TeaChat

I don't have a whole lot of experience with green teas, I mainly drink oolongs gongfu style. Can green teas be brewed in this same way, and do they hold up for several infusions?

Obviously it is a big difference between a cheap supermarket gun powder, or a really high-end gyokuro. Often they'll require lower water temperatures, and if it is a good tea, you might get a few infusions out of it.

I almost always brew Chinese greens that way--I typically get 3 infusions or so from a green in a gaiwan. I'm translating a large Chinese tea book called 中国茶经 and the table of contents lists 7 different ways to brew chinese green tea, but some of them sound kind of weird.

Which country of origin?

Just about any green can be brewed in what we commonly refer to as semi gong fu. This is somewhere between Western 2 grams per 5-6 ounces method and a full throttle gong fu. I start out with a new tea with a ratio of 1 gram leaf to 1 ounce (30 ml) water. This is a good starting point.

Depending on the green, I will usually go 3-6 steeps, sometimes more.

Chinese Greens can definitely be brewed in the so called grandpa style where leaves are placed in a taller glass and brewed and sipped in the same vessel, replacing the water when the glass is around 1/4 full. Cooler water works best for this (so you can drink it and it does not get bitter). You can likely sip this way for hours with some greens.

Temperature can be hyper critical with many greens.

I find most high-quality green teas work well with gongfu style brewing. I find it's especially true of larger-leaf green teas, but I've seen it even work with relatively delicate and broken-up teas like some Japanese sencha.

I don't usually get quite as many infusions out of a typical green tea as I do a typical Oolong or Pu-erh, but as a general rule, if it's a good quality tea, I usually can get a few.

Even brewing western-style (the usual mug+teaspoon of leaf+~3 minute steeping), I find most good teas yield 2 or sometimes 3 flavorful cups.