About water temperature...

[stockman]

I have been thinking today about water temperature when brewing sheng pu erh.

I always used boiling water but as with white and green tea, using lower temperature (let's say between 85-95ºC) would improve some sheng? Or it's better to use boiling water? (with improve I mean if it would allow the tea to be more meallow, less bitter, with more flavour notes).

I thought this during my bai hai yin zhen session today as I used lower temperature and the tea gave me other notes (fruity notes against more floral notes when I use higher temperature water).

What do you think?

PS: as you can see, despite drinking pu erh since 2 years ago I still have much to learn, any source to learn a bit more will be welcome

[Rui]

Usually I steep very young sheng pu'er (+/- less than 2 years) at 90 degrees C but older teas I tend to steep them with higher temperatures water.

[Bef]

http://www.white2tea.com/2015/01/15/bes ... puerh-tea/

[Zacherywolf7]

It's all experimenting. I start with 205 fahrenheit and if the tea is really strong ( a young brash bulang for instance) I might drop it to 200. Sometimes 212 can work too, but sometimes I think it is too bitter even yiwu to discern subtler notes.

[tingjunkie]

If using a gaiwan... instead of reducing the water temperature in the kettle, try pouring a delicate, thin stream of water around the rim of the gaiwan avoiding pouring water directly on the leaves. When pouring the tea from the gaiwan, try to do so gently as well, even aiming the pour at the wall of the fair cup or tea cup.

That, combined with the length of infusion, should reduce bitterness and bring out different notes as well. More than one way to skin a cat.

[stockman]

I see...

So then there's not a 'go to' and it's better to experiment with each pu erh to see what fits better, right?

[allthebest4u]

I find that 185°F @ 3 min. works well with most pu, but I generally pull the cake apart so I'm brewing separate leaves. I never brew gong fu style, but a chunk of tea would probably want a higher temp.
Try experimenting in 5° increments. If a lower temp tastes sweeter, you're on the right track. Too high a temp makes tea taste brash and dry.