Questions about tea brew times

Rinsing the tea is a common practice with this kind of steeping (and I may be so assuming as to say it is far more common a practice in asian steeping methods). Gongfu style also uses more leaf, more steepings and a shorter steeping time. It is believed to bring out more complex flavor of the leaf, though far more time consuming than the more western method of a steeper and teapot.

Really though, if you’re happy with the kind of steeping you are doing, you don’t have to change it.

I have primarily used Gongfu style since I began my journey into exploring loose teas and I can also vouch that a lot of leaf and short steeping is common. The initial “rinse” is something you will have to experiment with if you get into Gongfu. Some people swear by it and others don’t do it at all. For really tightly rolled teas like oolong and some blacks and greens it is thought that by giving the tea an initial rinse to get the leaves moistened and starting to unroll, then discarding this rinse water, the first actual steeping will have more depth of flavor, as more leaf will be exposed to the water from the moment the steeping starts. If you skipped this step the leaf won’t be as open from the beginning. You could possibly steep it longer for more fullness of flavor, but that could also lead to over-steeping. For some tea drinkers, the rinse is also a way of ensuring the tea is clean and free of any substances it may have picked up in the field or in processing (dust or pesticides for example).

Personally, I only do the initial rinse with blacks, oolongs, and pu-erhs. I find that briefly giving these highly-oxidized teas a chance to rehydrate and “awaken” makes for a smoother first steeping. I also find that for most delicate teas (like white and green) you get a more rewarding flavor if you do not rinse them first. These teas usually yield the best flavors on the first or second steeping, while the teas that are more tightly rolled (especially in the case of ball-shaped teas) usually yield their best flavor by around the third or fourth steeping, when the leaves have fully unrolled.

The major difference in Gongfu vs. western style tea brewing is that you’ll get to experience different stages of flavor. This will expose you to subtleties in the tea that might otherwise be hard to pick out if you were to just steep it in one go. Think of it like tasting a bowl of Neapolitan ice cream by taking one bite of each of the three flavors as opposed to taking a bite of all three flavors in one spoon. In the first approach you can clearly make out the separate flavors that make up the whole, but in the second approach you get the full flavor at once and can see how the flavors intermingle and layer together. It’s not quite this cut and dry, but you’ll usually notice different flavors from one steeping to the next. Some flavors may be in all of the steepings, but some will only show early on or in a later brewing.