Let's see the offending pots?plod wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2017 10:16 am^That is heavy brewing. In light of that, the following will make me seem even more of a wuss. Two days ago, I tried VC-parameters for the last of my sample of HY Chen Heavy roast, so brewed 10 grams using 180ml and steep times of 60s+. She did warn that she liked it pretty strong, and did suggest trying shorter steeps, but I didn't listen, and was therefore surprised by the extremely robust brew. Very rich. Third and fourth steeps brought out some sparkling violent plum and warm woody notes. Very nice.
I do think the roast on this should have had more time to calm down though, as I experienced some discomfort (burnt-feeling tongue and palate) after both this and the previous session. I notice that I've become particularly sensitive to such things the last year, much to my annoyance. I also stopped using two of my clay brewing vessels, as something in them seems to cause similar reactions. Could be poor quality clay in those cases, as I do not have any problems with the beautiful red shudei kyusu I bought from Ferg recently. Weird.
I did find that Chen's tea was very fresh and needed air/time to come into its own. Both of the teas I purchased in 2016 were more to my taste and more complex a year later!
I tend to use less leaf with rolled Taiwanese teas as the leaves tend to be much larger (as a result of more intensive fertilizer use possibly). The leaves really expand a lot. As a general rule I fill a teapot to 1/4 to 1/3 if using Taiwanese rolled oolong leaf. With tieguanyin/Wuyicha/baozhong I go to 50% dry leaf. Many like to fill their pots almost all the way up to the top with wuyicha/dancong but thats a bit much for me!
Edit: I use as much as 75% dry leaf with green baozhong.
