How much tea should I put in the pot?

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


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Jan 10th, '11, 22:55
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Re: How much tea should I put in the pot?

by the_economist » Jan 10th, '11, 22:55

thanks folks. great advice all round. i tried it out tonight with my new pot and it worked fine, though perhaps more bits came out than would have if i could control my pour better (using a large spout electric kettle at the moment).

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Jan 10th, '11, 22:57
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Re: How much tea should I put in the pot?

by chrl42 » Jan 10th, '11, 22:57

oops..I missed the fact rolled Oolong leaves expand like crazy..actually was a typing mistake..

I've heard about farmers in Anxi brewing technique before..is that they don't save the leaves much, using boiling water (like Puerh), giving less than 10-sec..people who were there told me the taste was awesome! hehe~

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Jan 10th, '11, 23:11
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Re: How much tea should I put in the pot?

by the_economist » Jan 10th, '11, 23:11

@chrl - im trying to do something like that yep.

maybe i should give a bit more detail:
tea - teagallery's high fire tgy
teaware - 50ml xishi modern zhuni/hongni

i followed Tim's method of splitting leaves into two piles, one big balls, one small balls (http://chadao.blogspot.com/2006/04/yixi ... d-new.html). used wyardley's 2nd method for crushing the leaves in a ricebowl (but I cheated a little by picking up the leaves and crushing them against each other). I filled roughly 50% of the pot as per wyardley's advice and the flavours were pretty robust. keen to try even more leaf!

wasn't as strict as i should've been on the timing (i basically waited for the exterior to dry for the 1st three brews), but the tea was quite forgiving and the flavour was pretty consistent. Also did not stop at 3 brews :) just kept drinking on. lost count of how many after.

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Jan 10th, '11, 23:28
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Re: How much tea should I put in the pot?

by wyardley » Jan 10th, '11, 23:28

the_economist wrote: wasn't as strict as i should've been on the timing (i basically waited for the exterior to dry for the 1st three brews), but the tea was quite forgiving and the flavour was pretty consistent. Also did not stop at 3 brews :) just kept drinking on. lost count of how many after.
I wouldn't be strict about the timing in terms of seconds, but it should have a certain rhythm.

With 3-4 cups, this is the timing I learned...
* Fill the cups with hot water
* Fill the teapot (slow, drizzle kind of pour, in a circular motion around the sides of the pot)
* Pour the cups, 2 at a time, over the pot
* Pour the tea into the cups

Even though 4 infusions is traditional, if you do a fifth, pour the water into the cups after filling the pot, and that will take care of the timing for the fifth brew. The reason for only drinking 4 infusions (as I've heard it), and waiting for a while before drinking other teas, is supposedly so that the experience ends on a high note - if you feel bad about wasting the tea leaves, brew it later in a bigger pot (sometimes I bring them with me to lunch, if I'm going somewhere I know will give me a teapot full of hot water).

This is one reason why I use at least two cups, even when brewing for myself - keeps the timing roughly the same, if I pour them one at a time.

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