A Question about Resteeping

[JRS22]

My kitchen radio is broken, so I had to depend upon my own thoughts this morning for entertainment while my tea was steeping, and resteeping. So I started to wonder about where the teapot lid should be while I'm drinking the tea. I routinely put it on, but is that wise? Should I leave the lid off so that the tea leaves cool off rather than cook between steeps?

I'm going to try leaving it off, but I'm curious as to what other people do. And I wonder - am I becoming obsessive about the details of tea steeping?

[thirtysixbelow]

There is no such thing as being too obsessive around here. You aren't even close yet

Leave the lid off. You have it correct that the leaves will continue to "cook" if you keep them contained. I have a kyusu for japanese greens and I teeter it between the spout and the lid. For my gaiwan the lid sits perfectly on it's side between the saucer and cup. If you don't have either of these just get creative.

[Chip]

... be creative, but a little careful with that lid. In 10 years, I chipped/broke a few early on with momentary mental lapses.

I do both, depends a bit on the green tea. I also happen to resteep with pretty short gaps. I also find not allowing the leaves and pot to cool too much allows better extraction of flavors. I also tend to increase temps for successive steeps, finding the leaves much less sensitive to temps after 2 steeps.

I truly think there is no absolute here. I have resteeped virtually every session of sencha for years, usually 5-7 steeps. I never thought about the lid on/off aspect until it was mentioned somewhere on the forum. So, for years, I never removed the lid except to pour water back into the pot.

Now I will do it but not every time. Where is a coin for a toss up?

[Tead Off]

My kitchen radio is broken, so I had to depend upon my own thoughts this morning for entertainment while my tea was steeping, and resteeping. So I started to wonder about where the teapot lid should be while I'm drinking the tea. I routinely put it on, but is that wise? Should I leave the lid off so that the tea leaves cool off rather than cook between steeps?

I'm going to try leaving it off, but I'm curious as to what other people do. And I wonder - am I becoming obsessive about the details of tea steeping?

I never take the lid off although I've also read that some people do this with Gyokuro. If the tea leaves were sitting in water, I would be more concerned about 'cooking' between steeps. But, the temp will quickly cool down after the water is poured off so what would be cooking the leaves? And, if there were cooking going on, wouldn't you rather have the lid on to keep the cooked from escaping?

[Maitre_Tea]

How quickly does heat dissipate after an infusion, and would it be significant enough to "cook" the leaves? I would think that if the leaves are going to be "cooked" they've probably already been cooked when you infused it for the first time.

[Zanaspus]

If your water is not too hot to begin with, the leaves will not cook with the lid on or off or in a perfectly temperature sealed box for that matter.

[JRS22]

My inexpensive Den's kyuusu broke a few weeks ago, so I'm using my homemade houdin. The holes in the spout are too large to properly strain sencha or kukicha so I turned the lid upside down (no knob) and used it to hold the strainer while I was sipping the tea. Since I'm not an expert potter my stoneware houdin has rather thick walls, which is why it occurred to me that the pot would hold the heat.

I'm happy I found a community that doesn't consider this sort of question obsessive. My friends and family still think it's funny that I check the temperature of the water with a thermometer.

[Seeker]

Cory Lum creates and sells lid holders/rests/futaoki sometimes, and has one available on his etsy site now.
I have a porcelain one from my local tea shop.
I don't think the leaves "cook" per se, but I believe the heat contained in the pot and leaves with the lid on can effect the leaves differently than allowing heat to dissipate a little between infusions. Though I've never experimented to find out just how the tea is effected.
I've just always routinely taken my lids off between infusions, as that's how I've seen it done professionally by tea masters/experts at my local tea spot.
I think I'll experiment now and try several infusions the lid left on and then with a fresh batch of the same tea, several infusions with the lid off between steepings.
Might be fun if a few of us tried this and then posted our findings/experiences?
Cheers!!

[teaisme]

Besides the possibility of 'steaming' your tea , I think the idea of not fully covering the lid is similar to the idea of getting every last drop of water out of the pot between infusions. If you close the lid the vapour has less room to escape so there is more water in your pot for a longer time with lid closed. No one wants extra water in pot between infusions.