Green Tea Forum

amanojakumo · White Belt Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

I asked this over at adagio forums, but maybe I was too specific or I worded it badly.

I have an ingenuitea, but I believe the same issue would apply to any type of teapot.

When I first make a cup of tea, I can pour hot water into the teapot to preheat it, dump the water out, add leaves, add more hot water and brew.

At this point I go off to drink my cup of tea and don't come back for about 30min to an hour.

When I come back for the second infusion, the teapot is room temperature. I can't really preheat the teapot because the used leaves are already in the teapot.

So what do you do to preheat a room temperature teapot that already has used leaves in it? I've measured a 15-20F temperature loss pouring hot water into a room temperature teapot.

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

There's not really a lot you can do, other than making your second infusion sooner (or laboriously taking the used leaves out, warming the vessel, and dumping them back in).

amanojakumo · White Belt Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

Kevangogh · Forum God Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 926 Location: Japan

You don't really need to pre-heat the second infusion, it's the first one that is most critical. At least when you are talking green tea....

amanojakumo · White Belt Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

Honestly, your tea brewing method should reflect what you think makes your tea taste best to you. Play around a bit. Try increasing/decreasing the temperature and write down how things change.

There's no equation for making tea-- even if someone were to tell you exact times, temperatures, amounts, teaware, etc., there are still MANY more subtle factors. I would argue that most are a result of the brewer's own habits (whether he is conscious of them or not)-- even things like the height from which one pours and the speed at which one pours can have an impact on the end product.

Take home lesson: experiment, and make it work for you! Smile

Kevangogh · Forum God Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 926 Location: Japan

It all depends on what temperature the water is that you start with. If you start off with freshly boiled water, that's going to be around 200 F - too hot. Even at that temperature, however, if you know what you are doing you can make it work.

Example: When you brew your first infusion, don't simply heat the teapot (and teacups - don't forget that part) then dump the water. Instead, use hot water that's around 190F. 190F is water that was just brought to boil and let to set for a few minutes off the heat. Pour the hot water first into the empty teacup(s), letting it sit for a minute. That will drop the temperature by about 10 degrees and also warms up the cups. Add tea leaves to the cold teapot. Pour water from teacups into the cold teapot which holds the leaves and brew for 2 minutes. That drops the temperature almost immediately by 10 or more degrees. What do you know, you end up with nearly perfect brew temperature and pre-warmed teacups.

If you start with hotter water, then you would simply put it into the teapot first, let it set, transfer to the teacups, let it set, dump the remaining water from the teapot, etc, etc, etc...

Example: If you want to brew gyokuro which requires and even lower brewing temperature, then first pour the hot water into the teapot, let it set, from teapot to teacups, let it set, pour out remaining hot water from teapot, let it set, add leaves, re-pour hot water from cups back into teapot, brew for 2-3 minutes.

Each time you pour from one vessel to another, it cools off the water and heats the vessel. All of this takes a bit of practice, but soon enough you will come up with a system that works for you. When you first start, you may want to use a thermometer but after doing it for awhile you won't need it anymore.

The second infusion is not that critical - just pour in hot water that is close to the correct brew temperature.

A lot of beginners just want their tea real quick, but many of us here like the challenge of making the perfect cup. The perfect cup comes not only from having a great tea to start off with, but knowing what to do with it. It takes some practice but it's not rocket science either.

amanojakumo · White Belt Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

Bwahahahahaha! Twisted Evil