obritten said

Gaiwan brewing always ending up bitter

Hello guys I recently picked up a gaiwan after hearing so many good things about gongfu brewing. I’ve been struggling a bit with how to do it properly. I always follow the gongfu tea instructions but my tea is always bitter by the 2nd or 3rd steep. I’ve been wondering if anyone has some ideas about what I’m doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

21 Replies
AllanK said

You may not necessarily be doing anything wrong. Some teas are often bitter in the first few steeps. With something like raw puerh bitterness is often found in the first few steeps but less likely in the seventh and eighth, etc. Are you doing short steeps? Long steeps? I start with very short steeps of five seconds. I add incrementally from there.

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Rasseru said

What sort of tea are you brewing?

As Allan said, I start with 5 second steeps also

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mrmopar said

Young sheng can be bitter to start with. Try to reduce your temp and do almost instantaneous steeps and add time from there.

AllanK said

He hasn’t actually said he was brewing sheng, he may be brewing oolong for all we know, but lower temperatures may still help.

mrmopar said

True. I forgot to ask what type of tea.

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obritten said

Hey thanks for the quick responses. I most often brew oolongs with my gaiwan and sometimes sheng or black tea. I normally do a rinse and then do about 10 seconds, 15, 20 and so on. I feel like my pour takes forever. When I do a 10 second steep am I supposed to wait 10 seconds and then pour? Because by the end of my pour it ends up being more like 25 seconds

AllanK said

There are no hard and fast rules. If it works for you to pour water into the gaiwan and then immediately begin to pour it out do so. I start with a five second steep, count to five then pour. But my gaiwan doesn’t take 15 seconds to pour and my guess is yours shouldn’t either. If you are using a traditional gaiwan instead of an easy gaiwan try propping the lid open a bit. You will get a faster pour.

Rasseru said

ah, if its Oolongs, and especially Dan cong, they can go bitter very easily..

Some of my Dan Cong I brew 1/1/3/5/7/9/15/25 sec steeps and at 90c. And a 1 second steep is literally in and out straightaway. My gaiwan I can pour the whole thing out in 1 second…

15 seconds for a pour is too slow for some of the tea I drink (which also happen to be some of my favourites)

Some are very fussy and a second or two over gets a horrible bitter taste (different from the sharp sheng bitter, more like a pungent bitter twist, its horrible)

Rasseru said

If the tea is too weak with flash brewing, then you can follow Allans method which is more like 5/7/9/15/20/25 or something like that

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obritten said

Ok when I pour most of the water is out in a couple seconds but water still drops out for awhile. I don’t want to leave any water in the gaiwan because I’m afraid it will make the tea bitter. But it’s bitter even if I try to get all the water out. Is it ok to not get every drop of water out with your pour?

AllanK said

A few drops of water shouldn’t make a difference. One thing to look at is the specific tea you are drinking. Some teas simply are bitter. It can be a fact of a tea that it is bitter. What specific source are you getting your teas from? I find that by sampling different teas you can find teas that are not bitter. For sheng I think Misty Peaks is usually not bitter. At least in my experience. Yunnan Sourcing sells a lot of good tea. So does Mandala, Whispering Pines, and Crimson Lotus as well as Berylleb King Tea on EBay.

mrmopar said

Do you have a strainer in the Gaiwan? Sounds like your spout is clogging up a bit.

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obritten said

Yea I’ve collected a lot of really high quality tea from many different places. My favorites are verdant, mandala, YS, Taiwan sourcing, and Harney. When I brew teas western style they are not bitter and delicious. I just want to be able to improve my tea experience and find the nuances each tea has to offer so I started using a gaiwan. I think I’ve learned wuite a bit here guys. Thanks for taking the time to answer. Im going to have a gongfu session tonight and I’ll let you know how it goes.

AllanK said

How many steeps do you give a tea? Bitterness I find tends to steep out after a while. You may have to drink four or five steeps with some bitterness to get past it. With ripe puerh the same rule goes for the fermentation taste, it tends to steep out after four or five steeps.

mrmopar said

Please for sure as we all learn from one another. Hopefully the results will improve.

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obritten said

I generally only get to steep #5 before I can’t take the bitterness. I’m about to steep up some Alishan Jin Xuan from Taiwan Sourcing. I’m going to try at least 7 steeps

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LuckyMe said

A couple questions to help troubleshoot:

- What’s your water temperature? If it’s too hot, try lowering to 185-195 F.
- What is your leaf to water ratio?

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Why is your pour so slow? Gaiwans tend to pour fast. You got an easy gaiwan? I’d save that gaiwan for things that can take a longer steep like blacks and shou. Gotta use the right tools, if not you have to work with it.

For timing, you start the countdown when you add water, but also consider the pour time if you got something with a long pour. Its okay to add water then immediately pour it out and also repeat the same timing for a few steeps. You can also adjust to use less leaf if you are going to steep longer (but you also lose flavor nuance, so likely better to get a traditional gaiwan).

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obritten said

Yea I have a traditional gaiwan but I keep pouring until I get every drop out. I thought if I don’t get all the water out the next brew would be bitter.

Dr Jim said

You could also try redirecting the last few drops into a waste cup. If those last few drops are bitter, you’ll be leaving them out of your drink.

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