Hard Time Letting Go of The Rinse

[Bubba_tea]

I don't think you're going to be able to do any amount of 'timing' or selective extraction to remove pesticides vice tea-related stuff....

But you can sell stuff to remove pesticide residue for so much money, come 'on!! Don't ruin the business now!! I'm with you guys on that one - farmers aren't going to re-apply pesticides every time it rains, and some of those places it might have a quick rainstorm every evening.

[orguz]

Forget about the tea leafs, the water we use to brew it with certainly isn't free of contaminants, pollutants, PCBs, heavy metals, medication residual, chlorine, and Brita won't filter everything either. The question should not even be asked whether anything is removed through rinsing, but instead what is added with rinsing.

[Bubba_tea]

LOL - you're right. Something else will get you first, I guar-un-tee!

[jackdaniel]

I highly doubt that rinsing cleanses the tea. All it does, at most and in my opinion, is remove the smaller dust particles. I rinse primarily to awaken the leaves and allow them to expand. Tea is dry for so long, and then you instantly wet it and expect it to soak up water and make it taste good? No, it takes time, give it a few seconds to wake up. A flash rinse it ideal so that you don't lose much flavor, but enough to heat the leaves and pot.

[nonc_ron]

Actually I usually flash rinse tightly rolled oolongs for an entirely different reason, it it wakes them up and gets them to start relaxing so the flavor and aroma come out the first brew better.

Same here.

Ditto: On the flash rinse, it wakes up the leaves and gets them to relax so the flavor and aroma come out the first brew.
(the longer the time between rinse & brew the better.)
It also washes off most of the very water soluble caffeine. Not necessarily a bad thing, first thing in the morning.
Thats my 2 cents

[TomVerlain]

I had a pot of some 70's border tea from hou de yesterday, and the first pot goes in the bucket. (actually in cup first, then slop pan)

The water goes in, and then right out. Then the pot sits a bit to let the remaining water/steam open the leaves. The rinse is very light, as the leaves don't really get a chance to open up and steep on such a short first encounter.

For shu, the leaves give up more of their essence on rinse than aged sheng. But it is still worthwhile to rinse. I try to use not too broken up bits so the steeping is more even over time.

For young sheng, the first infusions can be too strong and bitter even if very short, so I am not too sad to let a bit go. I find the third infusion is more pleasant the the preceding ones, as the strongest parts have been washed away a bit.

Of course, the joy of tea is enjoying it your own way, so what ever satisfies ...

[Intuit]

Echoing the notions put forth earlier in this thread:

Old sheng, shu: not much pesticide left, even if banned legacy oily pesticides were used (as in the case in much of SE Asia). New sheng leaf, a hot water rinse should get rid of most of the chemical residuals that are water extractable.

Mostly, you're removing larger (not smaller) dust particles that will make tea bitter. Easier tolerated on mellow leaf, tougher to endure on young leaf.

For wet fermentation product, you're removing (maybe) microbes and fermentation chemicals you don't want to be inhaling when you slurp your tea.

Rinse your tea. Ain't gonna hurt you that much. Doubt you are going to be getting that much leaf prepping with a flash rinse. Will help with volatilizing aromatic compounds, improving nose, in the initial extractions.

[oldmanteapot]

A glimpse of village life and where these leaves have been would make you glad to throw away at least one quick rinse

Rinse your tea. Ain't gonna hurt you that much. Doubt you are going to be getting that much leaf prepping with a flash rinse. Will help with volatilizing aromatic compounds, improving nose, in the initial extractions.

+1

For aged tea, I'd rinse them twice, if needed 3 times! You'll be surprised to see the amount of dust that gets rinsed off. Not considering other unwanted stuffs as mentioned by Intuit.

Cheers!

[tingjunkie]

What's all this "down the drain" talk? If I don't drink a rinse, I at least feed it to the pot to help seasoning along... unless I'm using a gaiwan of course.

[ghengiskun]

What's all this "down the drain" talk? If I don't drink a rinse, I at least feed it to the pot to help seasoning along... unless I'm using a gaiwan of course.

Yeah, I have the same excuse to ease my regrets of not drinking the first rinses. I strain it to a special cup and then use the brush for seasoning the pot from the outside... if it's actually helping the teapot, it is not a waste, right?

... flash rinse (...) also washes off most of the very water soluble caffeine.

I've heard this from a few sources, that the first two rinses remove about 95% of all the caffeine actually. For me it is hard to believe, because I am drinking puerh to quell all my coffee needs, and I don't feel any caffeine deprivation (I was quite a coffee junkie until not so long ago). But to be honest, my night sleep is thousand times better than it was in the times when I used coffee to keep me going all day long. But maybe it's something else in the tea to help me to recharge my batteries...

[AdamMY]

I've heard this from a few sources, that the first two rinses remove about 95% of all the caffeine actually. For me it is hard to believe, because I am drinking puerh to quell all my coffee needs, and I don't feel any caffeine deprivation (I was quite a coffee junkie until not so long ago). But to be honest, my night sleep is thousand times better than it was in the times when I used coffee to keep me going all day long. But maybe it's something else in the tea to help me to recharge my batteries...

Wow this is one of those rumors that just wont stop. I highly encourage you to check out CHA DAO's site with:

http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caff ... ality.html

It is probably the best written and most thorough rebuking of the myth.

[Intuit]

Whoa! The Chaodao article is interesting, but the topic here is pu'erh, a fermented tea that is noteworthy for it's medicinal action. It's not the same as the unfermented teas tested in the articles cited in the CD article.

Fermented sheng and shu are widely known to have lower levels of caffeine relate to unfermented tea, lending itself nicely to after-dinner consumption. Caffeinates are apparently biotransformed in fermentation process. Plus, with a 20s rinse, you're discarding as much as 20-30% of the extractable caffeine in a young sheng or shu. That reduction might be enough to make a significant difference in effect because caffeine physiological effect occurs above an effective threshold concentration in blood that will vary with age and other factors. Plus, you have inhibitory neurochemicals in pu that counter the caffeinates and glutamate excitatory buzz effect.

Source: http://users.argolink.net/purfarms/komchem/teacaff

PU-ERH, Caffeine Content, % of Total leaf mass

Green Pu-erh (4/2000) 1.7
Large Leaf Aged Pu-erh from Old Trees (4/2002) 1.7
Loose-leaf Pu-erh (4/2000) 1.8
Aged Green Pu-erh Brick (4/2000) 2.6
Tibetan Mushroom Pu-erh (4/2000) 3.0
1st Grade Pu-erh Tuocha Camel Breath (4/2002) 3.1
Pu-erh Tuocha Camel Breath (4/2000) 3.4

Note that the dense tuocha are at the high-end of the test value range.

[tingjunkie]

Pu-erh Tuocha Camel Breath (4/2000) 3.4

Ok, I admit to being a pu newb, but what the hell is that, and why would anyone want to drink it!?!

[Maitre_Tea]

I'll be damned...it actually does exist:
http://www.holymtn.com/catalog/index.ph ... cts_id=323
Being mini-tuo, probably not the tastiest tea, but with a name like that there might be something redeeming

[tingjunkie]

Do they even have camels in Yunnan? I thought the tea was traditionally aged on horseback?

Up next... Jockstrap Beeng. Forget the rinse, I'm pouring all of it down the drain!