The last drop out of the ingenuiTEA

[febs]

Hello buds.

As far as I've realized studying and experimenting, leaving water among with the leaves in the teapot, after serving, is bad if you'll do another brew; because the last warm drops will continue to extract flavors (and tannins) out of the leaves. So the following brew will be a lot bitter.

That's how I experienced so far, at leas; and I read everywhere to serve the tea "pulling" the last drop out of the teapot.

Now, if after brewing my tea with ingenuiTEA I let the device rest on it's plate, there are still drops inside of it and that affect the consequent steep.

To empty it I leave it pushed against a second cup, and I pretty often pull it up and down (that helps in purging out more drops).

It works, but it's not very practical. So I wonder: is the ingenuiTEA designed for multiple brews? The fact that the box precisely state to dispose the leaves after the brew and that it's not very easy (at least, you have to think about it to extract all the remaining water from the pot, would lend me to think that it's best for single-steep teas.

Is there something right in this or I'm missing something?

Thanks!

(btw, I'm enjoying immensely my ingenuiTEA nevertheless. I am just curious because this procedure is just undocumented).

[Victoria]

Whenever I brew in the ingenuiTEA,afterwards I leave it sitting on a "spare" cup so it drains. I think this is a good practice if you are planning on resteeping.

I do not think the ingenuiTEA was designed with resteeping in mind. But as we all know with higher quality teas, you should get at least one more good brew, maybe more, depending on the tea.

Use the pot in the way it serves you best, is usually the best advice. I was never good at following instructions.

[TwoPynts]

Whenever I brew in the ingenuiTEA,afterwards I leave it sitting on a "spare" cup so it drains. I think this is a good practice if you are planning on resteeping.

Good tip!

[febs]

That's precisely what I do (maybe my English didn't make that clear).

Still, that's not enough. You have to pull it up and down again a few times for the water to drain properly.

Try this yourself: pour your tea, then leave the ingenuiTEA on the spare cup for a few minutes. Then lift it, and while keeping the pot on top of the second cup (to avoid the extra tea to wash your floor!), push the bottom of the teapot upwards. If you have a transparent cup, just put the teapot back on the cup and you'll see what happens: a significant amount of water/tea will still pour off, not only some drops.
And, this process can be repeated a few times; meaning that if you don't do it, the water's still there to make company at the leaves.

[febs]

Going to do a pretty extreme test now. I leave the ingenuiTEA with the leaves and the remaining water (after pouring) over an extra cup.
Tomorrow in the morning (more than 12 hours later) I'll check if all the water will be gone without hand intervention of there will still be some!

[Victoria]

Ok, I see. Normally I would resteep within an hour or two. But I have resteeped leaves left overnight and never noticed a problem. I'm talking oolong, can't vouch for others.

[artmom]

I have re-used leaves in my IngenuiTea after leaving them overnight. A few drops of water are sometimes left, but that doesn't bother me.

I usually use black(red)Tea; you may be using white/green/ etc., which might make a difference.

[laura99]

I do multiple steeps in the IngenuiTea as well, and even though I know some water is left behind, I don't worry about it too much. If I did leave it overnight, I may do a quick rinse to purge the old water, but not usually.

[febs]

I steep green tea, and I personally noticed that leaving water inside the teapot makes the consequent brew tastes worse (way more bitter).

Every site talking about japanese green tea is very picky in recommending to spill every drop out of the pot before steeping the leaves again. And I can see why

I'll let you know about the results of the experiments.

Ciao!

[Victoria]

Ohh Japanese greens, that's a different story!

[febs]

They are (well, not counting chinese gunpowder which I don't like very much) the only green I have ever tried so far.

Anyhow, the good new is that leaving the ingenuiTEA on a cup for the whole night completely drained the water inside.

The bad is that the filter popped out after just a few usages; but this is a different story.

[Victoria]

Well a tip on the filter, which I have posted many times, is to rough up the edge. Use a knife or scissors and really scuff it up. Be careful not to hurt yourself!