YS 2005 Douji "Spring Red"

[Drax]

You can attenuate the concentration by steep times, as MarshalN says, or by lowering the amount of leaf.

[Winnie_ther_pu]

That leaf to water ratio seems really low to me. I use 14-15g for 120ml when brewing most young shengs.

Nice. Hardcore. You can stop by our place for tea anyday

[Winnie_ther_pu]

Entropyembrace, you're more of a man than me! I cannot imagine trying that sort of proportion with many of my teas. As it was, when I used 8.6g of Gan'en Lao Banzhang, I thought I seriously messed it up by overbrewing with too much leaf!

You measure your tea to the 10th of a gram? I would love to have tea with you, too. Just for the experience alone.

Wait, would you actually brew 12g/120ml of LBZ? I think I'd be traumatized.

I think I would be in heaven~~♪♫

[TIM]

Entropyembrace, you're more of a man than me! I cannot imagine trying that sort of proportion with many of my teas. As it was, when I used 8.6g of Gan'en Lao Banzhang, I thought I seriously messed it up by overbrewing with too much leaf!

You measure your tea to the 10th of a gram? I would love to have tea with you, too. Just for the experience alone.

Wait, would you actually brew 12g/120ml of LBZ? I think I'd be traumatized.

I think I would be in heaven~~♪♫

Music to my ears

[Catfur]

Entropyembrace, you're more of a man than me! I cannot imagine trying that sort of proportion with many of my teas. As it was, when I used 8.6g of Gan'en Lao Banzhang, I thought I seriously messed it up by overbrewing with too much leaf!

You measure your tea to the 10th of a gram? I would love to have tea with you, too. Just for the experience alone.

Wait, would you actually brew 12g/120ml of LBZ? I think I'd be traumatized.

I think I would be in heaven~~♪♫

Music to my ears

Now I'm going to have to try 15g in 170ml...

[shah82]

Go right ahead. I, on the other hand, have tea that I have sufficient respect for, such that I probably wouldn't try it. A lot of them, like LBZ or wild "wild" tea such as XZH Dinjin Nuer, are pretty mild tasting, but can give pretty serious stomachaches and headaches with strong infusions. Others, like this XZH Youle I have, or the various Pashas and Bulangs I have, are so intense at the dosage I use that I just cannot imagine enjoying higher dosages even if the marginal addition results in diminishing increments of intensity.

[Winnie_ther_pu]

Go right ahead. I, on the other hand, have tea that I have sufficient respect for, such that I probably wouldn't try it. A lot of them, like LBZ or wild "wild" tea such as XZH Dinjin Nuer, are pretty mild tasting, but can give pretty serious stomachaches and headaches with strong infusions. Others, like this XZH Youle I have, or the various Pashas and Bulangs I have, are so intense at the dosage I use that I just cannot imagine enjoying higher dosages even if the marginal addition results in diminishing increments of intensity.

Okay, I am a little worried about you now. If tea gives you stomach and head aches, I might recommend finding a new passion...or a new supplier, but you seem to have tried the ones I might recommend. I have had a tummy rumble from some cheapo shizuoka sencha, but that was cured with a bit of food.

Music to my ears

Now I'm going to have to try 15g in 170ml...

Oh~~~~yeah

[Catfur]

Now I'm going to have to try 15g in 170ml...

Oh~~~~yeah

Didn't go so well, seems to have lost a bit of flavor, enough qi to make me feel like I'm melting, though.

[Winnie_ther_pu]

Now I'm going to have to try 15g in 170ml...

Oh~~~~yeah

Didn't go so well, seems to have lost a bit of flavor, enough qi to make me feel like I'm melting, though.

♪I'll stop the world and melt with you
You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time♫

Sorry, but I couldn't say it better

[gasninja]

drinking 11 grams of 05 Gan En LBZ in a 120ml pot this mourning. more because that was what was left in the sample. qi overload.

[MarshalN]

Go right ahead. I, on the other hand, have tea that I have sufficient respect for, such that I probably wouldn't try it. A lot of them, like LBZ or wild "wild" tea such as XZH Dinjin Nuer, are pretty mild tasting, but can give pretty serious stomachaches and headaches with strong infusions. Others, like this XZH Youle I have, or the various Pashas and Bulangs I have, are so intense at the dosage I use that I just cannot imagine enjoying higher dosages even if the marginal addition results in diminishing increments of intensity.

My point is that if the cups are too intense, you need to brew them in such a way as to lower their individual intensity. Adjusting leaf/water ratio is the brute strength method. The better way is to adjust brewing times -- having pre-set times is almost always a bad idea.

[shah82]

I think you slightly lost track, there MarshalN. Anyways, I do have a standard method, and I do deviate from standard, especially when I know the the tea better.

Anyways, just tried this HLH again. Same proportions, times are 3,5,6,7,9,12,12,15,15. It was actually very nice the first 4-5 brews, brews 6-7 was fairly sweet teawater, and I hit the rough patch much slower.

Diagnostic: This tea has very little endurance, flavor simply doesn't have more than, at most 7 brews of significance, and that's really pushing it. Stops evolving at about 4. The harshness is not severe in amplitude, but severe in what it does. It gives me a very raspy throat that makes it unusually unpleasant to swallow. Given that the tea is one note light leather by then, it's not worth it to continue, but I will do a couple of more brews, 20, 30 to really put this through the paces.

[MarshalN]

It doesn't sound like a weak tea, but rather a tea that doesn't deliver a lot in the fragrance/flavour department. What about body and texture? Clearly, if it's rough on the tongue and the throat, the tea's doing something.

Basically, my point is that what you're describing does not at all sound like a weak tea to me. It sounds like a strong tea with a subdued fragrance.

[shah82]

Actually, it has a very good fragrance, which is present to some extent through the session. The flavor is reasonably strong and good early, and when it starts giving up, the teawater is pretty sweet. It's just specifically spectacularly harsh in the throat (I'm still feeling the pain, an hour-something later). The flavor is *very* subdued in the later, painful stage, even as the aroma keeps going. Short infusions give one note + a bit of pain, while longer infusions are a bit more complex, but with alot of pain.

The body and texture of the tea is not notably thick/thin/smooth/rough/silky.

[Winnie_ther_pu]

It's just specifically spectacularly harsh in the throat (I'm still feeling the pain, an hour-something later). The flavor is *very* subdued in the later, painful stage, even as the aroma keeps going. Short infusions give one note + a bit of pain, while longer infusions are a bit more complex, but with alot of pain.

I am actually being serious: Are you sure that you do not have an allergy to tea or something? I have never heard of anyone being injured by tea. I have stabbed myself with a puer knife a couple of times, but I have never heard 'pain' associated with tea drinking. Maybe the Qing Lian Yi is a particularly concentrate and stout tea. I am SUPER looking forward to trying it now. For me, in any activity, something I would call pain = stop doing that activity.