I’m a middle-path fellow in nearly all things so my experience with teapot stuffing is limited to a single accident with a feral Taiwanese TGY while using a smaller pot that I was used to.
I can’t remember the exact proportions but it was still less than 1g/10ml. I don’t use a timer but approximate my steeps at 20-45 seconds during the first 3 steeps.
This method extracted the absolutely worst characteristics of this tea and not a single good characteristic. It was soapy, astringent, and the chaqi was ho-hum. It tasted awful. Various gfc tricks couldn’t tame it and I’m doubtful any could!
After realizing my mistake I corrected my proportions the next day by using less leaf, more in the 0.6/10mm range, and the tea was very nice: negligible soapiness, modest flavor & aroma, but the huigan and chaqi were exceptional.
I’m pretty consistent so mistakes don’t happen frequently but I try to learn something when they do happen.
This mistake puzzled me, however. If the leaves didn’t open properly, why were the bad characteristics so pronounced? Why was the nice huigan and chaqi both missing from the overstuffed teapot? Does this heavy approach only work with yancha?
This experience would’ve been better with a finer tea but it seems that overstuffing extracts the worst of a tea, however fine the quality, rather than the best. No tea is perfect, after all.
I’m content with staying on the middle path.
Different ways to brew WuYi YanCha... what’s your favourite?
What about grandpa style (in a bowl, in a tall glass)? Videos from sellers often feature this method. Maybe it's just because they want to present an easy way that wouldn't scare off anyone. Do local/seasoned drinkers brew like that much?
Bowl is for cupping and sampling, easier to pin point where a tea stands before heading to proper brewing and getting the best out.
Grandpa is for lazy/casual situations, in my view at least. Good for mid grade teas, but probably a terrible idea for low or high grade teas.
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Ethan Kurland
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Use of a spoon w/ a bowl makes it easy to be sure to pour all of the liquid out of infusions. I believe water remaining w/ leaves between infusions often has a bad effect. One can stir leaves as they steep, smell the spoon to assess how steeping is going during an infusion, separate clumped leaves: play w/ steeping tea & enjoy waiting for a delicious drink.
Adding on to this
viewtopic.php?p=43930#p43930
Personally, I prefer the medium approach, but sadly it seems that most teas, especially those below 0.5$/g cannot take it. Probably best to throw those into the garbage even though they can be costly.
The strong approach, I only started experimenting with recently using a gaiwan and a zini pot. When it's bad, the tea reminds me of horribly overbrewed coffee sitting in coffee maker for days. Thick, nasty and completely unpalatable with no redeeming qualities. When it is good, the tea reveals surprising qualities that seems to be only apparent using this method. I note @OCTO saying this can be too fast and wasteful. Interestingly, for me, it is only with this approach that seems to leave such a powerful and lasting aftertaste that can linger for over days! This of course can be both good or bad depending on the tea - but with a good one, i feel I cannot drink any other tea for at least 1-2 days as my palate will be colored with this tea for at least this long. I feel a good smoothing clay pot is the preferred tool to round out the overbrewed coffee notes- and to emphasize the aftertaste- which seems to be what my zini can do.
viewtopic.php?p=43930#p43930
Personally, I prefer the medium approach, but sadly it seems that most teas, especially those below 0.5$/g cannot take it. Probably best to throw those into the garbage even though they can be costly.
The strong approach, I only started experimenting with recently using a gaiwan and a zini pot. When it's bad, the tea reminds me of horribly overbrewed coffee sitting in coffee maker for days. Thick, nasty and completely unpalatable with no redeeming qualities. When it is good, the tea reveals surprising qualities that seems to be only apparent using this method. I note @OCTO saying this can be too fast and wasteful. Interestingly, for me, it is only with this approach that seems to leave such a powerful and lasting aftertaste that can linger for over days! This of course can be both good or bad depending on the tea - but with a good one, i feel I cannot drink any other tea for at least 1-2 days as my palate will be colored with this tea for at least this long. I feel a good smoothing clay pot is the preferred tool to round out the overbrewed coffee notes- and to emphasize the aftertaste- which seems to be what my zini can do.
I've only been trying the 'strong' method for a few months now, learning by trial and error, and I agree generally with what others have said about it: when it's good, it can be very good, but it generally only works on high quality teas which were processed in a strong fashion and which suit this kind of brewing method;
I don't limit myself to three or four infusions 'artificially' as a matter of course, so I don't find the method to be 'wasteful', but I do find that those first few brews are by far the best when using this method. It is also useful if I only have time for a few strong brews, and can't afford to sit around for a dozen evolving infusions. The strong method also only really works for small teapots; I don't think I'd enjoy drinking huge cups at this strength, and I pour the tea into multiple small cups even if I'm drinking by myself, since it feels best when consumed in small amounts from small cups.
However, something that I have also found with the strong method is that it can sometimes work well to create a very good brew out of an average tea. I went through two big bags of EoT's house shuixian during lockdown. It was a nice tea for the price, nothing outstanding, and heavily roasted and oxidised enough for my preferences, but it was not a 'heavy' roast, and it had a few 'roasty' and rough elements to the flavour and the mouthfeel.
I initially tried to control some of those less pleasant aspects of it by using very short infusions, but I also tried brewing it very strong (a benefit of having a big bag to go through and experiment with), and I actually found that a very strong brew could create a few really good rounds of tea because the roasty elements would become balanced with a deep fruitiness and a heavier mouthfeel which emerged with longer brewing times. I found that different aspects of the aroma, flavour and mouthfeel emerged at different times during the brew, and that they could balance each other very well if a strong brewing method was used. So the tea worked well either brewed very quickly, or very strong, but not so well with a 'medium' approach (and if I got it wrong with the strong method, then it could get quite rough).
Andrew
I don't limit myself to three or four infusions 'artificially' as a matter of course, so I don't find the method to be 'wasteful', but I do find that those first few brews are by far the best when using this method. It is also useful if I only have time for a few strong brews, and can't afford to sit around for a dozen evolving infusions. The strong method also only really works for small teapots; I don't think I'd enjoy drinking huge cups at this strength, and I pour the tea into multiple small cups even if I'm drinking by myself, since it feels best when consumed in small amounts from small cups.
However, something that I have also found with the strong method is that it can sometimes work well to create a very good brew out of an average tea. I went through two big bags of EoT's house shuixian during lockdown. It was a nice tea for the price, nothing outstanding, and heavily roasted and oxidised enough for my preferences, but it was not a 'heavy' roast, and it had a few 'roasty' and rough elements to the flavour and the mouthfeel.
I initially tried to control some of those less pleasant aspects of it by using very short infusions, but I also tried brewing it very strong (a benefit of having a big bag to go through and experiment with), and I actually found that a very strong brew could create a few really good rounds of tea because the roasty elements would become balanced with a deep fruitiness and a heavier mouthfeel which emerged with longer brewing times. I found that different aspects of the aroma, flavour and mouthfeel emerged at different times during the brew, and that they could balance each other very well if a strong brewing method was used. So the tea worked well either brewed very quickly, or very strong, but not so well with a 'medium' approach (and if I got it wrong with the strong method, then it could get quite rough).
Andrew
I relate to Don's video. Excellent dry/wet leaf aroma, difficulties getting a truly satisfying taste in the cup. Dunno about the million tastes/pictures on the side, but the exciting mouthfeel stuff seems well described (it was either this or the referenced video about yan yun). At least to me, it really is very similar to a Daim bar, but I only got it fully working once (with a Shiru as well). Maybe I prefer a specific subcategory of yan yun (or is it just very strong yan yun)?