Green and/or Oolong Darjeeling

Ralf,

My experience is that the number of steeps one can get from a particular tea is more dependent on the leaf style than anything else. If the leaf style is very "bold" (i.e., large or close to full leaf) then at least two steeps are possible, assuming that the length of the first was not excessive. I have a Darjeeling from the Seeyok garden called "Silver Pearls" which reminds me of a hand-rolled Chinese tea (think Tiekuanyin or gunpowder); it is largely whole leaf, and I can get two very satisfactory steeps from it. But most Darjeeling is BOP (broken orange pekoe), and the leaves release almost everything of interest during the first steep.

I could be wrong (the beauty of the internet is that someone will disagree with every expressed opinion ), but I think the oxidation level is less an indicator of multiple steeps than leaf size. Of course, an "acceptable" steep is also a matter of personal taste.

Regards, Dean

Dean,

Not sure here, at least the oolong type darjeeling ("Emerald Arya") was a straight full leaf tea and was especially dissapointing as the

2nd steep was nothing more than dyed water, one of the green darjeeling ("Sharma") was far more on the broken side but this had the 'best' 2nd steeping from all these teas (in my definition: a brew that carried a lot of the aroma one had from the first steep)

That is right. I am coming from green(ish) Ti Guan Yin types and other Anhui and selected Taiwan teas so I am propably prejudiced here.

All the best Ralf

I don't find most Darjeelings to have a pronounced "nose", like Ti Guan Yin and Baozhong oolongs. Darjeelings seem to concentrate their essence on the palate, so for me, an "acceptable" second steep is one which carries a similar flavor and intensity profile to the first. I usually steep BOP styles 3 minutes, but shorten it to 2-2.5 minutes if I want to get a second steep from a bold leaf.

Regards, Dean

Hi Dean,

Yes, but why is that? And why does is seems to be the same with green tea as it is with black (darjeeling)?

You mean _black_ BOP? Never tried a 2nd steep though I heard the stories about britisch grannies drying their used tea bags and re-using them. Their grandchildren are not so fond of that technique ;o)

Regards Ralf

If you're asking why Darjeeling teas have different characteristics than similar style Chinese teas, that's not a question I can answer, although I've certainly thought about it.

Again, I'm talking about loose bold, mainly whole-leaf teas, not the fannings or dust that fill tea bags nor most broken-leaf style teas. My original assertion was that the quality of a subsequent steep was, in general, a function of leaf size, not oxidation level. I believe the larger the leaf, the lower the surface area and the slower the infusion rate, and that this phenomenon is independent of whether the tea is green, oolong or black.

As an example, this weekend I made a pot of Gopaldhara WT-3; this tea consists of 50% one leaf and a bud and 50% two leaves and a bud. The leaves are from Clonal bushes and strictly plucked from a single variety of clone. They were rolled by hand, resulting in an unusually bold leaf appearance. I used about 4.5 teaspoons of tea and about 600ml of water. I heated the water to just about boiling and steeped 3 minutes. My second steep was 400 ml of water for 4 minutes. The result did not have the complexity of the first steep, but it was certainly acceptable.

Sounds convincing, but does not explain what I experienced. The Darjeeeling oolong I have tried had in fact very big, complete leaves. The aroma of the dry leaves was what I expected: a very flowery 'oollong-scnet' combined with the typical aroma of a very good darjeeling. The leaves could not have been more intact. Also it was pretty fresh. In fact, form the appearance of the (used) leaves one could imagine it was a top class Ti Guan Yin. But onlky the first steep, the second did not have the aroma or taste to make it an acceptable steep in my book.

Must be something else, I wiosh I had a little more insight in the making of really fine oolong teas, I understand a lot of handwork is involved, could this make a difference maybe?

Thank you all, Ralf