TeaChat

Some of the oolongs that I have are tightly rolled. My usual procedure is too just go ahead and add water, then brew for 2.5 minutes, although sometimes I give the tea a rinse before brewing if the tea looks dusty. By the time that I'm ready for the second infusion ( for 3 minutes) the leaves have all unrolled and almost fill the pot -- quite a change from the first infusion.

The tea comes out fine both times, but I'm curious about how others brew rolled oolongs.

I gongfu my oolongs in a gaiwan for the most part, but i usually always give rolled oolong a quick rinse. Not only does that get rid of dust but it starts the tea opening up and gives you more surface area for your first infusion.

How much water, how much tea?

My current gaiwan (although looking for another one, among so many other things...) is 4 oz. or 120ml. Depending on what kind of oolong it is and whether it is a rolled one or not I'll use about 1 gram of tea per 30 ml of water and than adjust from there.

PolyhymnianMuse wrote: About 1 gram of tea per 30 ml of water and then adjust from there.

That's the same standard Hop taught me for puerh. Almost invariably, if I adjust it will be upward. But that has worked out for me as a nice point to start.

I rinsed all my rolled oolongs.

Me too always rinse leaves (any leaves) before brewing.

And Taiwanese Oolongs are easily juiced out I guess that's due to design for subtlety that can be easily brewed at low temperature (high mountain Oolongs)

Tie Kuan Yin, on the other hand, are thicker leaves than Taiwanese Oolongs so I raise the temperature when I brew it.

Also Qing Xiang(greener) Oolongs will less likely to juice out than Nong Xiang so in this case I longer the time of brewing..

I generally don't rinse oolongs unless there is visible tea-dust that I don't want making the infusion bitter, but that's just me.

When gongfu'ing in a gaiwan, you ultimately want the leaf to loosely fill the gaiwan once they're unfurled, without cramming it. I generally find that about 1g per ounce is indeed about right, though I don't really use a scale these days.