Do you rinse your oolongs?

[Victoria]

Nope. Sounds like it may be a good idea for sanitary reason, but I highly doubt it would actually help. As long as the water is hot enough to kill germs, I feel I'm good.

I am with trioxin on this. Though I just started oolongs, my idea of a full tea session includes tasting every steep of a tea. I don't care how bad it tastes, it is part of the tea's experience. The hot water should purge any germs and my stomach acid will finish off any other nastiest.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I would drink a first "rinse" that was bad, but conversely I wouldn't throw out a good first steep either. Your idealism may change when you begin to explore puerh.

[Vulture]

Nope. Sounds like it may be a good idea for sanitary reason, but I highly doubt it would actually help. As long as the water is hot enough to kill germs, I feel I'm good.

I am with trioxin on this. Though I just started oolongs, my idea of a full tea session includes tasting every steep of a tea. I don't care how bad it tastes, it is part of the tea's experience. The hot water should purge any germs and my stomach acid will finish off any other nastiest.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I would drink a first "rinse" that was bad, but conversely I wouldn't throw out a good first steep either. Your idealism may change when you begin to explore puerh.

Hmm depends. When I make a cup at work and it doesn't come out right I still drink the full 16oz of it. Though tea isn't expensive I don't try to waist it. Though I haven't gotten into Pu's yet, the only tea I had to toss was chamomile because I am allergic lol.

[Victoria]

I always rinse Puerh, sometimes more than once.

I think life is too short to drink bad tea, just say no to self torture, throw it out and start again!

[Vulture]

I always rinse Puerh, sometimes more than once.

I think life is too short to drink bad tea, just say no to self torture, throw it out and start again!

See you can't appreciate good tea without drinking some bad tea. No one would know love if there was no hate in the world...

Edit: on rereading that, I think the latest set of TeaDays made me go all philosophical.

[Victoria]

You need sleep man.

[taitea]

Seems pretty evenly divided!

For those of you that rinse your oolongs for sanitary reasons, do you rinse your greens and blacks as well?

[hop_goblin]

Seems pretty evenly divided!

For those of you that rinse your oolongs for sanitary reasons, do you rinse your greens and blacks as well?

I rinse all teas .. ALL of them. But again, 95% of all of my tea consumption revolves around pu-erh

[Victoria]

Seems pretty evenly divided!

For those of you that rinse your oolongs for sanitary reasons, do you rinse your greens and blacks as well?

I have never rinsed a green or a black, no. Or White.

[pb2q]

I have never rinsed a green or a black, no. Or White.

Ditto. With green and black tea I typically get the pot really hot then let the tea steam inside while the water boils. One advantage of this is that I can get an idea of the character of the tea from the aroma before the first steep. It gives the leaves a chance to wake up. But no rinse. I'll also do this with oolong, puerh if I'm using a pot, with the addition of a rinse.

I always rinse lighter oolongs, to open the leaves. I don't like the first steep: it's too light with little character of the tea.

[tenuki]

Depends entirely on the tea.

[Maitre_Tea]

I rinse with all teas, but I rinse for different reasons depending on the tea type. Tightly rolled up teas like Dong Ding or High Mountain should be rinsed as to open up the tea leaves. For roasted teas where the leaves are twisted I don't think there's so much of a problem. I guess that I also rinse to "clean" the tea, because who knows where this tea has been! Of course, I take a sip of the rinsing (weird, I know) just to see what the initial flavor of the tea in the first 10 seconds of rinsing

[Jack_teachat]

The only tea I have ever rinsed was a rolled Dong Ding and that was simply to open up the leaves, I may well give it a go with this Bai Hao I've just opened.

[ABx]

With the bruising and rolling and such, a lot of the essential juices end up on the outside of the leaf, so I don't rinse. The only exception is some aged oolongs, which seem to need a rinse to really open up.

[Chip]

I go through periods when I do and when I don't. Currently I do not rinse oolongs.

Besides, I don't want to rinse off whatever those cicadas left behind!

[xuancheng]

I rinse most of my oolongs. I agree that rolled ones especially from taiwan need to be opened up.

But you are evidently not supposed to rinse Fenghuang Dancong.