Oct 14th, '09, 16:10
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What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by Brinson » Oct 14th, '09, 16:10

I know some people brew leaves more than once, is there a certain kind of tea that's better/worse for this than others?

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Oct 14th, '09, 20:35
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Re: What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by Chip » Oct 14th, '09, 20:35

Virtually any looseleaf tea should rebrew quite well. Black, Oolong, Green, White, Pu-erh, etc. They all rebrew well in my experience.

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Oct 15th, '09, 04:40
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Re: What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by JillDragon » Oct 15th, '09, 04:40

Like Chip said you can rebrew almost anything, but I find I get the best flavours out of whites and oolongs.

Oct 18th, '09, 23:00
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Re: What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by Canadiangal » Oct 18th, '09, 23:00

Green tea you are supposed to be able to brew at least 3 times.
Or at least with the whole leaf ones.
I have a whole leaf green tea and can reuse the leaves 3 times after that is it too watery tasteing.

Flavored black tea have only been able to get 2 uses out of my leaves but they are leaf bits.

Pu Erh tea I hear people get 10-20 brews from the leaves.
I have not tried it, but hear it is a very wet earthy tasting tea and I'm not sure I like to drink that...

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Dec 4th, '09, 13:41
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Re: What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by tropicanahana » Dec 4th, '09, 13:41

I read oolong is traditionally brewed 3 times. I think the one I drink (a ti kuan) could be brewed more but I haven't tried yet. Third time is a charm! Bag teas in general don't hold up a second time around. I've tried it at work to try to get more economic value lol (all I drink is bagged tea there) and it is hardly stronger than water.

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Re: What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by tatsumi09 » Dec 5th, '09, 23:17

Usually sellers give guidelines as to tea amount, number of infusions you can get, temperatures to use and brew time of infusions. In the end they are guidelines, and I tend to mess around with it to find the flavor that suits me best.

From personal experience, good quality loose leaf tea almost always lends itself to rebrewing. Once I got some cheap dragonwell green tea from a small Chinese import store, and the second brew had 0 flavor (almost as if I was drinking plain water). Best way to find out is to brew a second/third etc.. time and experiment with different brew times.

Personally I found most green teas last 2-3 brews.
Oolongs usually 5+ (with Taiwanese lightly fermented oolongs being my favorite and most recommended ones for rebrews...it was Alishan or Li Shan oolong that I tried, but don't remember which one exactly)
Puer, well I've only tried 1 decent puer, and it loses most of it's flavor on the third brew, but I've seen some vendors mention Puer having more than 10 rebrews.

Good quality loose leaf is the way to go for rebrews (but good quality does not necessarily mean expensive premium tea)

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Re: What kind of tea lends itself best to rebrewing?

by Symmetry » Dec 30th, '09, 00:05

I have a Gunpowder green tea (not, as far as I know, from Adagio - though it may be being resold) and I find that I get very clean flavors from the first steep, more of that grassy/vegetal taste from the second, and a much more refreshing cup by the third steep. I do brew about 30 seconds longer with each steep, though.

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