Different ways to brew WuYi YanCha... what’s your favourite?

Semi-oxidized tea
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OCTO
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Mon May 20, 2019 6:56 am

One tea, four ways to brew. Four different taste profile. Aroma, Fragrance, After Taste, Smoothness....

Brew with GaiPei.
Brew with Teapot.
Brew with Slow Boil.
Cold Brew to close.

You can also have a combination of brewing methods. How do you like it??

#gaipeibrew #teapotbrew #slowboilbrew #coldbrew
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OCTO
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Mon May 20, 2019 6:58 am

一種茶,用四种不同的冲泡法。

把她不同的,口感,滋味,香气和味道带出来。

用盖碗
用茶壺
用慢煮
用冷泡

您還可以結合不同的冲泡法。你喜欢哪一款冲泡?

#盖碗 #茶壺 #慢煮 #冷泡
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.m.
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Mon May 20, 2019 7:18 am

Nice photos. Thanks for sharing. A couple questions, if i may ask.
1. Is GaiPei the same thing as Gaiwan?
2. How do you cold brew? Do you pour in hot water and steep "overnight", or do actually use cold water?
3. When slow boiling, how long? When/what is the sweet spot?
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OCTO
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Mon May 20, 2019 8:03 am

.m. wrote:
Mon May 20, 2019 7:18 am
Nice photos. Thanks for sharing. A couple questions, if i may ask.
1. Is GaiPei the same thing as Gaiwan?
2. How do you cold brew? Do you pour in hot water and steep "overnight", or do actually use cold water?
3. When slow boiling, how long? When/what is the sweet spot?
1. Yes. It is the same.

2. I either brew with hot water and then chill in the fridge or use room temperature water and steep overnight in the fridge. Very much depends on the tea I'm brewing. The weather here is always warm and humid. Any tea left overnight outside the fridge tends to go stale. For YanCha, I always brew with hot water and chill afterwards.

3. The duration is very much a very personal preference. For me, I tend to heat my porcelain pot up to about 80C on a stove then keep warm over a tea candle base for a duration of about 4 - 6 hours. I will stop when I'm satisfied with the taste. Some will prefer to simply put it over the stove and bring the pot to a boil for a duration of a few minutes. No specific sweet spot. Let your palettes decide... :D :D

Hope that answers your questions.

Cheers!
.m.
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Mon May 20, 2019 9:27 am

OCTO wrote:
Mon May 20, 2019 8:03 am
...
Thank you for your answers. It gives an inspiration. It's always interesting to try and do things differently than one usually does, and to see different aspects.

I've been recently reading about this method of repeated overnight brewing
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... sting.html
What I find interesting is that sometimes the tealeaves even after a prolonged/overnight infusion are not wasted and may retain enough strength to be brewed again.

Cheers!
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Bok
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Mon May 20, 2019 10:29 am

For me I use the gaibei to get to know a new tea I am not familiar with, as it is the most neutral way to brew the tea.

Then I will pass on to try teapots based on what my conclusions of the gaibei were. Always re-evaluating and trying different clays randomly just to confirm or disprove assumptions. Mostly I prefer using a pot, I think for every tea there is a pot :) just need to find the match!

I have yet to try boiling, but am preparing to do so with some samples I just got...

For chilled Yancha I am not chilled out enough, haha - seen the financial investment good Yancha is, I hesitate to cold brew. I normally reserve this treatment for the unwanted teas...
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Kale
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Mon May 20, 2019 5:28 pm

Usually a gaiwan. Sometimes a pot.
LCSX and aged yancha always boiling 🔥
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pantry
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Fri May 31, 2019 1:59 am

I'm still pretty much experimenting with my Yancha brewing at this point. Been using a small gaiwan and occasionally a high quality zini pot and a Chaozhou pot. Without a proper guidance, I really don't know what I'm doing. For example, I feel like I don't taste anything special from the tea from third brew onward. And I'm still unable to extract enough flavor after 6 brews.

Closing with the rinse was the most flavorful part, and the hour after finishing drinking that's when I can actually feel the tea (from my breath, upper palette, etc.) Is this common and expected?

I don't have a suitable tool to boil the tea. I also cold brew the spent leaves overnight, which tastes very good. Just not very unique :|
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Bok
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Fri May 31, 2019 2:56 am

pantry wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 1:59 am
I don't taste anything special from the tea from third brew onward. And I'm still unable to extract enough flavor after 6 brews.
Maybe your yancha is just not of high enough quality? What is your source? Not many Yancha out there are actually high quality.
Water should be always very hot, each time you brew. Or change to a different water.

Chaozhou pots are maybe not ideal. Depending on what kind you get, they can range from the very muting to the no-muting kind.
Same goes for Zini. More of a muting kind of clay you would not want to use with quality yancha.
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pantry
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Fri May 31, 2019 3:16 am

I’ve been brewing supposedly Zheng yan teas from the Huang family and Wuyi Origin. Also tried the ban yan Rougui from leafygreen. I could taste the difference in grades. And also know they are not low quality since I also have one of those dhp that comes in Chinese gift boxes as my benchmark for low 😂

Been brewing with 2-2.5g with 25-30ml water. Though the Zini I used doesn’t take away a lot, I did most of my brews in a gaiwan. I’m thinking maybe I need to just use more tea and more water so the temperature stays more constant.

I still managed to squeeze 8-9 brews out of them, but the later brews just taste like any other sweet oolong to me
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Bok
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Fri May 31, 2019 3:34 am

pantry wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 3:16 am
I’ve been brewing supposedly Zheng yan teas from the Huang family and Wuyi Origin. Also tried the ban yan Rougui from leafygreen. I could taste the difference in grades. And also know they are not low quality since I also have one of those dhp that comes in Chinese gift boxes as my benchmark for low 😂

Been brewing with 2-2.5g with 25-30ml water.
I never measure anything, but it seems you might not use enough leaf. Usually with Yancha and Dancong I stuff a 60-90ml pot completely with leaves. Maybe Yancha a tiny tad less as the leaves are smaller and closer together unlike Dancong.
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pantry
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Fri May 31, 2019 4:03 am

Bok wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 3:34 am
I never measure anything, but it seems you might not use enough leaf. Usually with Yancha and Dancong I stuff a 60-90ml pot completely with leaves. Maybe Yancha a tiny tad less as the leaves are smaller and closer together unlike Dancong.
I think you’re right. Will give that a try. What is a reasonable number of steeps you can expect from a good quality Yancha?

As for DC, i brew mine quite lightly. Fewer leaves with a little more time.
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Tillerman
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Fri May 31, 2019 7:35 am

pantry wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 4:03 am

What is a reasonable number of steeps you can expect from a good quality Yancha?
I know this is not a universally held opinion whatsoever, but I believe that "counting steeps" is a mug's game (pun intended.) We can use them in our own analysis but to try to compare the number of steeps I get with the number you get doesn't mean much at all. From a good yancha (from Wuyi Origin, for example) I'll get about six tasty steeps before I find that it fades away. With the same tea, you may get more or fewer steeps. My point is you should get exactly the number where the tea continues to please; you won't get more. I would rather have one delicious steep to 10 rather tasteless ones.
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Tillerman
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Fri May 31, 2019 7:40 am

As a general rule, I regularly reach for my clay pots when steeping oolong tea; and I have been almost always pleased with the results (when the tea is of good quality, that is.) For the past week, however, I have been brewing all of my tea in a gaiwan and I have been loving the outcomes. Different tastes but no less wonderful.
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pantry
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Fri May 31, 2019 10:55 am

Tillerman wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 7:35 am
I know this is not a universally held opinion whatsoever, but I believe that "counting steeps" is a mug's game (pun intended.) We can use them in our own analysis but to try to compare the number of steeps I get with the number you get doesn't mean much at all.
I get what you’re saying, and I generally agree. However, it is valuable when starting out and establishing a baseline. I’m trying both to evaluate the tea and learn to brew it well at the same time. For other teas I’m already familiar with I won’t bother with measurements.

In the case of yancha, I find it a bit difficult to learn. There is not a lot of useful information out there, and so many different varietals as well. The differences in taste from the first 2-3 brews (incl. rinse) and later brews are as night and day. The yun part is much easier to notice, and perhaps what piqued my interest in the first place. Anyway, will experiment with same water:tea ratio but using a higher volume and see if that changes!
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