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I've got a question on multiple infusions that I'm hoping is relatively simple. I'm very new to the loose leaf tea world, but have fallen in love with it in a short amount of time. If I want to brew some tea in the morning before work, is there a way to keep the leaves so that I can infuse again later? Or is it the case if I want to brew some tea to take to work that it's just one infusion and I'm done since I won't be back home for about 10 more hours? Thanks everybody!!!

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I am moving this to Tea and Teaware>Other Tea (since you did not specify the type of tea). This will receive better attention there.

I have left a temporary "shadow" under Introductions which will expire soon. Then you will have to go to this topic via Other Tea.

How to hold leaves between infusions depends on the leaves, and your local environment. As long as it's not too hot/humid, I just leave leaves in the pot or gaiwan overnight or half a day, out at room temp. Sometimes if I know it will be longer and I really really want to reuse those leaves (e.g., precious & pricey aged puerh sample), I put the pot in my refrigerator.

I rarely leave green/white tea out for more than an hour, since it's not brewed as hot as most others, and it seems to suffer more than the rest in terms of quality. Morning sencha does work pretty nicely with some cool water poured in, left in the fridge, and I get a nice cup of cool tea at the end of a hot day when I return to it.

But teas brewed with near boiling water (oolongs, puerhs), I figure just about anything I'd worry about making me sick was already killed with the first infusion or will be killed with the next infusion so it's unlikely to hurt me, and the leaves stand up to the delay better.

As previously stated, green and white teas are best within an hour or two of the first steep. They can be kept in the pot a room temp or cooler for 6-8 hours though I would say, although in my opinion they won't taste too good after about an hour.

Oolongs, black teas and puerhs can be be kept in the brewing vessel for days provided a boiling water brew is made once a day at least to avoid molding and such. I've had dancong oolong go for like 4 days before I threw it out.

Hope that helps.