Oolongs and multiple infusions question

[iheartea]

I've been a green tea and black tea drinker in my past, but I have recently begun exploring oolongs. I received my first order from Tea from Taiwan, which included Da Yu Ling and two sets of samples. (btw, I liked Da Yu Ling.) I've read many sources which say oolongs are good for as many as eight infusions. I've tried up to five or six infusions (176 degrees @ 2 min.) and I felt as though I've gotten all the goodness out of the leaves and moved on to the next sample. Am I doing something wrong if I get around four or so good infusions?

[Oni]

I only had Dong Ding oolong from taiwan, but as I recall I started with 20-25 seconds first infusion after a flash rinse, if you do not rinse than infuse first infusion 1 minute or less and second only 20 seconds, because the leaves need to be opened in order to give their juice off, and use as much leaf that can open fully, I used one spoonful (those chinese wooden spoons) of tea for 120 ml zhu ni, so if you keep your infusions short for the first two at least and increase gradually acording to how the previous infusion tasted, add around 10 or 20 seconds with each subsecvent infusion.
I tried a lot of TGY lately, and the high quality ones last around 7 infusions, maybe I could have gone further I started with 40 second first infusion, but good TGY has great gan, that pleasent sour kind, not bitter nor astringent, kind of like the sour taste from a sweet and sour dish, but the aroma can overwhelme our nose, try smelling one tea and after a while you don`t feel the smell, but if someone smells it who hasn`t smelled it as long, he will feel it, maybe that is why later infusions are not as enjoyable, because the oils of the tea has coated our tongue, and our aroma receptor is full.

[Tead Off]

I've been a green tea and black tea drinker in my past, but I have recently begun exploring oolongs. I received my first order from Tea from Taiwan, which included Da Yu Ling and two sets of samples. (btw, I liked Da Yu Ling.) I've read many sources which say oolongs are good for as many as eight infusions. I've tried up to five or six infusions (176 degrees @ 2 min.) and I felt as though I've gotten all the goodness out of the leaves and moved on to the next sample. Am I doing something wrong if I get around four or so good infusions?

Da Yu Ling and the other high mountain oolongs from teafromtaiwan are all high quality teas. I drink them daily. Because we all have different ways of brewing, the amount of infusions will vary due to the different techniques combined with size of pot, amount of leaf, and, even the kind of pot you use.

For myself, I use 5g of leaf in a 110ml Yixing pot. After a flash rinse, I will brew for 30 sec and often adjust to 20sec for the next 2. But, this could vary. Just giving you some parameters. I will be able to get more than 5, sometimes 7 or 8, but, they are not going to be as flavorful as the earlier ones. Most of these teas will give you at least 7. Often I am done before I reach this amount. I also use hotter water than you are using, just under boiling.

What kind of pot and capacity are using now?

[xuancheng]

Most nice oolongs can take boiling water. Some people might disagree with me, but others might also agree. I guess its probably not 212*F boiling water that winds up hitting the leaves, but if you let the water sit for a minute and pour from higher up, the water will be 195-205 degrees perhaps as it hits the leaf?

Also, many people like to use enough leaf to fill up the brewing vessel once the leaf is completely opened up. Lots of leaf=more infusions. just remember, with lots of leaf you should start with flash infusions -- water in, water out. Even if you like thick tea (I do) it is still good to make weaker tea in the first few infusions or you won't be able to taste later ones. (Flavour Overdose is the technical term.)

Sometimes more infusions is not so good. Sometimes you just want a few leaves in a cup for 2-3 infusions. Sometimes you want a packed gaiwan for 30+ infusions of a great tea.

You can read user MarshalN's most recent web log entry on multiple infusions
Also user TIM has a couple of posts on multiple infusions over long periods of time (2 weeks) with link's to a friend's blog who did a similar experiment.
User bearsbearsbears also did a very recent entry in his web log about a very long lasting tea.

[Herb_Master]

Sometimes more infusions is not so good. Sometimes you just want a few leaves in a cup for 2-3 infusions. Sometimes you want a packed gaiwan for 30+ infusions of a great tea.

+1

A post on here, shortly after I first trod the TeaChat boards - suggested that a very useful rule of thumb was 8 minutes total infusion time!

even with western brewing - a 3 minute first infusion and 5 minute 2nd infusion follows the rule pretty well.

If Gong Fu Style the density of packing the pot with leaf(#x) required a 30 second first infusion and you then went 40, 50,70, 90, 120, 150 you are already over 9 minutes! with just 7 infusions

If however you pack heavy(#y) and the first infusion is 1 sec followed by 1, 1, 2, 3,4,6,8,10,12,15,18,23,30,40 then you are still under 3 minutes with 14 infusions

(#x) for me something like 1gm to 35ml
(#y) for me something like 1gm to 10ml

The rule is only approximate, there is additional time steeping, while the tea is being poured from the pot (slow pouring pots will exacerbate) and great variations in leaf quality, not too mention that the drinker is different and many would give up on a tea when others would doggedly go on extracting.

[iheartea]

Thank you all for your detailed information. Knowledge abounds on TeaChat!!!

Tead Off: I am using an 18 oz. glass pot. As for tea volume, I used the entire sample packet from teafromtaiwan.

[iheartea]

When doing multiple infusions, I question myself whether it's advisable if I strain one pot of tea and immediately pour more hot water and brew a second pot. Should the leaves be allowed to cool before I do the second pot? The thoughts running through my mind are: Do the leaves "know" that one infusion is completed and the next one is beginning? OR: Will the leaves think it is one long infusion?

I do this routine daily since I carry the brewed tea with me to work. I have to make two infusions to prepare enough tea to fill my stainless steel bottle.

Any thoughts?

[Herb_Master]

When doing multiple infusions, I question myself whether it's advisable if I strain one pot of tea and immediately pour more hot water and brew a second pot. Should the leaves be allowed to cool before I do the second pot? The thoughts running through my mind are: Do the leaves "know" that one infusion is completed and the next one is beginning? OR: Will the leaves think it is one long infusion?
I do this routine daily since I carry the brewed tea with me to work. I have to make two infusions to prepare enough tea to fill my stainless steel bottle.

Any thoughts?

I have no idea what makes you think this

Preferably not, most brewers work on the principle of maintaining the temperature as of the water coming out of the kettle. If the teapot and contents are cold, the brew will cool down whilst infusing


Therefore many willheat the teapot (and fair cup/pitcher, and teacups) prior to putting leaves in the pot.

And may pour some hot water over the teapot prior to the subsequent infusions.

And if the teapot and the leaves in it have been allowed to cool down before a subsequent infusion, put the teapot in a bowl/teaboat and give it a hot bath before topping up from the kettle.

[sriracha]

Should the leaves be allowed to cool before I do the second pot?

I've been thinking the same thing though not to the point of wondering if the leaves are sentient. I'm just a little reluctant to do two infusions back to back for some reason.

Would be convenient for me though, using two pitchers and letting one brew sit a for a little longer since I like my tea at lower temperatures than most people.

[gingkoseto]

I believe the infusion time is mainly for a few reasons:
1. Some tea requires infusion short enough so the bitter (or other unpleasant) stuff will not be dissolved out in tea water (a typical example I can think of is Da Wu Ye dan cong).

2. To control amounts of other stuff dissolved in tea water. Some flavor is pleasant in lower concentration is not so good in high concentration. (but when less tea leaf is used, even longer infusion will not generate high concentration)

When these factors are not important, the tea can be infused in whatever way the drinker likes.

And I agree with xuancheng that more infusions isn't always good. Quality of each infusion is always more important than number of infusions. Many Taiwan light roast oolongs give most of the flavor in the first 5-6 infusions, so I think 5 infusions can be considered a happy ending for Da Yu Ling.

[xuancheng]

I actually like to cool my Wuyi Oolong leaves between infusions.

[shah82]

I got the Teamasters Da Yu Ling to go pretty much as long as I wanted. Plus the dump in a pot for aromatic water last brew.

Though usually that doesn't work so well for the greener oolongs.

[iheartea]

Herb_Master:


LOL! I knew someone was going to think I had a screw loose. Well, I've been having those thoughts because I come from the green tea world where the instructions that came with my tea stressed the importance of watching the steeping time carefully in order to prevent bitterness. Therefore, when I'm doing 2 or 3 back to back pots of green tea, I feel like I'm subjecting the leaves to one long continuous infusion making for a bitter unpalatable brew. Though, for my taste, a little bitterness in green tea is acceptable.

It seems like oolongs are a bit more forgiving than green teas. I haven't had a bitter pot yet. And I really liked the Da Yu Ling that I started sampling today! Almost had a little spicy nuance. I'm ordering more!