To rinse, or not to rinse.

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Brent D
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Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:49 am

What do you rinse and not rinse?
When I first started brewing, I rinsed everything. I no longer rinse my whites. I have thought about stopping on my Gaoshans. My long Jing I dont if its of high quality (is this ridiculous?)
Id like to hear what you do
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Victoria
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Wed Oct 25, 2017 1:42 pm

Most quality Taiwan oolongs I don't rinse anymore, as they are clean. When I do rinse it is because the leaves need to be opened up a little making the 1st infusion better. Japanese also I don't rinse. Long Jing I don't rinse either. Pu'erh yes I rinse.
Janice
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Wed Oct 25, 2017 4:09 pm

Does the cleanliness come from the method of processing or something inherent in the style of tea? I’ve seen photographs from China of tea spread out on tarps outside and can’t imagine how that tea cou,d be clean.
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Bok
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Wed Oct 25, 2017 7:50 pm

The cleaning effect of rinsing is probably more cosmetic than efficient…

I do not rinse any tea, except Puerh. If I suspect the tea not to be good enough I simply do not drink it, after all I have enough good teas, to waste my increasingly limited time on them.

Instead of rinsing to help open up, I just use a longer steepig time for the first brew, along with pouring the water slower and from a lesser height. If the tea can’t take it and turns bitter then it wasn’t good enough :mrgreen: That goes for gaoshan only. The roasted, more oxidised Taiwan oolongs can take it mostly anyways, even the lesser quality ones.

From my experience most open leave teas run the risk of losing too much if I would rinse them! I have seen people in China put the first brew away to drink it cold later to get another profile level of the tea. Seen done with Yancha.
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pedant
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Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:59 am

rinsing feels mostly wasteful now to me.

sometimes I do a light first infusion (steeping for a moment longer than what would constitute a rinse) and savor that for a sec while I wait for the leaves to open a little. or if i don't care about letting the leaves open, i just make the first steep longer.

i always rinse shou puerh because it usually seems a bit dirty and dusty to me, and i often rinse sheng unless it's something fancy (and seemingly clean) and i want to savor every bit of it.

but i really do worry about mycotoxins...
one of these days i'll get around to doing a literature review and post it here.
here's a couple articles to give you an idea though:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4918958/
https://sci-hub.io/http://www.sciencedi ... 1514002841
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debunix
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Sat Nov 18, 2017 12:25 pm

I rinse inconsistently, with little pattern, more often with lower quality cheap teas than fine teas where I want to capture every drop.
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OldWaysTea
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Tue Dec 05, 2017 4:53 pm

I rinse every tea I brew in a gaiwan. I rinse the tea about as fast as I can, and if it is tightly compressed let it sit for a minute or two to relax before the first brew.
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tealifehk
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Tue Dec 05, 2017 8:05 pm

I rinse everything but sencha--pu erh always gets two rinses. That helps open up bits of cake and also removes dust/fertilizer and pesticide residues/some mycotoxins. I've noticed dealers in both HK and Kunming rinse pu erh twice.

With tieguanyin/Wuyicha it's traditional to rinse to wake things up, but as Bok stated, this has been dispensed with in Taiwan with gaoshan as they trust the cleanliness of the leaves over there. I think the 'no pesticide' thing with gaoshan is a bold faced lie since they absolutely want to maximize yields on tea that sells for top dollar. And with all of the imported tea, it might be wise to rinse your high mountain oolong too:

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3186661

I don't know if I'll buy anymore gaoshan. It puts too much of a toll on fragile ecosystems in a country that has astounding biodiversity! That and I seem to leave it sitting around forever before I get back to it (which can be a good thing with very fresh tea).

https://international.thenewslens.com/article/28630
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Bok
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Wed Dec 06, 2017 12:06 am

tealifehk wrote:
Tue Dec 05, 2017 8:05 pm
With tieguanyin/Wuyicha it's traditional to rinse to wake things up, but as Bok stated, this has been dispensed with in Taiwan with gaoshan as they trust the cleanliness of the leaves over there. I think the 'no pesticide' thing with gaoshan is a bold faced lie since they absolutely want to maximize yields on tea that sells for top dollar. And with all of the imported tea, it might be wise to rinse your high mountain oolong too:
I highly doubt that a simple rinse will do anything to get rid of pesticides…
Take a simply apple: to really get rid of the pesticides on the surface you need to soak it in baking soda/water solution.

I also doubt that there is much gaoshan without pesticide use at all, too many bugs in Taiwan and high altitude makes further use of fertiliser necessary. The little organic gaoshan there is, is a lot pricier and difficult to obtain. I can ignore the imported tea issue, at least for my standard vendor, I know they do not mix with those. Price is an indicator as well, if the tea is too cheap you know something is off. So far I only know that Fushoushan seems to be organic, most others are not.

I would say it happens more in tourist destinations like close to the farms in Alishan or Shanlinxi, also big shops next to interesting sightseeing spots, airport etc. A normal brick and mortar shop will have imported tea for the cheap price range, any cold drink bubble tea shop will 100% not use Taiwan leaves etc – you get the picture.

Foreigners shopping in Taiwan are also more at risk getting offered those kind of imported or mixed teas. Experience, time and local guidance minimises the chances of that happening.
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tealifehk
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Wed Dec 06, 2017 11:41 am

Bok,

A few years ago, there was an issue here when imported supermarket-type tea was tested and found to exceed pesticide limits. The Hong Kong government's Centre for Food Safety released this:

http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedi ... 07_01.html

With apples, you have a waxy layer, so perhaps the pesticide can really get in there, and is hard to wash out. With tea, it depends on the pesticide I guess! Maybe some are more water soluble than others.

I think rinsing is a good idea and wouldn't dream of not washing fruit and veg before consumption. We all love tea and the taste of it, but it is an agricultural product like anything else produced on farms. Here's an interesting article on how effective even a tap water rinse can be. It's not tea specific, so maybe tea holds onto pesticide better than fruit and veg. Perhaps using hot/near boiling water may remove more pesticide than tap water alone. There is no research on it yet, so we don't know for sure unfortunately. It's actually amazing that there hasn't been any research done on this, and I've looked a few times over the years!

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/ ... esticides/

I do use a room temperature/lukewarm water rinse for more delicate teas sometimes, including longjing and sometimes gaoshan too. Maybe we should all be washing tea leaves in mini colanders/strainers under a running stream first! ;)

As for fake Taiwanese tea..I've encountered it a few times. I think you're right on about where it's likely to be and who is likely to encounter it.

I've been given fake ShanLinXi (so bad it was actually funny, but it was free!), fake gaoshan at a tea place in Maokong (unbearably bitter but a good flavor otherwise :o) and really low grade oolong at Taiwanese tea places in the Philippines. I think the blending issue may be more prevalent than we think as it is very easy to make a little extra money by throwing in some extra tea. The Europeans were doing it centuries ago and all kinds of products are cut/diluted to make a buck. Honey is very commonly blended with sugar and water, for example.

If one guy just got busted doing it (and he was winning competitions with his blend!), the issue is not likely to be an isolated one! Perhaps the best way to check is to really look at the leaves and see if there are any major differences, but perhaps they are blending leaves carefully (by size and color, thickness, etc) to make detection difficult. I know it sucks to think that way, but tea is a business and I have seen some really shady stuff in the last several years.

I've also had Thai oolongs that were surprisingly good. I think the best stuff is shipped directly to Taiwan and would be very hard to tell apart from Taiwanese tea! Of course there is a lot of mediocre tea produced in Thailand and Vietnam and that stuff is likely to get left behind, or as you say, sold cheaper. I've encountered fake oolongs in Vietnam that were horrendous!
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Bok
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Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:21 pm

Cheers for that informative post! Need to look deeper into that.
Maybe there is not more research as we all prefer to dvelve in ignorance rather than to drop our leaves, haha

I think most Taiwan style tea farms in vietnam and Thailand are run by Taiwanese themselves to extend their yield, so it is even harder to detect if the teas still technically come from the same companies.

The fake honey issue is very prevalent in Taiwan, to the point that you can almost be sure that is fake no matter where you buy. The rare exceptions are the real honeys! I have had reall wild mountain honey once in an aboriginal village here and it was like something I never tasted before, some buzz in those bees!
Kconv
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Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:57 pm

Any tea older than about 3 or 4 years old and any ripe puerh I rinse. Really young sheng, I dont usually, especially if its really expensive. Or I rinse it and at least sip the rinse.
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tealifehk
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Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:10 am

Bok wrote:
Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:21 pm
Cheers for that informative post! Need to look deeper into that.
Maybe there is not more research as we all prefer to dvelve in ignorance rather than to drop our leaves, haha

I think most Taiwan style tea farms in vietnam and Thailand are run by Taiwanese themselves to extend their yield, so it is even harder to detect if the teas still technically come from the same companies.

The fake honey issue is very prevalent in Taiwan, to the point that you can almost be sure that is fake no matter where you buy. The rare exceptions are the real honeys! I have had reall wild mountain honey once in an aboriginal village here and it was like something I never tasted before, some buzz in those bees!
Yep, the farms producing Taiwanese-style teas in Thailand and Vietnam are producing it all for export back to Taiwan! That tea has to get sold somewhere, and some of the good stuff produced in Thailand and Vietnam really is world class. I think most of the good stuff is passed off as Taiwanese and nobody is ever the wiser. Tea-Side gets really good Thai teas, but I think most of the Taiwanese-style tea sold in Thailand is stuff that didn't make the grade to export to Taiwan!
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leth
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Fri Dec 15, 2017 6:18 am

For wulongs that need to be opened up I first just leave them in the pot after heating the pot. I tend to let it rest there for a while and then smell the tea in this state. After that If the tea needs more help opening up I do a really quick flash rinse and let the tea rest in the pot again. I'm not really sure about this but I imagine that this method helps open up the tea without taking out to much flavours out of it.
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Tillerman
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Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:31 am

tealifehk wrote:
Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:10 am
Bok wrote:
Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:21 pm
Cheers for that informative post! Need to look deeper into that.
Maybe there is not more research as we all prefer to dvelve in ignorance rather than to drop our leaves, haha

I think most Taiwan style tea farms in vietnam and Thailand are run by Taiwanese themselves to extend their yield, so it is even harder to detect if the teas still technically come from the same companies.

The fake honey issue is very prevalent in Taiwan, to the point that you can almost be sure that is fake no matter where you buy. The rare exceptions are the real honeys! I have had reall wild mountain honey once in an aboriginal village here and it was like something I never tasted before, some buzz in those bees!
Yep, the farms producing Taiwanese-style teas in Thailand and Vietnam are producing it all for export back to Taiwan! That tea has to get sold somewhere, and some of the good stuff produced in Thailand and Vietnam really is world class. I think most of the good stuff is passed off as Taiwanese and nobody is ever the wiser. Tea-Side gets really good Thai teas, but I think most of the Taiwanese-style tea sold in Thailand is stuff that didn't make the grade to export to Taiwan!
Well - this has certainly veered away from the rinse/don't rinse origin of this thread but... Bok and tealifehk, how prevalent do you believe the counterfeiting issue is and does it matter in any event. Many, but certainly not all, Taiwanese vendors with whom I have spoken seem more concerned with quality levels and appropriate pricing of their teas rather than it's provenance e.g. if you are willing to pay NT X per jin you receive quality level 1, if you are willing to pay NT Y per jin you receive quality level 2 etc. The origin of the tea is not a question of particular importance to them. I would love to hear your thoughts.
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