Does 1g tea leaves difference matter?

[Risdt]

1. My stomach(and body) has to handle worse things than a cup of strong coffee or tea. I'd rather enjoy less tea, but in higher concentration than lots of weak tea during the day.
My whole diet is quite controversial and many people are shocked, but I feel healthier than ever.

2. I don't understand the tolerance to the 'natural flavor of things'. Doesn't matter if I brew the tea mild or strong, it is still natural. Natural does not mean the same as mild tasting for as long I know.

It is not macho behaviour but I know how to listen to my body as it must function optimally for my sport. I know that when I drink greener teas in this kind of concentrations, I do get stomach pain. That's one of the reasons I enjoy roasted teas.

[William]

I've been using the tea from tea habitat, not very cheap. Maybe I haven't been putting 10 g but on the realm of 5 to 9ish, I don't think it's particularly strong because I use 30-45 seconds max, I find that if I use less leaf and brew that amount it is weak, and if I brew longer it gets pretty bitter

It's hard to compare how I taste tea with someone else's palette. But, if you are using that much leaf and brewing that long, either the tea is not very good or you are capable of drinking some very, very, strong tea.

With a good Dancong, I use very short brews, 5-10 seconds for the first 5-6 brews! And, I use no more than 5-6g of leaf in 90-100ml. This is with near boiling water. I can't imagine brewing 30-45 seconds. It would be undrinkably bitter to me. That's why I say it's difficult to compare palettes.

LOL, most of the time I even use lower quantity and quicker brews
I think that sensitivity and personal preferences can vary to a great degree.

[bonescwa]

And I don't usually use full boil for younger dancongs, more like shrimp/crab eyes. I will use full boil I will try 10 sec or less like yancha.

[William]

On second thought, it's probably the pot shape (pear shaped, high round and narrow). I tried the tea again in a gaiwan and it was good, I think this dancong needs more horizontal room to expand.

Have you thought that the problem could be the clay of the teapot and not the different shape between teapot/gaiwan?

[kyarazen]

no way, you cant qualify to be a newbie. 3 decades of yixing would probably mean 4-5 decades of tea drinking under that belt!

leave the newbieness to us new users and forgive our inquisitiveness

In this case, I prefer being a newbie.

[Tead Off]

no way, you cant qualify to be a newbie. 3 decades of yixing would probably mean 4-5 decades of tea drinking under that belt!

leave the newbieness to us new users and forgive our inquisitiveness

In this case, I prefer being a newbie.

I'm trying to save you money and your health.

[Tead Off]

2. I don't understand the tolerance to the 'natural flavor of things'. Doesn't matter if I brew the tea mild or strong, it is still natural. Natural does not mean the same as mild tasting for as long I know.

Natural was the wrong word to use. Sorry. Pushing to extreme has an equal and opposite reaction.

Not sure what sport you play, but many athletes suffer terribly after their careers are over. The extreme punishment + injuries, often appear later in life. When you're younger, you can't imagine this happening.

But, then again, there are those born with amazingly strong constitutions that can seemingly stand all kinds of extremes. I've seen some alcoholics who were advanced in their age who would put away insane amounts of drink each day and get up and do it again, over and over. Most of us couldn't survive for long.

Enjoy it while you can. We don't know what the future brings.

[bonescwa]

On second thought, it's probably the pot shape (pear shaped, high round and narrow). I tried the tea again in a gaiwan and it was good, I think this dancong needs more horizontal room to expand.

Have you thought that the problem could be the clay of the teapot and not the different shape between teapot/gaiwan?

Could be. I don't know anything about clay really. This pot is high fired hongni with medium wall thickness, maybe it's staying too hot between steeps?

[William]

On second thought, it's probably the pot shape (pear shaped, high round and narrow). I tried the tea again in a gaiwan and it was good, I think this dancong needs more horizontal room to expand.

Have you thought that the problem could be the clay of the teapot and not the different shape between teapot/gaiwan?

Could be. I don't know anything about clay really. This pot is high fired hongni with medium wall thickness, maybe it's staying too hot between steeps?

Brew with a porcelain gaiwan, use a glass pitcher (or porcelain), then split, so a part of it directly in the cup A, the remaining part inside the teapot you usually use and then in the cup B. Compare A and B for each brew.

[the_economist]

Sure, it's up to you to decide what you want. But, there are some caveats to what you say.

1. By drinking stronger teas and coffee, you are introducing irritants to the stomach. Over time, they have an injurious effect. I live in a country where strong chili is the norm. Many, many, people suffer from gastro problems. This is also the case in India.

2. You also alter your taste to demand stronger and stronger flavors. In other words, you build a sort of tolerance to the natural flavors of things. Whether this is actually physical or psychological, or both, I'm not sure. But it is definitely a fact.

Traditional medical systems always warn against this. Of course, those who are too macho simply wave away any good advice.

10g of tea leaves won't kill you, especially since we don't actually extract all the caffeine from the leaves during brewing. It's not like downing 10g of matcha powder.

Demanding stronger flavors just means higher leaf-water ratios, which can be obtained by using less water rather than more leaf, hence the use of smaller pots.

thats a nice amount of leaves. i usually do about 0.9 to 1g per every10ml for dancong/yancha.

if its not finicky, then its no "gongfu" in gongfu cha

+1

[William]

10g of tea leaves won't kill you, especially since we don't actually extract all the caffeine from the leaves during brewing. It's not like downing 10g of matcha powder.

I do not think that caffeine is the main substance which may give more health problems.

As Kyarazen once wrote:

tea is under 1%, maybe under 0.1% aromatics, 99%++ everything else, pigments, polyphenols, tannates etc. the latter compounds appear to have more health effects both negative and positive depending on body condition.

[the_economist]

I'd be interested to hear what 10g of tea would do.

[theredbaron]

Sure, it's up to you to decide what you want. But, there are some caveats to what you say.

1. By drinking stronger teas and coffee, you are introducing irritants to the stomach. Over time, they have an injurious effect. I live in a country where strong chili is the norm. Many, many, people suffer from gastro problems. This is also the case in India.

2. You also alter your taste to demand stronger and stronger flavors. In other words, you build a sort of tolerance to the natural flavors of things. Whether this is actually physical or psychological, or both, I'm not sure. But it is definitely a fact.

Traditional medical systems always warn against this. Of course, those who are too macho simply wave away any good advice.

There are so many variables. I personally would not know how many grams i use, but fill each pot depending on size and tea used (tightly rolled tea just cover the bottom, and a bit, etc). Often, with higher quality tea, you need less tea than with lower quality. There sometimes too much tea could suppress certain subtleties as well. Water plays a large role (too hard water, for example, suppresses all), as does temperature, and teas with a higher percentage of broken leaves are initially much stronger as well (it is often very good to have a small portion of broken leaves or tea dust mixed in with unbroken leaves especially in Yancha and aged Pu).

Recently, for example, i began using a smaller ratio of aged Pu Erh in the pot, and think the overall experience has improved a lot - while the tea may start weaker, the later brews have a lot more subtleties and won't overwhelm the palate.

Each tea has its own sweet spot, as has each pot. A lot of people go for the stronger the better. For some time i did the same, until my teacher brought to my attention, and practically showed me, that this is actually not so.

[kyarazen]

tea master of ye tang in taiwan had always advocated and recommended that tea to be brewed/drank thin for regular consumption. one of his "realizations" after many decades in the tea art business he says.

it ends up being a scenario for one to figure out the "optimum".
the tea leaves compete with each other when water comes in. there's just so much water present, and yet there's so much in the tea leaves that can be dissolved. overloading the pot affects this process, under loading as well. having too much leaf will affect the leaf's unfolding, too little as well, both having effects on the aroma, body, astringency.

sometimes low quality tea cannot be over loaded as the flaws will multiply and become more prominant. sufficient loading of high quality tea can create an aromatic/taste profile where the 韵 appears in the right place with the right intensity.

once that "threshold" has been found, increasing or decreasing 1g does significant affect the enjoyability of the tea in my perspective.

[William]

I'd be interested to hear what 10g of tea would do.

10g for several years and your stomach will have trouble with Gaoshan, or Sencha, or Matcha, or aggressive young Pu Erh, while during the early days there were not problems. Moderation is the key