Need help on resteeping

[MarcvsHdr]

Hi, everyone, I'm a newby to this forum.
I have a question and am seeking some assistance... I have been drinking green teas (black as well, but only Earl Grey and a couple of other varieties) for quite a while and I love them. The best thing to relax you at home and at the office, no doubt about that.

However, I only recently found out that one can resteep leaves. Since I am keen on saving some money and I am aching for that "better flavour" gained by resteeping, I think it's the thing for me. But my enthusiasm has been suprassed by technical problems.

1. How many pots do you use when you brew tea intened to be resteeped? -> I usually brew tea right in the mug, and drink it quickly afterwards, before it infuses for too long. I don't mind leaves in the cup, since they sink after a little while, and I can just drink the tea, thus leaving them behind.

2. Where do you keep the leaves in between steepings? They are wet and not suitable for lying about in pots. Besides, I am not sure how much time one can allow between steepings.

btw, ale's on me if you can help Thanks in advance.

[Space Samurai]

Hey, welcom to the forum.

When we talk about re-steeping tea leaves, we usually mean at the same general time, in one 'session.' Wet tea leaves aren't really suitable for storing. That being said, I have heard of people saving tea leaves in the pot for the next day from time to time, but mostly its steep, drink, re-steep, drink, steep again, and so on.

It sounds like youre using loose leaves in your cup, so all you would need to do is keep adding more water untill you are through with the leaves.

[MarcvsHdr]

Thanks, that's just what I wanted to know. I read about people having re-steeped for as many as 4 times, but I'm not sure I can drink more than two mugs at a time at best, so I'll use the leaves only twice.

[ABx]

How many times you can resteep the leaves is really going to depend on the individual tea. I've personally found that I don't care for a lot of green teas after the first steep, but there are some exceptions. A lot of oolongs can provide many infusions without any loss in quality, however; especially the kind that are rolled into little pellets (tieguanyin, huang jin gui, Taiwan high mountain, etc). Generally speaking, the more tightly twisted or rolled the tea is, the more infusions it will be likely to give. Exactly how many infusions you can get really depends entirely on the individual tea.

Of course you can if you use a lot more leaf and steep for less time to get more infusions from just about any tea. If you leave the leaves in the cup while you drink it, then you can also add a smaller amount of leaf the next time when it starts to get a bit weak.

Most of the time that I don't use a gaiwan or teapot, I use an infuser cup. Most infuser cups have a lid than you can set on the desk/table upside down and place the infuser on that. For a teapot or gaiwan you can just drain the teapot completely between infusions, you can pour anything that doesn't fit in your cup into a pitcher.

[Mocha Wheels]

just leave the leaves (lol i swear i didn't plan that pun lol) on the kitchen counter. i use a tea infuser so i just let it sit in a cup til i'm ready for another batch.

[scruffmcgruff]

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=3305