Multiple infusions question

In my experience, 18 hours is too long to wait. Overnight, in general, is too long. I would throw out already-infused tea leaves after four or five hours if they haven't been reused yet.

I think this may have to do with the overall "fresh" quality of Japanese teas. Being greener in appearance, and gently and minimally processed compared to Chinese greens, I would expect they have more to lose over a shorter time span.

I've prepared 2nd and 3rd infusions of Chinese greens the next day, and some fall off and others don't. Note that leaf/water ratio may have something to do with this too.

I think oolongs are another story, and can handle many hours between steeps better than greens overall. My 2 cents.

Joe

Joseph snipped-for-privacy@mb-m12.aol.com11/17/03

I just got three steeps -- excellent, good, fair -- out of my sample of Imperial Tea Court's Imperial Yunnan Gold. *Some* might say I failed in my first steep as evidenced by the "success" of the second and third. But, hey, I'm just a poor country boy.

Michael

Michael:

You talked about three steeps but didn't talk about the time differences. I am also having ITC's Yunnan Gold but I didn't dare to steeps more then twice and within an hour.

Ripon (From Bangladesh)

Hi Patrick,

....

Usually, that sort of tea is infused only once. Many Japanese let the leaves of the 1st infusion in the teapot and add a second spoon of leaves for a second infusion, but that's to save chore of cleaning the pot, as the first leaves are nearly neutral.

In fact, that's the contrary, the higher end ryoku cha (Japanese green teas) tend to produce completely white second infusions.They give nearly

Yes, the process and the choice of leaves. So if you want green teas for multiple infusions, you'd better try other sorts, like Chinese Longjin. They are completely different, in that case, the best ones are those that produce the more infusions.

A way to "save" on your sencha is to blend it with 1/3 of tea stems (kukicha), the taste is slightly modified. But I don't know how much you pay the kukicha. In Osaka, they often add it for free if you are a regular customer.

I don't think there is a solution. If you like the second infusion, why don't you put half the usual quantity of leaves in the pot and infuse it twice back to back ?

Kuri

snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/18/03

Dare. No one need know about your failures except you. I brewed the second over 5 minutes and the third over 10. I don't take those aftersteeps too seriously and I don't really expect much. Sometimes 15-20 minutes just to squeeze a little more pleasure out of the leaves. I usually start with somewhat more than most people's recommended amount of leaf though.

Michael

Completely white second infusions? You mean clear and colorless? This just isn't the case. Disagree about the full flavor in 30 seconds claim as well. I steep my best Japanese greens at least 1 minute, generally.

--crymad

Michael Plant Wed, 19 Nov 2003 10:41:28 GMT wrote ...

Why ? An Ordinary man learns from his own mistakes. The wisdom ones from mistakes of others....