Resteeping?

I do greens and whites 3x or more.

Someone posted here a few months ago about infusing Assam more than once, but I don't have any personal experience with that, other blacks, or oolongs.

Black Tea Water Temperature 212 F Infusion Time 3 to 5 Minutes No. of Infusions Most Only Once

Green Tea Water Temperature 185 F Infusion Time 2 Minutes No. of Infusions Two or Three

Semi-Black Tea Water Temperature 185 F Infusion Time 2 to 7 Minutes No. of Infusions Three to Ten

White Tea Water Temperature 175 F to 185 F Infusion Time 2 to 3 Minutes No. of Infusions Many

My personal experience with green teas is a lower temperature than shown above, longer infusion time of 3 minutes and 3 to 4 infusions. I think each tea is different, and when it comes to multiple infusions, you probably just have to try it and don't be afraid to throw it out if it fails to satisfy.

Oh, bother. Their "semi-black" category contains 3 groups of oolongs and a collection of Jasmines of various types.

I'm sorry. But white tea scented with Jasmine is anything but "semi-black." They should put their Jasmines in with their blends and call their oolongs by what they are rather than creating an screwed up category.

I can't get myself to even consider this. Growing up, we had teabags - Tetley, Lipton, whatever. How ever many people were having tea - that's how many cups you got out of that one teabag. The teabag was put into a little covered glass canister, and into the refrigerator, where it would stay until it was used again and again. When people would no longer consider using it for drinking tea, my grandmother would save it, in case she needed to "tea" a stained tablecloth, napkin, etc. Even as a child, I would refuse tea unless I was given a new teabag; happy to share with everyone, but I wanted a new tea bag! I don't think I could ever get past this enough to have multiple infusions!

But, wasn't that poor quality black tea in teabags while you're now into higher quality loose teas and using more tea for more people? I suggest that you at least try to get over your aversion to multiple infusions of any sort because there's still a whole lot of excellent flavor in my green and white teas.

Just a thought.

Wow! My heartfelt condolences! :( Was this during the War years or during the depression? Or were your family just *very* thrifty?

Ye gods, I can't imagine multiple cups of tea out of a Lipton teabag...one's bad enough..: P

Melinda

Vietnam War, but I don't think that's what you meant. My grandmother was only "thrifty" when it came to teabags - she just didn't think that a teabag was "done" as long as there was any coloring power left in it. But yes... it's amazing that I don't have a total aversion to tea!!

My samples are all black teas, so it's not a worry, yet. :)

I promise to consider it once I branch out from black teas! (And yes, when I used teabags, it was always one per person, and then a new one.)

My general rule is that the larger the leaf, the more infusions you can get, and this is true (to a point) regardless of the oxidation level. I have whole-leaf oolongs that can produce 3 or 4 good infusions, and a golden yunnan black that produces at least 2.

Regards, Dean

teabag...one's

The very thought makes me want to heave.

Do you happen to know why/how she developed such a belief? I'm so flavor-oriented, and so is everyone else I've run across, that I can't comprehend the concept. Even in England, way back when, poor people would use a lot of milk to save on the expense of tea but I never got the impression that they reused tea over and over again. In China, though, sometimes it got to the point where a poor family could only offer hot water as "tea" to a guest.

The more expensive the tea the more it can be resteeped or so goes the pitch you see on the websites. The bottom line the first cup always taste the best. Even if I did believe there is after taste in the gongfu method I'd still use a one litter pot and be done with it. You get a better taste with saturation than filtration. In general blacks can't be reused but anything else can. The problem with generalizations it doesn't account for the Ceylon OP which can take multiple short infusions or a CTC where infusion is immediate and can take it once or twice more. Even I will hit the pot a second time but it's because I'm lazy. I have some oolongs that take 5 minutes to unfurl even at boiling temperature. If I use temperatures less than that I can start my own episodes of 24. So I hit those several times because I know they can take it. Multiple infusions is a function of Western and Asian styles and knowing how your tea tastes in a pot.

Jim

Ole Kvaal wrote:

Nope, not a clue... so I called my mother.

Once she stopped laughing, realizing I wasn't asking her for the little glass jar, she said, "don't you remember what Grandma did with tea?"

Well, of course I did! She would add a little bit of honey for me, and then pour the tea back and forth from one cup to another, until the temperature was just right. Heaven forbid I do something like *wait* for the tea to cool down! I was always transfixed by the jumping tea - she never lost a drop.

So Mom said, "yes, but do you remember what she did before that?"

Not a clue. So she told me the story.

My grandfather always had severe GI issues, and could not tolerate caffeine. They had always had Sanka for coffee, but they couldn't find decaffeinated tea. The doctor suggested she make very strong tea, dump it out, and then use that teabag in new water - it would remove the caffeine. Whether it's true or not I don't know, but that's what she was told. She was concerned she'd forget to look at the clock, and it wouldn't be the same each time. So, she'd boil water, put a teabag in a cup, add the water. Empty the kettle, put up new water to boil. Once that boiled, she'd take out the teabag from the cup, dump the tea, wash the cup, and make a new cup of tea. Each and every time.

By her reasoning, if the second cup was "better" for you than the first, then the 3rd, 6th, 8th, had to have been even better. (How I wish I could ask her if she knew about homeopathy and tinctures!)

She wasn't thrifty, simply misguided.

Needless to say, I will now embrace resteeping, and probably get a bit teary-eyed each time.

Yes, because caffeine is so highly water-soluble, up to 80% is released into the water in the first 30 secs. of steeping, although there isn't an appreciable gain in going past 45 secs. The technique of do-it-yourself decaffeination has been discussed in rfdt before.

I recall hearing that that type of reasoning used to be prevalent: If one is good, then two is twice as good, and three is 3x as good...

Yes, it's a good story. Thank you for sharing it.

Sorry - didn't think to search before posting. Good to know, though, if I need decaf tea.

And why I now know she was merely misguided, and meant well, as she was serving lousy tea! But, I'm still not going that far with repeated infusions.

Side note: Upton tea is in the mail! I realized it's my fault the CD tray delivery didn't work - I should have skipped the personalized labels. Next time...

:D

Some Assams take re-steeping: I have one Hattialli here which has a glorious aroma, even after the second steep. I steep twice with this tea in the evening, the second steep does not add any caffeine.

JB

Thanks.

snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com2/21/05

Hi,

I agree with you. Those temperatures are much too high for greens and whites. They would lead to bitter tea, and a second steep would be difficult to achieve. More tea, quicker steeps, and lower temperatures should yield fine multiple steeps for greens. Grassy is not a quality you want from the subsequent steeps of a long jing you paid a dollar (USC) a gram for.

To resteep greens, remember that the initial steep opens the leaves rather quickly and can be fairly quick. But, for the second steep, the leaves are already open and ready to release their stuff, so a nearly instantaneous steep would yield fine results without bitterness. (I use half as many grams of tea as there will be ounces of water for starters.)

Michael