Jim Marks

Hey Jim. Nice to see you willing to try the short steep. I was drinking with a tea friend all morning today, and talking a bit about what we discussed yesterday. I was reminded of one thing I forgot to point out about the mentioned method. When brewing tea this way you should generally use more leaves and less water per steeping than you typically would for a longer steep approach. This typically means about 5 grams of tea for a 4-5 ounce gaiwan or yixing pot, versus the teaspoon of tea in an 8 ounce cup that is commonly done for “western style” brewing. I don’t know how much leaf to water you used here, but I’d suggest increasing the leaf and reducing the water if you’re not already trying that.

On another note, I don’t drink white teas very often, but I find they usually yield 3-5 good short steepings, unless it’s really high quality – in which case it might be good for 6 infusions. If you’re still feeling adventurous about this, I would recommend trying it with a more robust tea sometime, like an oolong, pu-erh or Chinese black tea. I’d be interested to know if your experience is different on a second attempt.

I already do a much larger leaf to water ratio than the Brit method, but I am not quite as generous with leaf as avid aficionado seem to be — mostly because I can’t cover the expense. I drink tea all day every day and I just can’t afford to be burning through 20 grams of leaf a day.

Oddly enough, after this third steep, I was able to revive these leaves and I’m on steep #5 right now. I think I just made #3 a bit too short. Once the leaves fully opened after #2, they needed more time to pull anything out (because #2 pulled out so much).

But that’s just the thing, JIm… I drink all day every day too, and I can steep out one 5-gram-full gaiwan of say a quality Teiguanyin all day if I want, even for two days sometimes…

Well, until I get past half a dozen steeps, that’s not happening, so… chicken/egg cart/horse, call it what you want. I can’t afford, right now, to waste tea.

The two of you should have a tea talk show. Your viewpoints are very different yet you are both correct. I tried the short steep with a Pu-Erh and I wasn’t enjoying it until I let it stew. I would think with a white tea or green a shorter steep is ideal. Although you both may disagree, I enjoy a cold water brew. I brewed the Handpicked Verdant Iron Goddess for 24 hours and the result was sublime.