I used 15 pieces, each brew was made with 4oz of hot water (somewhere between 160 and 180* F, i guessed at the temp because that is the temp that usually comes out of the hot side of my water dispenser), each brew was for 1 minute.
Pre infusion- 10 seconds, smells alittle fishy. tastes fishy.
1st infusion- clear, has a strange but interesting flavor.
2nd infusion- very pale clear green, leaves are really starting to unfurl. they are actually pretty big! :D the tea has a stronger smell, tastes a bit like veggies… almost like watery spinach… but its not unpleasant.
3rd infusion- still smells like veggies, tastes like salty veggies now. a slightly perfumy aftertaste.
4th infusion- lost the funny smell, tastes “better” and sweeter, still green liquid, has not lost any color yet.
5th infusion- still green! now it has a jasmine floral smell. less veggie taste and a much more floral taste (but not unpleasant, very soft).
6th infusion- still floral and same as 5th.
7th infusion- same as 5th, no change or weakening of flavor
8th infusion- supposedly last infusion. very floral, sweet very vegetal, and has a faint jasmine flower smell to it but it does not show up in the flavor.
At this point i had run out of hot water as i had been using a very large glass tea pot of o hold the hot water so i would not have to get up to get more water. I refilled the pot with hot water from the water dispenser for this infusion so the water is probably a little hotter than in the last 2-3 infusions.
9th infusion- yep. decided to keep brewing it. the flavor is too strong to give up yet! :D the flavor changed, its very different almost like a completely different tea!! has a floral smell, but it lost its floral flavor. the taste is strong but pleasant, I can’t quite place the flavor though. its familiar yet nothing specific comes to mind.
I brewed a 10th and 11th infusion, but by this point I was sweating profusely and my stomach full of tea.
10th infusion & 11th infusion- I got bored and stopped drinking the tea. It has a new flavor and smell. Its good. but I don’t know what it is….. very very interesting. I ended up dumping both infusions on some plants in my garden. I put my wet tea leaves in a sealed cup in the fridge so that i might try infusing them again this evening. I want to know what that third flavor is!
As an after thought from my notes: I looked at the description for the tea. It says it has a fruity flavor and now that i think about it… that is probably the flavor i was experiencing. that is some freaking good tea. I have never had a tea infuse so many times with out tasting like hot water. why have i never had this type of tea before?
I do not own a gofu set so i used a small english tea pot and cup plus 2 japanese tea cups (4oz each) to measure water and hold the hot tea until it was cool enough for me to drink without getting burned. I left the tea leaves to float freely in the water and only used a strainer to catch the leaves when pouring into my cups. All fallen leaves were replaced into the tea pot for more brewing. The leaves are actually quite big once they fully unfurl. I saw twig pieces attached to the leaves as well. I can identify some of the leaves as being the “three” top leaves (one good sized leaf and 2 smaller bud leaves). very interesting to look at the leaves.
