Brew Times

[dstarh1]

I've done numerous tea tastings in tea houses/shops in chinatown in San Francisco and the subject of brew times came up. They were intrigued that most of the times on adagio teas say 3 minutes or 5 for some of the other teas. Most of their teas have a recommended 30 or so second brew time and also is suggested that they have a washing first for about 2 seconds. I've noticed this espically with the oolongs and pu erh's. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Chip]

Adagio and many other vendors offer a more English or Western style/brew method. This is very common!

The rooms you visited obviously pursue more Asian/Chinese brew methods such as gongfu with more leaf and less time.

[Ebtoulson]

what chip said.
Note that gongfu brewing (since you use a lot more leaf) allows for way more steeps than a western style brewing.