Puer brewing

Hi Cale,

First, as you have said, it is very much a matter of personal taste. I used to brew very long and strong also, particularly black puerhs. Recently however I have discovered that the longer steeps were masking other more delicate flavors that I had never even noticed before. I now brew at a ratio of 1g of leaf to 20ml (5-6g to 4oz), a 20 sec rinse, let it rest a minute to allow the leaf to hydrate, then 20-30 sec steeps, starting with the third I increase the time by 20-50% each successive steep. On some tea, one particular half-cooked 20 year old mushroom comes to mind, I use almost instantaneous steeps for the first 5-6 rounds. On that particular tea I found that longer steeps totally ruined the flavor where short steeps brought out a nice aged flavor.

I have a lot of links to other gongfu methods listed here

Mike Petro

Mike snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com/13/05

Cale and Mike,

This, if I might add, is because between the steeps the wet leaves continue to release their goodness, even though they are not water soaked. When you add the water, the released flavors are imparted to the water almost immediately.

In a really general sense, so many Pu'erhs, so many approaches and parameters, so little time. In other words, you'll need to experiment somewhat with every new one you try. That's my opinion. For specifics, I rely on Mike.

Michael

I subscribe to the general school of: if you want a stronger cup use more leaf *NOT* more time. More time tends to bring out undesirable elements in many teas, for example the tannic acid in reds(blacks).

Mike Petro

Mike snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com/13/05

Mike, that's a great point, and I agree completely. Glad you mentioned it. If the tea is truly expensive and you don't want to waste any, use a smaller brew vessel.

Michael

To Mike and Michael - Thank you. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I will follow suggestions and experiment. Cale

To Mike and Michael - Thank you. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I will follow suggestions and experiment. Cale

To Mike and Michael - Thank you. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I will follow suggestions and experiment. Cale

I like longevity in my brewings/tea tastings. I put about 7 grams of tea into a gaiwan or pot and go from there; more close akin to Chinese gongfu style. Extremely short brewing times, but you can get 8-10 (or more depending on the quality of your tea) good brews. If you're really good, you can keep the same flavor at nearly every brewing. Thus "gongfu".