How much tea ratio is too much, or not enough?

[TIM]

220 ml with 26.6 grams of High Fired Anxi TiKwanYin, aged 2 years.

There is a perception on the "Internet University" that while brewing Gong-Fu session, we need to let the tea to expend. So how much space does it need? Do they need to have enough room to flow around or they need to push up the lid and cant even close the door?

I don't care less on super market quality oolong to flow around in a teabag, thats why there are teabag's tea. But if brewing a high quality oolong and the session ended with not enough tea leaves, I think that simply wasting the full potential of the precious leaf, time and money.

Traditional ChaoZhou Kung-fu tea not only need compact building of tea in a pot, but also requires different grade of crashed leaves.

So whats your ratio? Flowing around like granny style while kung-fooing or pack to the gills that left you buzzing all night?

[MIKE_B]

I've been loosely filling my pot or gaiwan when using strip leaf oolong and about 1/3 of the way full for balled. I like my leaf to push up on the lid.
At the moment I have a 80ml CZ pot of dancong that's been going for three days and a 65ml Yixing full of TLH that's on day 2.
I don't carefully build my leaf inside my pot. I just fill it up, give it a gentle shake and top it off.

[iovetea]

how do you handle the caffein?

[TIM]

how do you handle the caffein?

Good question iovetea, thats why there are small gaiwan or teapot for personal use. Around 6o ml or under?

Again there are no right or wrong way to brew tea, as long as its your cup of tea.

[theredbaron]

I do believe that when you have high quality leaves that there is just a right amount. Too much may give one a buzz, but suppresses subtleties in flavor. The elusive "Cha Qi" should not be mistaken with a buzz any tea too strongly brewed tea will give, but is a certain... how would i express it best... maybe energy that is felt in body and mind when drinking very rare teas.
For rolled semi-fermented teas (which i rarely drink as i prefer Yancha or Pu Erh) i fill the bottom of a pot with leaves, which then unfurl over the course of the session. They will not be loose in the pot, but not so tightly packed to push up the lid.

In the climate i live it is not a very good idea to leave the pots filled overnight and then drink again in the morning - too hot, too humid.

[teaisme]

it seems for me the nicer the tea the larger the ratio, the real good ones taste so memorable and deep brewed heavy to a gloppy thickness (of course they taste great brewed light too), but the 'other' ones I tend to water down more, aiming for gentleness and ease of drink as priority one (while still being satisfying in other aspects of course) but not 'potent'. Going potent with the 'others' can make me feel jittery, unfulfilled, unnatural. The real nice ones though I need not worry about it not going down easy or feeling 'excessive', sky is the limit to how much leaf to put in as long as I'm speeeeeedy .

[hopeofdawn]

I usually brew semi-gong fu (if there is such a thing?)--I put enough tea in to cover the bottom and then some, which usually expands to two-thirds/almost fill the pot, depending on whether it's balled or not. I've tried packing my pots before, but didn't like the results--no matter how fast I tried to brew, the results were usually too harsh/too overpowering for my palate, and I ended up diluting them with hot water anyway to make it drinkable.

Definitely no granny/Western-style brewing, though. One teaspoon or two in a huge pot of water is way too weak for me!

[ethan]

I have read this thread several times the last few weeks as I changed my habits. My inclination is not to put nearly as much tea in a Yixing pot as the amounts being discussed here. Inside me is some ancient preacher yelling about the 7 deadly sins. Greed, waste,.... whatever. Tim's 26.6 grams, why not just say, one once, cost more than I made in an hour (when I had work), for ? ml., say, 1 good cup. How could one indulge oneself so?

Nonetheless, sinner that I am, I have overcome my conscience & my penury, & increased how much tea goes in the pot. It was not easy. Only a tiny bit more, one day; a tiny bit more the next; etc.

Now I thank all who have posted here. I do use much more tea than I had used before & do taste the flavors & quality that I hoped for when buying the tea. Moreover, the use of so much tea for a little pot, does allow me to steep quickly; &, less time steeping yields a few more good infusions. The use of more tea is not so extravagant!

I doubt that I will ever use 1 oz. of tea for 1 cup of water, but I can put more than 2 teaspoons of tea into an 8 oz. pot w/ a steady, calm, almost guilt-free hand.

[Chip]

While experimenting for OTTI 15, I ended up with 2:1 ratio (6 grams per 3 ounces) being the sweet spot for me for pretty much all 6 selections.

I could tell with some of them I could clearly go higher in ratio while in others I sensed I hit the ceiling.

[chrl42]

Gongfu ceremony that was popularized in northern Guangdong (including Chaozhou) and southern Fujian during late-Qing~ROC, the most typical set was 90ml pot and 3 ping-pong cups..but leaves being input weren't few,

so one can assume the taste juiced out of it would be pretty thick, almost bitter. I had a Chaozhou woman another day, performing gongfu in front of our companies, many disliked it for bitterness but the women answered "that's how we drink it everyday", some old scripts also mentioned its bitterness of gongfu and yancha.

Another, Weng Hui-dong of late-Qing pointed out to (in his chaozhou chajing)
1. take water when it boils to 'fish-eye'
2. take leaves and let it on top of chaozhou stove, to be awaken
3. put it on white paper, seperate thick and thin leaves
4. insert the thickest leaves first, then thinnest one, then thick leaves on top of pot
5. fill a pot with 7~80% of leaves

It's just one of old-fashion style..in present day, manufactering tea is different, pot is different..many people just fill 4~50% when it comes to yancha

[MarshalN]

Another, Weng Hui-dong of late-Qing pointed out to (in his chaozhou chajing)
1. take water when it boils to 'fish-eye'
2. take leaves and let it on top of chaozhou stove, to be awaken
3. put it on white paper, seperate thick and thin leaves
4. insert the thickest leaves first, then thinnest one, then thick leaves on top of pot
5. fill a pot with 7~80% of leaves

It's just one of old-fashion style..in present day, manufactering tea is different, pot is different..many people just fill 4~50% when it comes to yancha

Just pointing out that Weng Huidong was born in late Qing, but he wrote Chaozhou Chajing in the 1950s

[chrl42]

Another, Weng Hui-dong of late-Qing pointed out to (in his chaozhou chajing)
1. take water when it boils to 'fish-eye'
2. take leaves and let it on top of chaozhou stove, to be awaken
3. put it on white paper, seperate thick and thin leaves
4. insert the thickest leaves first, then thinnest one, then thick leaves on top of pot
5. fill a pot with 7~80% of leaves

It's just one of old-fashion style..in present day, manufactering tea is different, pot is different..many people just fill 4~50% when it comes to yancha

Just pointing out that Weng Huidong was born in late Qing, but he wrote Chaozhou Chajing in the 1950s

Tea prosecutor..appreciated though

[Tead Off]

I have found very few Chinese Gong fu style brewers able to make tea I like. Bitterness is almost always a problem. The 2 major reasons for this are low quality tea or too much time infusing in the pot. In and out is almost never practiced and the Chinese drinkers, for some reason, have gotten used to this kind of taste and tea rush to the head. Not much subtlety in their drinking. Of course, there are exceptions but not so easy to find commercially.

[gingkoseto]

I have found very few Chinese Gong fu style brewers able to make tea I like. Bitterness is almost always a problem. The 2 major reasons for this are low quality tea or too much time infusing in the pot. In and out is almost never practiced and the Chinese drinkers, for some reason, have gotten used to this kind of taste and tea rush to the head. Not much subtlety in their drinking. Of course, there are exceptions but not so easy to find commercially.

My experience is just about the contrary. Many Chinese drinkers I know of brew tea in a lighter way than western tea drinkers. I've been thinking it might have something to do with diet and what people have in their stomachs
There was once a puerh tea water ratio survey on teachat. I compared it with a puerh tea water ratio survey on a large Chinese tea forum. The difference of response modes was big, with much smaller tea water ratio on the Chinese side.

[Tead Off]

I have found very few Chinese Gong fu style brewers able to make tea I like. Bitterness is almost always a problem. The 2 major reasons for this are low quality tea or too much time infusing in the pot. In and out is almost never practiced and the Chinese drinkers, for some reason, have gotten used to this kind of taste and tea rush to the head. Not much subtlety in their drinking. Of course, there are exceptions but not so easy to find commercially.

My experience is just about the contrary. Many Chinese drinkers I know of brew tea in a lighter way than western tea drinkers. I've been thinking it might have something to do with diet and what people have in their stomachs
There was once a puerh tea water ratio survey on teachat. I compared it with a puerh tea water ratio survey on a large Chinese tea forum. The difference of response modes was big, with much smaller tea water ratio on the Chinese side.

Can't really comment on your experience. Mine is mostly with Chao Zhou people who have been drinking gongfu style all their lives. Are you talking about Chao Zhou people or northern Chinese?