Informal brewing of oolong?

[bongoman]

Hi there

I understand there is gong fu brewing and then there are other more informal methods of brewing oolong.

I can't recall where but I came across parameters that suggested 1.5g of oolong to 100ml of water, steeped for 10 minutes.

For example, 4.5g of oolong with 300ml of water brewed in a large glass for 10 minutes. If I recall, they then just drank the tea out of the same glass - no straining required.

Is this really a viable option? Does it suit some types of oolong better than others?

Can puerh also be brewed this way?

[Proinsias]

Sounds fine, also a little like competition tasting or the grandpa method

I don't think I'd be waiting 10 mins before drinking though. I prefer sipping and topping up as I go along.

If you're brewing in the same glass you are drinking from, or gaiwan!, I would favour greener teas with the water at a lower starting temp. Light tie guan yin or something like that.

[AdamMY]

A rather unhelpful answer is you can brew tea any way it suits your fancy, it may be amazing, horrible, or somewhere in between.

I would not recommend brewing Puerh like that especially not young sheng.

As for oolong that method is possible, but with a 10 minute steep time I'm still suspicious.

I think when people who practice gong fu talk about an informal brewing it is a relaxed non strict gong fu like brewing. As a true gong fu ceremony is very rigid in what must be done, but most settle upon their own little adaptation of it, and practice that except for formal situations.

[Oni]

Try multiplying the amount of the water by 0.015%, as I have seen in a taiwanese instructional video, and they brewed taiwanese oolong this way in various amounts for 10 minutes, you can try this with most oolongs, except commercial Dancong, but with high quality go ahead, try 3 grams to 200 ml, brew 5 minutes +, drink, I usully pour another round of water and wait for 10 min + and drink a second weaker brew, not to waste good oolong, sometimes I drink gongfu tea, 100 ml/brew, divided in two so we are two person drinking 50 ml gong fu cha for 6 to 10 brew depending on the tea.
P.S. this 0.0015% of tea to water is the perfect amount for green tea too, I brew in a 200 ml gaiwan 3 grams of tea, with Lu An Gua Pian I use less 2.5 grams, with Huang Shan Mao Feng 3.5 grams, you should always adjust a little bit on the way for a perfect cup of tea, actually this simple brewing method is not as easy as it seems.

[bongoman]

Thanks for the replies.

I've been enjoying alternating between gongfu in my gaiwan and using 3g of high mountain oolong in a glass with 200ml of just-off boiling water.

I've even been letting it steep for 10 minutes and am enjoying the results very much for when I want a larger cup of tea without taking the time to do multiple smaller infusions.

With Long Feng Xia and 10 minutes, I'm not getting bitterness.

Here's the video referenced above.

[Oni]

I learned this from the same video and been doing it eversince with almost all my oolongs when I drink in solitude.

[mingshan]

When brewing oolong informally, you can still enjoy the aroma of oolong tea as the tea leaves gradually unfold. Like Proinsias, I also prefer sipping as tea leaves unfold. That way I can smell the tea aroma as well.

[bsteele]

Try multiplying the amount of the water by 0.015%...

Not meaning to be that guy but I believe you meant 1.5% or .015

In other news, I've never heard of this ratio before... pretty cool I'd say. Thanks for sharing that!

[JustinW]

I use the grandpa method that MarshalN describes in his post. Just throw some leaves in some sort of drinking vessel, and refill it when it gets close to being empty. I use left over leaf that I don't have enough for a gongfu session. I also like doing it with some cheap, but good Wuyi.

[Tead Off]

Try multiplying the amount of the water by 0.015%...

Not meaning to be that guy but I believe you meant 1.5% or .015

In other news, I've never heard of this ratio before... pretty cool I'd say. Thanks for sharing that!

If you multiply .015 x 200ml= 3g tea leaves. 10 minutes for this combination is about right for larger amounts. This works for both Taiwan oolong and Wuyi oolongs. Flavor and aroma are both present and one of the added bonuses of brewing Taiwan oolong this way is that the leaves open so beautifully. High mountain leaves are big. I enjoy brewing both ways, gongfu and in larger pots.

[gingkoseto]

Talking about informal brewing... I recently had some dhp teabag and shui xian "grandma tea" (huang pian) sent to me by a Wuyi farmer along with my other tea. I wouldn't otherwise buy them because postage is a lot more than the tea itself. But I have to say they are pretty good

The teabag is made from the crumbs from the last refining step of making dhp, entirely different from commercial teabag, which according to tea farmers, is simply made from floor dust from earlier steps of tea processing (maybe they have some exaggeration here but I can imagine commercial teabags are not much better than that).

The "grandma tea" (huang pian) is the older, bigger leaves selected out from the final tea product. It's often drunk by "grandmas" of tea families, hence the name. The one I got is some selected out leaves from a king grade shui xian. It didn't last for more than 5 infusions (because older leaves are not that flavorful) but the fragrance of the first a few infusions is great.

Quite a few tea farmers and dealers mentioned to me how much they drink their homemade teabags or huang pian. I guess most of them are rich enough to afford the top grade tea they sell, but as seen from many tea people, they just hate to waste any good stuff, even crumbs of good stuff