Gongfu Brewing of Black Tea

Has anyone tried brewing black teas in an Yixing teapot using gongfu style? Is it possible to get more than one flavorful infusion using this method?

I have been somewhat disappointed with not being able to get a good 2nd infusion from black teas using traditional methods (i.e boiling water, 4-5 minute infusion). Teas tried: Keemun, Darjeeling 2nd Flush.

Thanks for any insights.

Reply to
Wendi
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Wendi,

it's not traditional, but there is no reason under the sun for you not to try it. There is something of a concensus, not universally shared, that the second steep of a black tea will be inferior to the first (nearly) always. You would have to carefully control the steep times in order to avoid an undrinkable brew, I'd think -- that is, if you gungfu. How big is your teapot?

BTW, personally, when I steep black teas, I sometimes put in extra amounts of leaf, cut down steep time, and get a pretty decent second steep that way. But, it is seldom near as good as the first.

Michael

Reply to
Michael

Wendi,

I don't think it's necessarily un-traditional to use a yixing for black teas. At least I know I read some references to it when I started researching gungfu practice.

I think the one kind of tea no one recommends for yixing use is -- greens in general.

However, I'm no expert. I'm sure others more experienced will chime in.

Joe

Reply to
Joseph Kubera

It's common in the UK (I'm told) to steep the leaves twice, but I don't think that the expectation is that the second infusion will taste as good. I think it arises from frugality.

I've really only found that greens and oolongs can handle multiple infusions well. I've never tried black tea in a Yixing pot, and I doubt I will (what with the lingering flavors it would impose on other teas).

Reply to
Christopher Roberson

I'm usually pleased with the results I get from multiple infusions of Puerh.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Lewis Perin rolled initiative and posted the following:

And I have found a few black teas at my local shop that give pretty good 2nd steeps. Few is the operative adjective, however.

Reply to
Derek

I've tried gongfu'ing keemuns, yunnans, and darjeelings. I've never gotten any results that were worth the amount of tea used. The first steeps tend to be completely overpowering with the strength and complexity falling greatly in subsequent steeps. The gongfu'ed yunnan was almost undrinkable it was so heavy.

It is traditional to use yixing teapots for black or "red", as the Chinese call them, teas, though the pots are generally much larger than usual. Most Chinese don't drink black teas which, IIRC, were originally intended for the European market. I do most of my black tea brewing in yixing pots, but the volumes involved are 8-12 fl oz.

I think with non-puer black teas you just have to accept that the first steep will be by far the best oweing to the highly soluble caramelized compounds being dissolved on the first go. You just get an extremely strong first steep and then somewhat weak tea thereafter.

Regards,

Cameron Lewis

Reply to
Cameron Lewis

"Wendi" ha scritto nel messaggio news:b34Lb.5212$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

For what I know, black tea production started in Fujian at the end of XVII century as further development of oolong tea. One of the the names by which it was known to Western merchants was "Congou", a awkward rendering of "gongfu" (Pinyin), or "kung-fu" (Wade-Giles). Still now the term "gongfu hongcha" is used in China to denote whole-leaf black tea, such as whole-leaf Qihong (Keemun), Dianhong (Yunnan blach), etc. In Taiwan I have seen people preparing these kinds of tea using gongfu brewing style with very good results. In order to do it I think it is important to use a good quality whole-leaf tea which will unroll step by step at every infusion, adopting very short steeping times. Any broken-leaf tea will definetly not do. I have personally tryed with Yangxian Suhong (Jiangsu black from Yixing) and got at least three good infusions. In any case, I do not drink much black tea, and, when I do it, most of the times I use a relatively big pot and add water two or more times when it gets almost (not complitely) empty. L

Reply to
Livio Zanini

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