Do you rinse your oolongs?

Owes its flavors to oxidation levels between green & black tea.


Do you rinse your oolongs?

yes, to open the tea up
7
12%
yes, to clean the tea
4
7%
yes, to clean and open up the tea
22
37%
yes, for other reasons
1
2%
no
11
19%
sometimes
14
24%
 
Total votes: 59

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Nov 26th, '08, 10:03
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by Victoria » Nov 26th, '08, 10:03

Vulture wrote:
Trioxin wrote:Nope. Sounds like it may be a good idea for sanitary reason, but I highly doubt it would actually help. As long as the water is hot enough to kill germs, I feel I'm good.
I am with trioxin on this. Though I just started oolongs, my idea of a full tea session includes tasting every steep of a tea. I don't care how bad it tastes, it is part of the tea's experience. The hot water should purge any germs and my stomach acid will finish off any other nastiest.
I wouldn't go so far as to say I would drink a first "rinse" that was bad, but conversely I wouldn't throw out a good first steep either. Your idealism may change when you begin to explore puerh.
:)

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Nov 26th, '08, 10:08
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by Vulture » Nov 26th, '08, 10:08

Victoria wrote:
Vulture wrote:
Trioxin wrote:Nope. Sounds like it may be a good idea for sanitary reason, but I highly doubt it would actually help. As long as the water is hot enough to kill germs, I feel I'm good.
I am with trioxin on this. Though I just started oolongs, my idea of a full tea session includes tasting every steep of a tea. I don't care how bad it tastes, it is part of the tea's experience. The hot water should purge any germs and my stomach acid will finish off any other nastiest.
I wouldn't go so far as to say I would drink a first "rinse" that was bad, but conversely I wouldn't throw out a good first steep either. Your idealism may change when you begin to explore puerh.
:)
Hmm depends. When I make a cup at work and it doesn't come out right I still drink the full 16oz of it. Though tea isn't expensive I don't try to waist it. Though I haven't gotten into Pu's yet, the only tea I had to toss was chamomile because I am allergic lol.

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Nov 26th, '08, 10:12
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by Victoria » Nov 26th, '08, 10:12

I always rinse Puerh, sometimes more than once.

I think life is too short to drink bad tea, just say no to self torture, throw it out and start again!
:)

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Nov 26th, '08, 10:30
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by Vulture » Nov 26th, '08, 10:30

Victoria wrote:I always rinse Puerh, sometimes more than once.

I think life is too short to drink bad tea, just say no to self torture, throw it out and start again!
:)
See you can't appreciate good tea without drinking some bad tea. No one would know love if there was no hate in the world...

Edit: on rereading that, I think the latest set of TeaDays made me go all philosophical.

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Nov 26th, '08, 10:37
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by Victoria » Nov 26th, '08, 10:37

You need sleep man.
:)

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Nov 26th, '08, 10:55
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by taitea » Nov 26th, '08, 10:55

Seems pretty evenly divided!

For those of you that rinse your oolongs for sanitary reasons, do you rinse your greens and blacks as well?

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Nov 26th, '08, 11:30
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by hop_goblin » Nov 26th, '08, 11:30

taitea wrote:Seems pretty evenly divided!

For those of you that rinse your oolongs for sanitary reasons, do you rinse your greens and blacks as well?
I rinse all teas .. ALL of them. But again, 95% of all of my tea consumption revolves around pu-erh

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Nov 26th, '08, 11:45
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by Victoria » Nov 26th, '08, 11:45

taitea wrote:Seems pretty evenly divided!

For those of you that rinse your oolongs for sanitary reasons, do you rinse your greens and blacks as well?
I have never rinsed a green or a black, no. Or White.

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Nov 26th, '08, 12:04
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by pb2q » Nov 26th, '08, 12:04

Victoria wrote:I have never rinsed a green or a black, no. Or White.
Ditto. With green and black tea I typically get the pot really hot then let the tea steam inside while the water boils. One advantage of this is that I can get an idea of the character of the tea from the aroma before the first steep. It gives the leaves a chance to wake up. But no rinse. I'll also do this with oolong, puerh if I'm using a pot, with the addition of a rinse.

I always rinse lighter oolongs, to open the leaves. I don't like the first steep: it's too light with little character of the tea.

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Nov 26th, '08, 13:05
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by tenuki » Nov 26th, '08, 13:05

Depends entirely on the tea.
Do something different, something different will happen. ( Gong Fu Garden )

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Nov 26th, '08, 15:13
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by Maitre_Tea » Nov 26th, '08, 15:13

I rinse with all teas, but I rinse for different reasons depending on the tea type. Tightly rolled up teas like Dong Ding or High Mountain should be rinsed as to open up the tea leaves. For roasted teas where the leaves are twisted I don't think there's so much of a problem. I guess that I also rinse to "clean" the tea, because who knows where this tea has been! Of course, I take a sip of the rinsing (weird, I know) just to see what the initial flavor of the tea in the first 10 seconds of rinsing

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Nov 26th, '08, 19:42
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by Jack_teachat » Nov 26th, '08, 19:42

The only tea I have ever rinsed was a rolled Dong Ding and that was simply to open up the leaves, I may well give it a go with this Bai Hao I've just opened.

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Nov 26th, '08, 21:56
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by ABx » Nov 26th, '08, 21:56

With the bruising and rolling and such, a lot of the essential juices end up on the outside of the leaf, so I don't rinse. The only exception is some aged oolongs, which seem to need a rinse to really open up.

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Nov 26th, '08, 22:49
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by Chip » Nov 26th, '08, 22:49

I go through periods when I do and when I don't. Currently I do not rinse oolongs.

Besides, I don't want to rinse off whatever those cicadas left behind! 8)

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Nov 26th, '08, 23:51
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by xuancheng » Nov 26th, '08, 23:51

I rinse most of my oolongs. I agree that rolled ones especially from taiwan need to be opened up.

But you are evidently not supposed to rinse Fenghuang Dancong.

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