Hard Time Letting Go of The Rinse

[Geospearit]

Am I the only one who has a hard time pouring the rinse down the drain? I've tried the rinse before and it always seemed to be one of the more delicious brews. Thick. Nectar. Complex. Huigan. Qi.

What is it that needs rinsing out anyway? Natural chemicals/bacteria or potential chemical treatments ... or just sanitation because it has just been sitting around? There must be a good reason, and I'm not challenging age-old tea master wisdom, I'd just like an explanation. Maybe next issue in "The Leaf"

[nada]

A glimpse of village life and where these leaves have been would make you glad to throw away at least one quick rinse

[Salsero]

I understand that the Chinese consider it bad manners not to rinse when you do a gong fu session. Since I drink by myself, however, I do drink the rinse ... or I don't rinse, depending on your point of view.

The only times I do rinse are some shu puerh where I find off flavors at first. Often these can be washed away with one or two rinses.

A lot of people feel that a good rinse reduces any microbes or contaminants in the tea. Perhaps this is true, but I have not worried about such things much so far.

[Dizzwave]

You're not the only one, Geo. I do have a small sense of regret when I dump the rinse. But, I almost always do it, and still get plenty of good pours.
I think of not rinsing as not washing my hands before eating (and after riding the bus or something).. You never know what could be on there, but then you never *will* know -- kind of a what-you-don't-know-can't-hurt-you thing.
-dave

[heavydoom]

pu erh tea cakes/bricks etc....are compressed tea leaves. slamming some hot water onto the compressed chunks will loosen the chunks of compressed tea leaves up for better contact with water.

you will find it wasteful at first, with time it will be a habit to throw away your pu erh rinses. oolong tea is another story.

[hop_goblin]

Yep, delicious but trust me, some where or another, your florally fragrant YiWu leaves were at one time spread out on a street. (Oh, they use oxen enough said).

[Bubba_tea]

Doesn't look that bad, Hop...





... taken from: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2868.html

[Bubba_tea]

I guess if you could lick the ground the tea was laid on, it wouldn't matter much!

[wyardley]

Am I the only one who has a hard time pouring the rinse down the drain? I've tried the rinse before and it always seemed to be one of the more delicious brews. Thick. Nectar. Complex. Huigan. Qi.

You say this as if rinsing your tea is a given. It's not. Rinsing is a very religious debate. I do it because I don't usually particularly like the first brew that much, and I want to open up the leaves, and (mostly) just out of habit. But if you like the first brew that much, then there's no reason to discard it. I strongly doubt the tea police are going to come knocking on your door.

Some teas I'll do no rinse; other teas I'll do 2-3 rinses. Really depends on how much you know about where the tea came from, and its age... whether it's likely to have a lot of dust and other random crap on it, etc. Also how rare / valuable the tea is. If I'm drinking a really expensive, rare, or valuable tea, no way am I wasting that first brew.

[brlarson]

You've convinced me to always rinse first. I don't usually rinse oolongs because I use quality leaf and I *assume* that pesticides weren't used. I was assuming the same for the pu-erhs that I've been drinking, but I forgot about the toe jam and all.

[tenuki]

You've convinced me to always rinse first. I don't usually rinse oolongs because I use quality leaf and I *assume* that pesticides weren't used. I was assuming the same for the pu-erhs that I've been drinking, but I forgot about the toe jam and all.

Actually I usually flash rinse tightly rolled oolongs for an entirely different reason, it it wakes them up and gets them to start relaxing so the flavor and aroma come out the first brew better. Often I'll flash rinse, then let them sit for a minute or so. Try it, you'll like it.

[brlarson]

Actually I usually flash rinse tightly rolled oolongs for an entirely different reason, it it wakes them up and gets them to start relaxing so the flavor and aroma come out the first brew better. Often I'll flash rinse, then let them sit for a minute or so. Try it, you'll like it.

I flash rinse oolongs too, but then I usually drink the rinse:-) The only time that I regretted drinking the wash from oolong was with a Beidou No 1 from Teaspring -- it had a similar taste to bicarbonate of soda, but only in the wash. It shook me up a bit, made me question the quality of Teaspring's Wuyi oolongs. I has also had issues with the lack of character of the other two Teaspring Wuyis that I tried, rou gui and tie luo han.

Oops, sorry for dragging the Pu-erh group into an oolong chat.

[Wesli]

Do what you want.

Pu-erh can sometimes be just plain disgusting. I always rinse because of this. Rinsing also helps to open up the leaves, and make a better first infusion. There's quite a few reasons to rinse, really. Although if you handed someone like a me a rinse to drink, I would have to try not to be offended. But there's no way I could see a rinse of a vintage puerh go down the drain without becoming agitated.