White Needle tea question

[trimis]

I have started drinking this sort of loose leaf white tea I got off eBay for the health benefit. Anyone know how many times I can reuse it before the medicinal quality is exhausted? So far I have steeped the leaves five times with no loss of flavor, but I am not drinking it for the flavor.

[AlexPhilip]

My suggestion is to always brew white teas at 100 ° Celsius if you want it to retain its medical quantity for long. If you have a quality white tea, it should not become bitter even if you forget it and let it steep for long time... If white tea tastes like water to you I don't think it's your taste buds, it must be something about the preparation. A good white tea has a lot of taste and should give you multiple infusions. Most tea vendors give brewing temperatures around 80 ° Celsius, don't follow this suggestion please. Try it out.

[hongtea]

Anyone know how many times I can reuse it before the medicinal quality is exhausted?

If you are looking for the medical function, then you should go for Aged White tea. There is a saying in China, "one year is tea, three years is medicine, seven years is a treasure." There are lots of research on this subject.

FYI, aged White tea has charming flavor each year thus much expensive than fresh one. A Silver Needle produced in 1978 could be over $30k per kilogram, I drank it last week, it's dark and can be brewed for whole day, a totally medicine alike aroma, not so delightful to the most people.