Wet leaves on successive days?

[maxman]

How long can you leave the wet leaves in the teapot? Can you use the same leaves the next day? I have always thrown out any leaves that sat for the night in my teapot - but that is often after only one or two infusions. Can I still use them the next day?

[puerhking]

The short answer is yes. Different people keep them in different ways. Some just keep them in the pot and others remove them. I dump the leaves on a paper towel and slightly press them to get out the excess water. Then I put them in a ziplock in the fridge. Seems to work quite well.

[Trioxin]

I'll usually let mine stay in the pot overnight. A quick rinse with boiling water the next day and they're ready to go again. Two days is all I'll go though. Too much tea on hand to risk dragging it out any longer.

[omegapd]

I use one of those metal filters for my pots. Just take the filter out and put it in the fridge when I'm done for the day.

[hop_goblin]

Same here, I just leave them in my pot.

[evilberg]

Same here, I just leave them in my pot.

With the lid on or off?

[Trioxin]

On. Might as well keep em covered

[Drax]

Yep, done that once or twice when I wanted to continue to enjoy it -- left them in the pot, lid on.

Or similarly, if I had pu-erh in the morning, I've left it in the pot until evening. Either way, about 8-10 hours.

[Goose]

Leave them in the pot, toss it into the fridge, No problems so far.

On a side note, I save the leaves for composting and they do grow mold and fungi very quickly if wet.

[Bubba_tea]

I assume you guys are leaving (ha ha... too early on Sunday for a pun..) the leaves in a yi xing in the fridge. When you make your tea the next day, do you warm the pot somehow? I would think adding boiling water to an ice cold pot would be risky.

[thanks]

If the timing ends up working out, when a tea is starting to fade, but not on it's last legs I'll leave it in a yixing overnight with water in it. In the morning I drink the resulting infusion, give it a flash rinse, then go back to brewing with long times. I got about three days with a 1999 7532. Drinking the infusion the next morning at first was an intensely scary thought. I'd had vastly overbrewed low quality sheng before, and I never want to experience such a thing again. The morning brew is totally different. Quite tasty, usually.

[PolyhymnianMuse]

I assume you guys are leaving (ha ha... too early on Sunday for a pun..) the leaves in a yi xing in the fridge. When you make your tea the next day, do you warm the pot somehow? I would think adding boiling water to an ice cold pot would be risky.

Well we are talking fridge here and not freezer, unless your fridge gets ice cold

I wouldnt think it would be a problem, its not like your going to be cooling it down a great deal and than immediately introducing boiling water. I would just take the pot out of the fridge and let it sit for awhile. You could always just warm water up (not nearly boiling) and just pour that over the pot to warm it up if you want.

[shogun89]

I take them out and put them in a teacup then put plastic wrap over top then put them in the fridge. A quick rinse with boiling water the next day and they are good to go.

[Salsero]

For those who missed it, HERE is Phyll Sheng's final blog post about the eleven day marathon brew that Toki (Tim) got him and me involved in. He also lists links to other posts about the marathon.

Note that this style includes leaving the tea leaves brewing for 12 hours or so at a time.