TeaChat

... that is not the question.

To rebrew or not to rebrew, that is the question!

I am talking about (all) GREENs ONLY.

Ran into someone at the World Tea Expo who has more Japanese green tea at his/her disposal than likely all of us combined. This individual virtually never rebrews Japanese greens, granted the first steeps sampled were ... fantabulous!

So, wondering what your practice is currently in the realm of all green teas, steepwise (not quality wise, that is another question for another topic).

Bonus (2 votes). What if you had seemingly endless greens available to you ... would this change your practice?

I almost always do three.
Sometimes four if I don't want to be done with this tea or if I feel like it still has something to give. I actually used to do four but have found it not to be worth it. Better to use fresh leaves for another round of three!

Not sure if I would change this given an unlimited supply of high quality tea. I doubt I would ever skip the second steep unless I seriously changed something about my brewing techniques. I wouldn't want to be wasteful of all the goodness that is still left in those leaves.

Chip wrote:Ran into someone at the World Tea Expo who has more Japanese green tea at his/her disposal than likely all of us combined. This individual virtually never rebrews Japanese greens, granted the first steeps sampled were ... fantabulous!

That's really interesting. Would have loved to take a sip of that!
I'm the only one brewing "proper" green tea I know so my own brewing is pretty much my only reference. I also think the way I brew sencha is quite conventional. This person must be doing something different to get the best out of a single brew.

Stentor wrote:That's really interesting. Would have loved to take a sip of that!

Perhaps you shall ...

Chip wrote:

Stentor wrote:That's really interesting. Would have loved to take a sip of that!

Perhaps you shall ...

Ooohh, mysteriousness! I like it

I'm usually just one brew these days. On occasion I'll do two. Never a third though. Partly due to being caffeine sensitive at the moment

How do you brew then, Alex. "Standard" 0.6-1.0 g per oz, 60-75° C (I know you prefer lower end temperatures), and 1:00 minute. Or longer? Less leaf, more leaf?
I'm only asking because I'd like to know if you're doing anything differently to get the most out of the leaves in just one brew or if you just don't do more brews even though you know you could get one or more good brews.
I'd give a "special" one brew technique a try if you have one. It's been a while since I've tried anything major as far as brewing parameters for sencha are concerned.

Also, have you considered doing two or three small brews and just combining them in one large Yunomi? This is my "lazy" technique when I don't want to take all the brewing utensils to the spot where I'd like to have tea or don't really have the time to do individual brews.

For me, this is highly dependent on the individual tea. Unless I don't like what it's giving, I tend to push greens to sweetwater. This is especially true for sencha. I pushed Xell's Kikyou to seven and enjoyed the journey with it. With regards to sencha though, I've never been into the umami bomb. I enjoyed the subtler, perhaps weaker, elements that came later.

However, with unlimited supplies, I doubt I would be pushing teas with the same vigor.

Sometimes the best steep is the 3rd or 4th!

Even if I had unlimited greens, I'd still steep most more than once, but I. Might stop sooner if I was feeling pressure to move through my teas faster, but still, caffeine being what it is, daily consumption would be limited, and if I can only have so many leaves to enjoy, I would enjoy multiple steeps most of the time.

Today, how many steeps depends on the tea, how thirsty I am, and whether I have time to start on one more tea or not. I don't mind going well along into sweet water at times....

Hm, interesting question. I usually make 3 steeps with Japanese teas, maybe a few more if the tea in question is really special.

If I had an unlimited supply, I would probably cut down to 2 steeps. But I would definitely make the second steep, the second one is often the best!

Stentor wrote:How do you brew then, Alex. "Standard" 0.6-1.0 g per oz, 60-75° C (I know you prefer lower end temperatures), and 1:00 minute. Or longer? Less leaf, more leaf?
I'm only asking because I'd like to know if you're doing anything differently to get the most out of the leaves in just one brew or if you just don't do more brews even though you know you could get one or more good brews.
I'd give a "special" one brew technique a try if you have one. It's been a while since I've tried anything major as far as brewing parameters for sencha are concerned.

Also, have you considered doing two or three small brews and just combining them in one large Yunomi? This is my "lazy" technique when I don't want to take all the brewing utensils to the spot where I'd like to have tea or don't really have the time to do individual brews.

1 min @ 60c-63c but actually not using much tea and going for weak. So I'm not massively wasting loads of tea at the moment in only doing 1 brew. I don't know in grams but its probably nearly close to half of what I normally use. Yeah I do sometimes do the micro brewing and then all in one, its a good one.

I always think of subsequent sencha brewing as wandering from a warm sweet tea field down the hill towards the beach. During the 4th brew I feel like I'm well and truly in the sea I do favour the 1st and 2nd. But will get my feet wet from time to time with the oceanic end of the spectrum.

My tolerance to caffeine being fine and tea being unlimited in theory I think I'd probably drink the first and second only.....most of the time.

I think there are too many different types of green tea to give any single answer to these questions. I am drinking a Longqing tea that I routinely get 7 or 8 nice brews out of. I have other Chinese greens that are similar. I could never get this kind of yield from a sencha or gyokuro.

For the amount of leaves I use for Chinese green, I think usually the first 3 infusions are the best portion of it. But I chose 5 because I'm stingy and would always brew it as much as I can

Tead Off wrote:I think there are too many different types of green tea to give any single answer to these questions. I am drinking a Longqing tea that I routinely get 7 or 8 nice brews out of. I have other Chinese greens that are similar. I could never get this kind of yield from a sencha or gyokuro.

Agreed. I voted based on Japanese greens, which I usually push to a fifth brew. The tea I have access to now can really only deliver four good brews, but I can't stop at four (bad luck, you know? ).
I don't often drink Chinese greens, but I still have some tea from Lushan I bought last year that can handle 6 - 10, depending on how distracted I am when brewing.

I chose four because my M.O. is to do three hot, then put the leaves in a little Ball jar, add somewhat more than enough non-hot water to cover and refrigerate (covered) overnight in the fridge for cold tea.