I use a tea infuser (made from nylon, I let it sit in a glass of water in the fridge overneight to "diffuse" the tea that had built up on it) and made a cup of gunpowder green tea. I brewed for about three minutes. The resulting brew tastes a bit rank and musty like mold. Is this normal? Does gunpowder green just taste terrible? Maybe it's because it only cost a dollar an ounce. You buy what you pay for...
Well, once in a while a nice quick cup of Temple-of-Heaven gunpowder (incredibly cheap at local asia stores) is quite good, in my opinion. Just use less of tea, about 10 to 11 gr. per litre not to hot water an steep for max. two minutes. But you will get a strong brew, litely bitter and a touch of "smokey", which not everybody likes. You can have a milder version: steep for a minute or so and pour the tea away, then make a second infusion, let's steep about one and a half minutes then. But nevertheless, it is gunpowder. Do not compare with delicate green teas like sencha or those others from china or darjeeling, that would be like comparing tea from sumatra with a first flush darjeeling.
Dieter
It's an acquired taste, and the good ones are way better than the bad ones. I started drinking loose leaf tea with some crappy gunpowder, 4 oz. of the stuff, and at first it nearly knocked me over but then I grew to like it, and now the other greens always leave something to be desired.. it's that harshness that makes it.
I think it's according to personal preference. For example, I liked gunpowder and dragon well right off the bat, but whatever two pan-fried that I tried were awful.
I suggest that you brew for a shorter time and/or try another source and see if you get the same result.
There is good gunpowder, but it can be hard to track down. Most of the stuff exported from China is horrible. I did find some great gunpowder at
howlerman
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