How do you brew red tea in a gaiwan?
Hi everyone. I’ve been studying gongfu cha and how to brew tea using a gaiwan for most of a year now. I’ve practiced a lot and have read many, many sources when it comes to what amount of tea leaf to use, what water temperature, and how long to steep the tea. Of course, this varies by tea type and can also vary somewhat arbitrarily due to the personal tastes of those giving the information.
Most gongfu approaches have you brewing the tea for a pretty brief period of time. Particularly with puerh and other dark teas it is common to see steep times as short as 5 to 10 seconds. What I’m specifically curious about though is how to get the most out of a red tea using the gongfu approach?
For the most part, I’ve steeped red teas for about 2 minutes, using about 2g of tea per 100ml water, and adding a minute to each steep. The water temperature is around 203F or 95C.
I find though that this only yields a few steepings before the flavor decreases too much. Do any of you use an approach that uses shorter infusions for red tea and gives you more infusions? If so, what are the measurements you use? I am willing to do my own experimenting, but it usually helps to have a vague starting point. Furthermore, do any of you use very short infusions for other types of tea like white or green? Most suggestions I see have you steeping those around 1-3 minutes, nothing quite like the shorter infusions of a puerh. Is the approach of using very quick infusions more exclusive to puerh, or is this common with other types?
Mostly I’m trying to hone in on brewing red tea at the moment, but I’m curious to know about other types and how you brew them as well. I’ll also say that I’m not a complete newbie to this and I’ve done a lot of experimenting and testing of my own with various steeping suggestions I’ve seen online, so I’m not just jumping into this question with no prior knowledge.
Any tips?
I am pretty sure I have told you my method for brewing reds, but if not here goes! Usually I use 195 degree water and steep for 15s the first time and adding 15 seconds to each steep. If I am lucky I can get eight steeps out of a tea going that method, but the flavors present are delicate while still being rich.
However if I want my tea to pack more of a punch and I go for 205 for 35 seconds and add 30 seconds for each steep, usually I only get about 4-5 steepings this way but it does pack a punch. It is hard to describe, imagine having the really strong presence of a Ceylon but the flavors of a Keemun. Usually I prefer the short steep method because the flavors are more subtle and I find that more enjoyable.
I do short steeps with my oolongs, sometimes with my Wuyi oolongs I only steep for 5 seconds the first time, similar to a pu-erh. Greens I usually do for 30 the first steep and whites I do for 45-1 minute.
It is funny, I am so used to doing such short steeps that when I am drinking a tea Western style or an herbal I get weirded out setting my timer for gasp 3-5 minutes :P
My parameters : 150 ml gaiwan 6-7 g of red tea 205F
Rinse 1 sec pause 5/5/10/15/20sec etc. so pretty much the same as for puerh. I can get maybe 8-10 good steeps sometimes more or less.
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