Four Cups Brewing Protocol

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26uk
Posts: 70
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2020 8:19 pm
Location: Bay Area, Ca

Sat Dec 19, 2020 11:44 pm

This is the method I use to enjoy four possible tea concentrations of Puer during gongfu brewing with a gaiwan.

Just thought to share because I'm curious what others do, and to check if my assumptions are correct. Calling it a protocol just makes it sound cool :)

Assumptions
1. Always some leftover water stewing in “empty” gaiwan between infusions.
2. In an infusion, aromatics are extracted first, and bitterness last.
3. Gaiwan (or teapot) loses heat between infusions.

Imagine your N-th infusion is next. There are some leaves still stewing in leftover water at the bottom of the vessel, producing a stronger and more bitter extract. This will affect your next infusion, and how much it affects depends on the time between infusions (random) and how fast the vessel cools down.

I use a 60ml gaiwan that produces enough tea for two cups. I do the infusion, starting the pour in cup 1 then ending in cup 2. Then without waiting, I do the N+1 infusion, producing cups 3 and 4. I don't wait so cups 3 and 4 are relatively consistent between infusions. I vary the infusion duration depending on tea and number of infusions since.

N=1 infusion will also have some stewing water if a rinse is performed. Else I'll brew normally.

Results
1. Cups 1 and 2 are stronger than cups 3 and 4 (assumption 1).
2. Cup 1 is more aromatic and less bitter than cup 2, as is cup 3 to cup 4 (assumption 2).
3. Cups 3 and 4 will be brewed with a higher peak temperature (assumption 3).

My preference is to enjoy the cups in the order of 4, 1, 3, 2.
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