Picked up some raw (green) bo-lay/pu-ehr tea in Chinatown. It's got that great muskiness that this tea type has, but lighter flavor due to it still being a green tea. It cost $4 for an 100g nest, but I only used about a tablespoon's worth so this is going to last me a while.
---------- Post added at 10:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 PM ----------
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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Does anyone have any experience with multiple infusions?
I've been reading up on the differences between bagged tea versus loose leaf, and I'm going to be switching more to the latter, partly because I'm working from home now and using my French press to make tea is now my norm.
There's a tea boutique around the corner from my place that sells loose decaf sencha. It costs a bit more than what I would pay for a bagged equivalent, but the quality should be much higher.
I've read a bit about infusing your leaves multiple times, but I've never tried it. I figure it's possible to get 2 to 3 infusions from the same leaves and still get a decent tea, but I don't know yet.
I read somewhere that the trick is to infuse subsequent rounds longer than the first. So, for example, the 2-minute infusion for green tea becomes 4.
I'd save a lot of tea money doing this.
Has anyone done this? Does anyone do it regularly?
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I've been able to pull multiple steeps from some fermented bo-lays/pu-erhs as well as gunpowder greens by using the method you describe. It definitely is an issue of tea leaf quality, as lower quality will get bitter faster or won't have any flavor at all. I like to use a gaiwan with a thermos of hot water, pouring out each steep into a separate teacup.
Last time my gf was in San Francisco, she stopped by the Samovar Tea Lounge after hearing about it on Diggnation. She got the blood orange Pu-Erh and they refilled her teapot 12 times! The 12th steep wasn't as strong as the first, but was still very strong and flavorful. I'm tempted to buy some to experiment at home.
There's a great video section on the Samovar site, but this one briefly mentions multiple steepings about 4:40 into it.
David Lee Hoffman, Tea Pioneer: Part I | Samovarlife