TeaForum.org

I realize, after playing with it for a while, that grandpa style infusions can take as much care and attention as gongfu brewing. I've been working with some very lovely winter Dong Ding from Floating Leaves, and I realized that the kind of calculations I'm making are very much the same sort as I would be making if I were doing gong fu infusions.

I think about how many infusions I would like, and that more than the size of the vessel determines how much tea I will start with. I think about how quickly I want to drink the tea, and while I will start my infusion with water just off the boil more or less regardless, if I'm thirsty or going to need a little more right away to wash down morning pills, I will not fill it up completely with the hot water but will leave room for some cool water to be added when I think it has infused enough, to bring it quickly to drinking temperature.

For the next infusion, the same kind of calculations come to play. How much hot water, how much space for cool water, if any, to cool it down quickly to drinking temperature. How long to infuse it depends on how strong it was the first time: did I get it just right? Did it come out a little bit too concentrated?

If I did miss the mark and it ends up to concentrated, I sip a little bit and then add more hot or cold water to bring it to the concentration/dilution/intensity of flavor that I want.... and if I miss the mark making it to dilute, then I may set it aside for longer Infusion, or sip a little bit so there's room for more hot water and then set it aside a little bit.

It's become such an ingrained habit to consider these things as I pour and sip, but not really to notice how much thinking really goes into it

sounds reasonable.

lately, i mostly consider how much tea i want to drink. do i want a long or short session? more or less caffeine? a standard experience for me is 4g (± 2g).

i'll use more leaf if i want a stronger/longer experience. if i use more leaf, i do shorter steeps. i mostly use the same gaiwan poured directly into the same cup. fixed water temp. of course, the timing only applies to a specific type of tea.

this is what i do for pretty much everything except japanese greens.

for grandpa, i have not been very demanding tbh. i usually use a fixed amount (2.5g for my normal house mugs), fill it up, and hope for the best.

I drink green tea almost exclusively grandpa style since I find gongfu brewing extracts too much bitterness, but I've never experimented with grandpa style steeping rolled oolong. I have a large amount of sample tea lying around right now, so that might change.

Grandpa style does allow more opportunities to correct issues (too much bitterness, weaker steeps, etc.) than gongfu, and at least for greens, it extracts a sweeter flavour. However, short gongfu steeps can capture more nuance because the tea isn't steeping continuously. I usually steep about 6 g gongfu and about 3 g grandpa style, which might also explain why my grandpa style tea is less strong.

I only brew in the grandpa style when I don't have time to brew in any other way, so I never think that much about it. I just throw in enough tea to keep me happy and refill around the half-way mark. If I refill more than once or twice, I'll throw some more leaves in. And I almost only use unroasted, lightly roasted or medium-roasted rolled wulong, or baozhong, so bitterness and astringency aren't really an issue for me.

I've read around here that baozhong is often brewed in a bowl in Taiwan, so perhaps I should try that method with a bit more attention to detail next time that I have some - perhaps when it gets too hot in Summer.

Andrew

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 16, 2025 6:33 pm

I drink green tea almost exclusively grandpa style since I find gongfu brewing extracts too much bitterness

Sounds to me more like an issue of brewing technique... Normally if you do shorter steeps you can control exactly that.

Grandpa is actually more risky to get a bitter brew as all the bitterness can slowly come out over time, although mitigated by declining temperature.