Warming methods for the leaves
This is apparently more important for pu-erh and low quality teas, but sometimes people warm the leaves before the first infusion. They pour hot water over the pot or in the pot (and then pour it out immediately). Then they wait for about a minute. I wonder if you could stew the leaves unintended with this method. With my tea I did not notice a big difference though. Do you use a method like this? And if yes, when do you use it?
On the contrary I have seen people preheat high quality teas like Yancha more often. Never heard anyone so that with Puerh? You discard the first few washes anyways, that’s plenty of heat before you even start drinking it.Mark-S wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2020 5:27 pmThis is apparently more important for pu-erh and low quality teas, but sometimes people warm the leaves before the first infusion. They pour hot water over the pot or in the pot (and then pour it out immediately). Then they wait for about a minute. I wonder if you could stew the leaves unintended with this method. With my tea I did not notice a big difference though. Do you use a method like this? And if yes, when do you use it?
On of my tea sources does that with any tea, Gaoshan dongding wild tea etc. He puts the teapot with dry leaves in it over the open kettle, which I find very stressful to watch, but hey it’s his teaware... that guy from Wisteria does it as well I think. Then others use the more traditional method of holding them on a paper over the charcoal.
I also read that on kyarazen.com. It's the only English source I found.
That you would use this method for pu-erh was just an assumption of me, because the leaves are not fresh and compressed. The same applies to rolled oolong tea.Whilst many high end teas use the damp warming method, chaozhou uses dry warming method.
I'll have to experiment a little with these methods, to see what's best. Thanks for your help
Warming up leaves before brewing them "awakens" the leaves and usually helps remove unwanted smell from poor storage or bad processing / roasting.
This is often practiced for YanCha and older teas.... for high grade tea, I would usually preheat the pot/gaiwan and give the tea a light shake inside the pot/gaiwan, then leave the lid open for a few minutes. Only after that I start brewing. This awakens the tea more than getting rid of unwanted smells.
You can see in TeowChew brewing techniques, the brewer heats the tea on a piece of paper over a small source of heat... usually the charcoal stove or a candle. This is a very tricky practice where many just blindly follow without understanding the entire process. When high grade tea is concerned, the temperature and duration of heating is crucial. It will make or break the tea. Hence a simple shake in a preheated pot/gaiwan is best for amateurs like us.
In colder climate, it's a good habit to preheat your pot before any session to avoid thermal shocking your pot.
Cheers!!
This is often practiced for YanCha and older teas.... for high grade tea, I would usually preheat the pot/gaiwan and give the tea a light shake inside the pot/gaiwan, then leave the lid open for a few minutes. Only after that I start brewing. This awakens the tea more than getting rid of unwanted smells.
You can see in TeowChew brewing techniques, the brewer heats the tea on a piece of paper over a small source of heat... usually the charcoal stove or a candle. This is a very tricky practice where many just blindly follow without understanding the entire process. When high grade tea is concerned, the temperature and duration of heating is crucial. It will make or break the tea. Hence a simple shake in a preheated pot/gaiwan is best for amateurs like us.
In colder climate, it's a good habit to preheat your pot before any session to avoid thermal shocking your pot.
Cheers!!
Thanks for the advice, I'll do this then.
It makes sense and you don't risk stewing the leaves. I don't need to get rid of unwanted smells, because I never drink tea that smells bad.
@OCTO Why is it that if I leave the gaiwan lid on between infusions while brewing light oolongs I get burnt spinach soup
but if I keep my yixing teapot lid closed in between steepings of my puerh there's no issue??!
but if I keep my yixing teapot lid closed in between steepings of my puerh there's no issue??!
My assumption is that light oolongs are more vulnerable than pu-erh tea. I don't think it has something to do with the teaware.
It’s like - why can I eat my sourdough bread for a couple of days and my white bread goes stale and dry the day after? Both bread, but different kind
Different tea leaves at the base, different processing, add ageing etc. I think it mostly the state of “green-ness”, the greener the more delicate the tea will be. Roasted or aged Oolong does not run the danger of becoming spinachy for example. On the contrary aged tea almost always needs the most sustained heat it can get to release its flavours. Hence you can boil old tea, but would never do so with young tea.