TeaChat

How much does it affect tea leaves to sit idle in the pot for varying periods of time between infusions? Should you hurry up and brew-drink-brew-drink gong fu style, or is the result the same if you brew-go do something else while you drink -and then return later to brew again, or doesn't it matter?

Most of the time my leaves sit in the pot for shorter or longer periods. Sometimes I even keep my leaves in the pot overnight if they have some juice left. When returning to leaves who have been sitting idle for awhile I do a shorter steep than with leaves freshly steeped. Sometimes I do a quick rinse before steeping overnight leaves.

I do find that letting the leaves sit idle for long periods has a small effect on the taste, but not enough to throw them away if you don't have time to drink them dry right away.

I had the same experience, both with shou and sheng, but I wouldn't let the leaves sit longer than overnight.

For oolong, I am kind of in the busy mode of brew-drink-brew-drink. I don't like using "tea sea" (the pitcher) so sometimes I feel I am too busy drinking. I also have a layered glass pot (somewhat similar to ingenuiTea pot) that doesn't let leaves stay in tea water. I use it in office. But at home I still prefer to use my yixing pot. Therefore I am trying to get a smaller pot, so it won't make brew-drink pattern too busy

As for pu'erh, especially shu, I assume it's ok to leave the tea leaves in pot for long. I know very little about pu'erh so it's just my assumption. I read it from the chinese classic "dream of red building" that the beautiful girl servant once told her young master that a cup of pu'erh was steeping for a whole day and waiting for him. So I assume it's ok to brew shu pu'erh for a long time

btw Ti, your 'Young Hitler' avatar is a bit disturbing.

tenuki wrote:btw Ti, your 'Young Hitler' avatar is a bit disturbing.

I don't see any resemblance to Hitler???