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I recently-re-watched one of Hojo’s videos with a Hohin, where he was flash brewing Sencha. I must have blocked this from my memory as the idea seemed so strange to me. Got me thinking, it’s good to try different brewing techniques and see what flavours they offer.

With Sencha, I did try my third infusion as a flash, then the fourth longer and hotter. The first was 60s. Anyways, the third steep was good, as was the fourth...so I got an extra cup for free!

I’m having some Dan Cong and did the first four as flash brews, usually I go 10s then increase from there. Have to say, this is smoother and more to my liking.

Interesting to also think about when exploration reaches a resting place, and the perfect steep is reached although once reached, the journey begins again.

I spend some time getting acquainted with each new tea and how it pairs with individual kyusu or yixing pot and water types. These notes are logged as a reference. Personal preferences, mood, ambient conditions, water, vessel all impact how one steeps. In the morning, I prefer a larger vessel with more leaf, and later in day a smaller vessel with a lot of leaf and faster steeps. Once I find a good steeping balance and pairing, I will continue to steep this way, until something seems off, usually that will be changes in ambient humidity, my body, or the water I’m using has changed.

Personal preferences so far seem to be:
Japanese green teas in particular, once I find a good method and pairing I will continue to use reached upon parameters until the tea runs out. I want to enjoy the tea and avoid unpleasant bitterness. I don’t gongfu Japanese teas, or do flash steeps, preferring cooler water with longer steeps.
Black and white teas are more forgiving so I’ll use both western and gongfu style brewing depending on tea, time of day, and mood.
Pu’erh and Yancha almost always gongfu.
Taiwan oolong, steep gongfu later in day, but in morning I use a modified version using a slightly larger vessel, with more leaf/water/time.

This morning my routine was disrupted; distracted talking I went on auto placing 12 grams of roasted DongDing into Hokujo’s preheated 250ml kyusu, using Chrystal Gyser Olancha water. Waited 90 seconds and was surprised how light the steep was, so added a few extra leaves into the porcelain pitcher that had steeped tea. Still light, so added a few extra leaves to the kyusu for the next steep, at which point I realized I was using 155F water. This was an oversight, my kettle was preset from my previous kabusecha sencha session the day before.

What was surprising was that using much cooler water with this DongDing brought out such pleasant mint and camphor notes in aroma and liquor. After removing extra leaves from the pitcher and placed them into the kyusu, I now had close to >15 grams of leaf. Steeped at 204F (cooler than 208F I typically use) the liquor was perfect, still having some expansive mint camphor in addition to roasted DongDing’s more typical rich viscous body, with warming smooth roasted notes and sweet lingering flavor.

So although I hadn’t intended on experimenting this morning, the moment came to me serendipitously even so, with happy results.

@Victoria thanks for sharing those experiences.

I don’t always set time aside to drink tea as a singular activity; oftentimes when having tea I’m watching a YouTube video on my iPad, or my morning stretch. This is when mishaps occur, or new discoveries!

I find the exploration of brewing techniques interesting. I am particularly interesting in "traditional" gongfu brewing. Though I've come to the conclusion that no single definite method exists and everyone kinda did it differently. Every time you see a description of what it is, it is different. The only thing that is constant is the use of small brewing vessels and high concentration of leaves. Though how small, and how much of course varies a lot. For "traditional" brewing, I've seen the amount be defined as being the teapot full of leaves, or just 1/3rd.

I'd like to ask if anyone has experimented with crushing the leaf with teas like yancha? You do see this habit now and then, but not on this forum.

So yeah, everyone probably kinda did it differently. So I'd say that it is good to stop worrying if you're doing it "right". Of course there are many other reasons for exploring brewing methods other than trying to find out how they did it in the past, like keeping the hobby fresh and exciting, trying to find the optimal method for a tea and to explore how a tea can render its taste.

I kind of have a bad habit of worrying if I'm using my leaf optimally... Exploration can be detrimental for enjoyment in this respect as well. Kind of ingrained in the whole practice of exploration as you have to judge and be critical which doesn't go well with relaxing and enjoyment.

There is also the matter of "granularity". You can explore a particular brew method (lets say, using lots of leaf and flash steeping) in more depth. It might be the case that before you get the details down, every method is kind of eh.

When it comes to how much leaf, I have found that with oolong (Wuyi and Dan Cong) the more I use, like 6-7g/100ml, versus 3-4g, the more likely I can use many flash brews and have a smooth but powerful brew. It’s when I cheap out and use less leaf, and fuss over infusion times, that I end up with under or over steeped tea.