Multiple Infusions

[tmorten]

Hello everyone, I am new to Tea Chat and also fairly new to brewing tea. My main area of interest is brewing Japanese green tea. I have a question regarding multiple infusions with sencha and gyokuro.

What is the standard practice that you guys use for reheating water for each infusion? I have found that my kettle does not retain heat well enough between infusions to brew at a higher temperature for subsequent infusions. I am aware that you are not supposed to boil the water more than once because of oxygen loss, so should I be boiling fresh water for each infusion? Or can I simply reheat the water a bit between infusions to raise the temperature? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Chip]

Welcome to the forum! Always room for another Japanese tea lover!

I bring an electric kettle to full boil. This water stays hot enough to get 4 steeps without reheating. I use water coolers, Kyusu, and teacups in the cooling process for the early steeps.

[debunix]

Don't know about 'supposed to' but I generally try to get my water for the japanese greens before it boils, usually about 190 or so, add hot water to my kyusu and to a cooling pitcher/fair cup, add the tea to the water in the kyusu when the temp is right, and usually can get in the 2nd infusion with the water in the cooling pitcher before it cools down too much, and another couple from the kettle before the temps drop below about 160, the temp at which I start reheating the kettle.

For other teas, though, where I'm trying to work with it hotter, and have to wait longer after infusing before I can start drinking the tea, the kettle does cool too much, and I will gently rewarm it without reboiling.

[tmorten]

Thanks for the quick responses Chip and debunix!

So it looks like my best bet would be just to reheat the water to proper temp if it drops too low. That makes the most sense to me as well, and this is what I have been doing. I questioned this because I have read about other people boiling just enough water for one infusion and then boiling a fresh batch for each one after that. That seems like it would be too much of a hassle to be doing that every time.

So reheating the water shouldn't have an effect on the water at all then? As long as you didn't let the water reach a boil again, correct? Debunix, I like the point that you made about just heating the water to the correct temp instead of boiling the first time. I will have to try that next time.

[debunix]

When the water boils, it rapidly loses steam, which should result in concentration and possibly pH changes in the water left behind. If I don't bring it up to a boil at the beginning, I shouldn't be losing as much, so the water won't change as much between infusions as with bringing it to a full boil each time.

But this presupposes safe drinking water that doesn't need boiling for potability.

[Chip]

... hmmm, did I say reheat? No ... but hey, I am just sharing years of experience ...

If you bring to a boil, how quickly is your kettle losing heat? I get 4 steeps within around 20 minutes +/- and do not reheat. Just a typical electric kettle.

[tmorten]

When I bring the water to a boil I can usually get about 2 steeps before I have to reheat. It seems to lose heat fairly quickly, probably within a 5 minute time period. I am using just a regular stainless steel stovetop kettle to heat my water. Perhaps I should look into getting an electric kettle so I don't have to reheat as frequently.

[Chip]

Yeah, perhaps an electric kettle would be helpful. The good electric kettles have a heating disk on the bottom under the stainless steel that does help to retain heat. I can easily keep brewing for 20 minutes after a boil for sencha ... and certainly for gyokuro (often even more).

But a stove top could be left on a lower setting which would retain some heat as well.

[tmorten]

Thanks for the advice Chip. My main problem has been keeping the water hot enough to brew sencha, since it requires higher heat. I can usually get through 5 steeps of gyokuro with no problems at all.

Sounds like I will be purchasing an electric kettle in the near future.

[beachape]

I use an electric kettle and pour the water directly into a glass lined coffee caraffe. You have to use a brand new caraffe but it saves you some electricity from reboils. I started using it because my electric kettle blows a fuse in my office/study room. I would have to get up all the time to the kitchen to get hot water. Now it stays hot all day right by my tea set up. Only refill once a day when I run out of water.

[Iceburg]

I generally heat enough water to fill up a thermos, allowing me to have my water ready whenever I need it!

[tenuki]

I generally heat enough water to fill up a thermos, allowing me to have my water ready whenever I need it!

This is what I do if I'm gonna be out of the kitchen. I have one of theses...