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

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debunix
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Fri May 31, 2019 9:05 pm

I find Yanchas delicious from glazed pots, glazed gaiwans, and unglazed gaiwans and pots; my favorite way is unglazed pots, but I probably drink them more often from my Stanley thermos, a whole days' worth of tea for those days when I am away from my tea brewing setups at home and the primary office. They're quite flexible and delicious despite different brewing scenarios.
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octopus
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Sat Jun 08, 2019 9:58 am

Kale wrote:
Mon May 20, 2019 5:28 pm
LCSX and aged yancha always boiling 🔥
right answer brother.

in boil we trust.
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octopus
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Sat Jun 08, 2019 10:37 am

pantry wrote:
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.
to be honest i dont think yancha is particularly notable for longevity and I don't recommend drinking this tea if that is your goal. The number of brews you get out of it depends on your taste. Some people brew only 3 very intense brews, others make more up to drinking basically water but still enjoy it. It's kind of up to you really.

I would guess for my own brewing taste which is quite light (but i would use 5-7 g for a gaiwan of 80/110ml which is enough to drink the tea and not just be sipping bird sized cups) , any ok tea would reach around maybe 6 or 7 or maybe even 8 progressively fading brews and that's why keeping the first or second as last is a good idea to end the session on a high note. The defining factor of quality is more if the yun stays in the brew after the beginning or if the congwei stay there after the beginning or if they fade even before you reach half the session or so. This is probably what differentiate the rare highest level of yancha from others. While any yun at all is already rare, it is not super rare hard to have some sort of yun or congwei that can last 2-3 brews than fades. Ofc is also up to preference and personal budget to consider if one cares about this or not. Maybe all one wants is a couple cups of tea and then move on. a one night stand is not necessarily worse than a long term relationship if that's all you look for. Maybe one doesn't even care about yun or congwei at all which makes perfect sense since there are many other flavors to drink yancha for. Again personal taste.

Now if you really look for the most miles out of your yancha I recommend to try aged yancha boiled (few grams can make liters of tea, you can use a simple pot on a stove) or good quality laocong shuixian (again boiled can make a lot of tea). These teas will cost way more than the average tea and makes no sense to brew one if one doesn't like the flavor or has only a short time to dedicate to a tea session (or doesn't boil aged yancha). However I personally love these boiled teas and drink them often so who knows. Up to taste.

In any case if you can reach 10 brews of a rougui in a gaiwan is quite exceptional. For more longevity in tea try white teas, yunnan teas, or any kind of aged tea. It's really not something that yancha is particularly interesting for. I would also say in general don't worry too much about "acquiring taste" for yancha if you don't feel like it clicks for you, or if it doens't make you happy when drinking it. There are a lot of other teas with different characteristics that can be more enjoyable and even cheaper. In fact I met many people who think yancha is overpriced trash and that's ok. its just tea :)
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tjkdubya
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:16 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. 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
~1:12 ratio sounds high enough but I think the question is not just whether the ratio is right but the brew quantity itself. 25-30ml... Such a small volume loses heat much faster between steeps than a larger quantity at the same ratio. Drinking solo, assessing a new yancha, say, I usually default to 6g in 90ml. But the same tea at 4g in 60ml just does not open up the same way even though it's the same ratio.

2g in 30ml, again the same ratio, tasting like "any other sweet oolong" after a few brews ... sounds pretty familiar with my experience trying to brew small quantities :)
carogust
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:46 am

tjkdubya wrote:
Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:16 am

~1:12 ratio sounds high enough but I think the question is not just whether the ratio is right but the brew quantity itself. 25-30ml... Such a small volume loses heat much faster between steeps than a larger quantity at the same ratio. Drinking solo, assessing a new yancha, say, I usually default to 6g in 90ml. But the same tea at 4g in 60ml just does not open up the same way even though it's the same ratio.

2g in 30ml, again the same ratio, tasting like "any other sweet oolong" after a few brews ... sounds pretty familiar with my experience trying to brew small quantities :)
Have to agree on this. I kind of half mistakenly bought a very tiny 45ml teapot, thinking it would be great for using less leaves per session.
Lower ratios and longer steeps work better with larger vessels. A fairly large 120ml (usable volume) gaiwan can make an awesome, strong and full brew with ~5g of leaves and 40-60 second brew, but if I use the same ratio in an 85ml teapot it suffers a lot. Makes me wonder if small pots kind of force you to use high ratios...
Starting to question the small pot brewing method, as one of my favorite sessions with yancha has happened with a large ~200-300ml mug, using a very large filter basket and 5 grams of leaves... still managed to get 5 good steeps!
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:49 am

Not exactly fitting into the discussion, I'll mention that I have been using a larger teapot recently because some months back I'd come to believe that steeping is better without the vessels being full of water & leaves. I would not be surprised to hear that a lot of air in a teapot does nothing to improve flavor in most drinkers' experience. At times I believe flavor is better; other times--not. I am sure that I don't notice any harm in this new habit; &, I enjoy seeing that leaves had space to expand & like being able to remove those leaves more easily in the greater space.
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Bok
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:52 am

Interesting thoughts, although from my personal experience I went the opposite way, from larger to smaller pots.

One reason, the teas I drink got progressively more expensive.

Second, I prefer the espresso kind of traditional brewing, short steeps and high leaf/water ratio. I do think the resulting brew has a different quality. Not better or worse, just more to my liking.
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 10:40 am

I guess the ? comes up, "Does one need to fill the pot that is being used?"

Suggested practices, such as pre-heating teaware, have been adopted by me & then later abandoned. Perhaps my palate is just not that sensitive or my teas don't need such exact preparation. As most of us do, I take an interest in producing the best cup of tea. I also take an interest in easy preparation & easy clean-up.

Lately, I have 1/3 of my pot empty. It is easy to know how much water goes into 2/3 of a pot & adjust the amount of the leaves. I don't suggest others do this but note that I don't feel flavor is lost & do find advantages to this practice. (The main one being able to see well-expanded leaves in the pot that can be moved around, removed, etc. easily.)
carogust
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:20 am

Bok wrote:
Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:52 am
Second, I prefer the espresso kind of traditional brewing, short steeps and high leaf/water ratio. I do think the resulting brew has a different quality. Not better or worse, just more to my liking.
I commonly prefer the later steeps compared to the first few for some odd reason even thought the first few are usually the most complex and unique. Using a longer brew lets me get to the target tastes & whatnot faster... In some way I get the best of both worlds. I especially like the exceptionally natural burnt sugar/resin note.

I've found that at some point when the leaf concentration gets high enough you tend to get a somewhat special note appearing in oolong tea. Maybe not a note but general profile. Maybe that is what you're after? Personally I don't care much for that kind of taste profile. Nice thought that a well made tea can be enjoyed in so many ways.

I still use a small pot most of the time but I'll probably gravitate slowly towards using larger vessels.
Last edited by carogust on Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
thetealetter
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:23 am

octopus wrote:
Sat Jun 08, 2019 10:37 am
pantry wrote:
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.
to be honest i dont think yancha is particularly notable for longevity and I don't recommend drinking this tea if that is your goal. The number of brews you get out of it depends on your taste. Some people brew only 3 very intense brews, others make more up to drinking basically water but still enjoy it. It's kind of up to you really.

I would guess for my own brewing taste which is quite light (but i would use 5-7 g for a gaiwan of 80/110ml which is enough to drink the tea and not just be sipping bird sized cups) , any ok tea would reach around maybe 6 or 7 or maybe even 8 progressively fading brews and that's why keeping the first or second as last is a good idea to end the session on a high note. The defining factor of quality is more if the yun stays in the brew after the beginning or if the congwei stay there after the beginning or if they fade even before you reach half the session or so. This is probably what differentiate the rare highest level of yancha from others. While any yun at all is already rare, it is not super rare hard to have some sort of yun or congwei that can last 2-3 brews than fades. Ofc is also up to preference and personal budget to consider if one cares about this or not. Maybe all one wants is a couple cups of tea and then move on. a one night stand is not necessarily worse than a long term relationship if that's all you look for. Maybe one doesn't even care about yun or congwei at all which makes perfect sense since there are many other flavors to drink yancha for. Again personal taste.

Now if you really look for the most miles out of your yancha I recommend to try aged yancha boiled (few grams can make liters of tea, you can use a simple pot on a stove) or good quality laocong shuixian (again boiled can make a lot of tea). These teas will cost way more than the average tea and makes no sense to brew one if one doesn't like the flavor or has only a short time to dedicate to a tea session (or doesn't boil aged yancha). However I personally love these boiled teas and drink them often so who knows. Up to taste.

In any case if you can reach 10 brews of a rougui in a gaiwan is quite exceptional. For more longevity in tea try white teas, yunnan teas, or any kind of aged tea. It's really not something that yancha is particularly interesting for. I would also say in general don't worry too much about "acquiring taste" for yancha if you don't feel like it clicks for you, or if it doens't make you happy when drinking it. There are a lot of other teas with different characteristics that can be more enjoyable and even cheaper. In fact I met many people who think yancha is overpriced trash and that's ok. its just tea :)
Personally, I think good yancha has three stages:

Steeps 1-3 are bold and fragrant.
Steep 4-6 are sometimes "spicy" or astringent and have a sweet mineral flavor. The "shan chang" (mountain flavor) becomes more evident here.
Steep 7+ drink until it's not good anymore.

I always brew boiling and I've taken to pretty high leaf/water ratios, like 5g in 60-70mL or 8g in 100-110mL.

As for vessels, like Bok said I always start in porcelain and then move to clay. I sometimes bounce back to porcelain if I'm looking for a reminder of the clean, neutral flavor.

Shout out to Old Ways Tea for making me a yancha addict! I have the good fortune of living near them so we have tea together when we can. I've learned a ton about yancha just sitting, drinking, and talking with them.
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debunix
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Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:18 pm

Favorite way is in my Petr Novak treebark pot, unglazed inside, which is about 80 mL. The leaf to water ratio is such that the wetted leaves fill the pot 2/3 full or so at the end; higher ratios become tricky because of the slow in and out of the water with so much leaf. Water is kept just off the boil (205-212). The pot is lovely, the drips smell sweet and fruity even with mineralicious stony yancha, and the many smaller steeps encourage relaxed enjoyment and appreciation of the tea unfolding itself infusion by infusion.
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Bok
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Mon Sep 23, 2019 1:45 am

carogust wrote:
Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:20 am
I've found that at some point when the leaf concentration gets high enough you tend to get a somewhat special note appearing in oolong tea. Maybe not a note but general profile. Maybe that is what you're after? Personally I don't care much for that kind of taste profile. Nice thought that a well made tea can be enjoyed in so many ways.
For me that is exactly what I am after. I miss it if I go more generous on the empty space. I noticed that for the first time when I miscalculated the pot size for a single serve pack of Yancha. It fit, but more tight than what I would have done before. The resulting brew was something I thirsted for a long time afterwards... and that is how brewed from then on.

Tea needs to be good quality though, or I'd need to use a slightly absorbing pot.
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tjkdubya
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Thu Sep 26, 2019 1:01 am

Seems some people have steady preferences, and some wander around a bit day to day depending on the mood. I do end up doing a lot of 50ml-ish yanchapresso brews when the desire perks up. But as @carogust says, fortunately many ways to enjoy...
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debunix
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Sun Sep 29, 2019 7:48 pm

Here's a lovely way I enjoyed some Tie Luo Han yesterday: from a small glazed-inside stoneware hohi from Petr Novak, in his 'Flowstone' cup:

Image

Image
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RinsedSloth
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Thu Feb 27, 2020 1:43 pm

I used to brew my yancha in a gaiwan but lately began brewing the roastier teas in my modern clay wendan that mutes just the right amount to let them shiny and make them more lingering and high pitched.

Others are getting along perfectly with the jianshui pot, it really likes the extra heat retention.

I've only had one aged pressed yancha and it has to be boiled. So comfortable and you get a lot of liquor from just a square, definitely want to try more similar to see how the boil affects them and also more kinds of aged yancha that is not pressed.
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