Resteeping loose leaf tea

I generally don’t bother with resteeping flavoured teas, unless I’m really lazy and just want a warm drink. In those cases I don’t care if I get the flavouring as well or just the base. You can get a good cup of tea out of a resteeped flavoured tea so long as you don’t expect more than just the base tea. Mind you it also depends on what sort of base was used. Some teas just aren’t very good on the resteep. I’ve found Ceylon teas tend to only do well on the first steep.

And some people just don’t like the second steep in general of anything. It’s a question of personal taste, really, resteeping. :)

Thanks for the response. I think I am going to have to just steep them once. Thanks again.

I am newish to tea and I really find resteeping one of those tricky things that really depend on the tea and the drinker. The second steep, in my experience, just will not taste the same as the first. Occassionlly that can be a good thing, if you want to mellow out a certain flavour note, but I too am not a fan of the resteep. That being said, my partner regularly resteeps everything and really enjoys how the flavour changes in each steep!

I re-steep sometimes, mostly because I am too lazy to clean the leaves out and get new stuff. The taste certainly changes with second steeps but sometimes I will use a higher temperature or steep it longer to encourage more flavour. This often works for me but as Angrboda says, drink it how you like it!

I’ve had good luck resteeping things that are “flavored” by actual pieces of the flavor (actual herbs, spices, candied fruit). For example I found out that I actually like the second steeping of a chai tea I have MORE than the first! However, anything that relies on flavoring oils/additives is pretty wiped out after one steeping in my experience. I’d advise you just experiment — it could pay off if you find out a tea will get you twice as many cups with the same leaves!

I almost never bother to resteep black tea, I seem pickier about it than most Steepsters whose logs I read. That said, I know there are a few exceptions (off the top of my head I can’t remember which though!). That said, I find green teas, even flavored ones, to resteep well generally. I could be remembering wrong—haven’t had it since this summer, eek—but Den’s Tea Pineapple Sencha, one of my favorite flavored greens, was great resteeped. I think their organic genmaicha might’ve been too. I actually find I need to be careful not to overdo it with greens as they resteep so well I find myself drinking several cups and then feeling very wired (but maybe that’s just me). Oolongs too.

I rarely drink whites, but when I do it’s usually in a gaiwan gongfu-style (more leaf and less water, very short steep times, lots of resteeps).

During warm months, I “reuse” tea by sticking used leaves in mason jars and popping them in the fridge to cold steep anywhere from overnight/8 hours to 4 days. I seem to have the opposite opinion to conventional wisdom on the boards but I find green teas are especially awesome this way (endlessly coldsteeping Bilochun Greens for days wound up a major highlight of last summer for me).