Different ways to brew WuYi YanCha... what’s your favourite?

[Baisao]

Like @Bok, I tend to like my yancha on the rich side. In general, I like all of my teas to have body and tend to brew for body as I’ve noted that the targeted taste will follow. Unsurprisingly, this works for sencha as well as yancha. It even works for matcha. Few things in tea work so universally.

To answer @OCTO’s question: I prefer to make yancha in a teapot. I prefer zhuni or hongni as I don’t want to lose the high ends. My water is very close to boiling.

I have never been good with a gaiwan because I have a tremor and burn my fingers every time. All things considered a teapot is a better option for me.

[faj]

Like Bok, I tend to like my yancha on the rich side. In general, I like all of my teas to have body and tend to brew for body as I’ve noted that the targeted taste will follow. Unsurprisingly, this works for sencha as well as yancha. It even works for matcha. Few things in tea work so universally.

May I ask how you express "brewing for body" in practical terms? Is that a way to describe the result of whatever parameter combination you end up with after experimenting with a tea, or are there ways common to all teas by which you achieve that?

[Bok]

@faj I do like body as well in my tea. The way I achieve that mostly is by picking the right vessel and clay for a given tea. And of course by picking teas that possess these properties in the first place. One reason I usually only buy winter harvest for Gaoshan etc.

[Baisao]

@faj - pretty much and then what Bok said.

I prefer teas with more pectin than less. And I prefer more suspend solids from tea than less.

I use more leaves but still a traditional amount for gfc, say 6g/100ml. Japanese teas are usually leaf heavy to begin with. I use water with a low TDS to allow the body of the tea to shine through.

I was reminded of this recently while sitting with a tea seller of well-deserved notoriety. His tea was good but watery. At times I could taste more tap than tea. It was still easy to pickup the floral/fruit characters of the various teas we tasted but it was difficult to find flaws in such weak soup. Unpleasant sourness, astringency, bitterness, etc. were never going to present the way he was making it, which is a problem for me as I am a buyer. Any body it had came from the TDS of the tap water used.

[Tillerman]

I prefer teas with more pectin than less. And I prefer more suspend solids from tea than less.

@Baisao, I am so glad to see that someone is paying attention to the presence of pectin in tea; it is a very important component of a tea's "mouth feel." I've been toying with an upcoming contribution from the Ultracrepidarian in just this topic once I'm able to study get enough of the research (there is virtually none that relates specifically to tea.)

In general, the cooler the environment the higher the pectin. Higher elevation tea contain more and this can be seen when comparing teas grown at different elevations; the high grown ones are richer. It also is a reason for which climate change will and does affect teas. It also helps explain why @Bok prefers winter harvest teas (usually harvested between September and November) for they tend to contain more pectin although, again, climate change is rendering the differences less obvious.

[pantry]

I’ve been brewing supposedly Zheng yan teas from the Huang family and Wuyi Origin. Also tried the ban yan Rougui from leafygreen. I could taste the difference in grades. And also know they are not low quality since I also have one of those dhp that comes in Chinese gift boxes as my benchmark for low

Been brewing with 2-2.5g with 25-30ml water. Though the Zini I used doesn’t take away a lot, I did most of my brews in a gaiwan. I’m thinking maybe I need to just use more tea and more water so the temperature stays more constant.

I still managed to squeeze 8-9 brews out of them, but the later brews just taste like any other sweet oolong to me

~1:12 ratio sounds high enough but I think the question is not just whether the ratio is right but the brew quantity itself. 25-30ml... Such a small volume loses heat much faster between steeps than a larger quantity at the same ratio. Drinking solo, assessing a new yancha, say, I usually default to 6g in 90ml. But the same tea at 4g in 60ml just does not open up the same way even though it's the same ratio.

2g in 30ml, again the same ratio, tasting like "any other sweet oolong" after a few brews ... sounds pretty familiar with my experience trying to brew small quantities

Whoops! Haven't logged into tea forum in months, and missed your comment. After more experimentations, I came to the same conclusion as well. It did better when I used a bigger sized gaiwan. Earlier attempts were made with my travel gaiwan because I had managed to break all my bigger ones

In the end, while I can squeeze more brews with my larger vessel, I still end up stopping after 7-8 brews because it's too powerful (more volume of tea to drink per brew), and don't want to leave my first brew out too long

[pantry]

Have to agree on this. I kind of half mistakenly bought a very tiny 45ml teapot, thinking it would be great for using less leaves per session.
Lower ratios and longer steeps work better with larger vessels. A fairly large 120ml (usable volume) gaiwan can make an awesome, strong and full brew with ~5g of leaves and 40-60 second brew, but if I use the same ratio in an 85ml teapot it suffers a lot. Makes me wonder if small pots kind of force you to use high ratios...
Starting to question the small pot brewing method, as one of my favorite sessions with yancha has happened with a large ~200-300ml mug, using a very large filter basket and 5 grams of leaves... still managed to get 5 good steeps!

Same! Got myself a 50ml teapot early on, and it's looking pretty but quite useless . What do you use your tiny teapot for now?

[carogust]

Same! Got myself a 50ml teapot early on, and it's looking pretty but quite useless . What do you use your tiny teapot for now?

I very rarely use it, but when I do it's with ball-rolled oolong. Though most of the time when I want high ratios I just use a tiny gaiwan. The clay on the 50ml chaozhou pot is really picky.

[AllAboutTheBohea]

I usually brew Wuyi yancha in my small Dehua stoneware pot, or grandpa-style in a large mug or my thermos. I'm a big fan of high-roasted shui xian and tieguanyin, so I enjoy tasting the heavy roasty flavors up front.

[brandon]

Hi all,

Long time yancha drinker here.

I like to use a gaiwan in certain situations where I am evaluating a tea for purchase, to avoid any rounding out. But mostly, I prefer a Yixing pot of purple clay that is a bit low slung and wider than it is tall, to let the leaves have room to expand.

On volumes, I only saw a few people post specifics in terms of grams per ml, but what I saw appeared fairly low. I fill my pot 3/4 to completely full with leaves. Pots range from 75 to 90ml.

I believe there is a critical mass to get the flavor and aroma experience that is characteristic of cliff tea, and if you don't reach "lift off," it is a nice drink but I feel you are leaving a lot on the table. When you are there, the aroma in the bottom of your empty cup and the fair cup are intoxicating in their own right and the rock taste hangs around for a long time.

Have folks tried higher ratios and backed off due to preference, or is this merely unexplored territory?

[the_e]

Hi all,

Long time yancha drinker here.

I like to use a gaiwan in certain situations where I am evaluating a tea for purchase, to avoid any rounding out. But mostly, I prefer a Yixing pot of purple clay that is a bit low slung and wider than it is tall, to let the leaves have room to expand.

On volumes, I only saw a few people post specifics in terms of grams per ml, but what I saw appeared fairly low. I fill my pot 3/4 to completely full with leaves. Pots range from 75 to 90ml.

I believe there is a critical mass to get the flavor and aroma experience that is characteristic of cliff tea, and if you don't reach "lift off," it is a nice drink but I feel you are leaving a lot on the table.

Have folks tried higher ratios and backed off due to preference, or is this merely unexplored territory?

+1! Worth a try with higher ratios - it brings out more of the tea, both good and bad. So important both for evaluation and enjoyment.

[Bok]

I believe there is a critical mass to get the flavor and aroma experience that is characteristic of cliff tea, and if you don't reach "lift off," it is a nice drink but I feel you are leaving a lot on the table. When you are there, the aroma in the bottom of your empty cup and the fair cup are intoxicating in their own right and the rock taste hangs around for a long time.

Have folks tried higher ratios and backed off due to preference, or is this merely unexplored territory?

I agree with that observation. I like my ratio similar to yours, that is why I need to use tiny pots 60-80ml max to offset the cost

[Tor]

I use different ratios depending on the tea, the teapot, and my mood. In general, I found that higher ratios give more depth and greater length, whilst lower ratios sometimes show better details. I use 5.5 to 8g of leaf in my 70ml hongni generally, or 8g in my 120ml zhuni for more balanced, detailed, and relaxed brew. I use 90c to off the boil water depending on the tea.

[OCTO]

This was how i brewed my Yancha last night....

[Bok]

@OCTO yours is probably the most controversial of all methods!