how fragile the leaves are once reconstituted. You might experience something different in the course of your experiments. Give it a try.