How to brew greens

I have some Long Feng (aka dragon well iirc) and some Bai Sha Lu from Jing Tea Shop.

I don't have a complete gong fu setup at work so I'm stuck with an infuser cup for a spell. Do folks gong fu greens at all?

How do I brew these? I've never played with greens and bought them on spec.

I haven't really done any gong fu, but from what I've read, isn't it mostly done with boiling water, and generally not used for green tea? Boiling water will cook the tannins out of a green tea and give you a bitter brew very quickly.

For my greens I use a heaping teaspoon per 8oz, maybe a bit more if I'm dealing with some very light whole leaves. Water temp should be about 175F, steaming but not boiling. Let it steep for 2-3 minutes, absolutely no more than 5min or you'll get a bitter cuppa. If it's good leaf you should be able to get at least a couple more infusions if you desire.

I don't know if anyone bothers to toss the first infusion like you do for pu-er in gong fu, I don't bother, personally. If you wanted to a quick 1min infusion and toss that, it'd definitely cut back on the caffeine content. You could also just rinse the leaves first if you're used to that.

Greens are tricky. Some of the delicate ones need water that's as low as 140. They also go stale pretty quickly.

I use a gaiwan to brew my greens. Only use about 3g of leaf with 125ml water. Don't let the water start to boil and use about 1min for the first brew....then 40s, 1min. I usually don't go beyond three infusions. It depends on the type of green tea, but this should get you a decent brew and you can adjust from there.

For green teas I would not rinse the leaves. Different story with Oolongs and Puerh. I never even bother to weigh the leaf for greens, I just put a big pinch of leaf into a pre-heated gaiwan or pot and add 185 degree water and steep 2-3 minutes. That is for whole leaf teas anyways. To me Long Jing is fairly sturdy (if it,s good quality) and it can take the 185 water with no problem. Some teas you get a second cup, some not.

Other posters pretty much covered it. Green teas are delicate. With some you can just wave the water pot by the tea, and your set well not quite, but please don't over infuse it or you wont like it. With olong you can infuse it a few times, but with more delicate greens like sencha, or most Chinese greens that are not rolled (pearls, gun powder etc.) infuse once, and like some one else said, sometimes twice. I think one should experiment a bit with water temp, and infusion times. Theres really no wrong way to make tea. Some extended infusion times make a some what nasty, bitter cup that has some health benefits that a more palatable cup may not have. Remember tea is a good drink, and its also a medicine.

I'm coming to greens from doing lots of gong fu brewing. You'll need to clarify what you mean when you talk about long brew times. Long for me is 45s.

bones59 said:

Remember tea is a good drink, and its also a medicine.

Click to expand...

It's no more medicine than coffee or crank or lawn clippings. It's a tasty beverage.

arghblech said:

Long for me is 45s.

Click to expand...

That's what she said.

As for Dragon Well, I usually just take a healthy pinch and put it in my cup, add hot water, and drink. When drained, repeat. So I may eat a bud or two...they are most tasty!

I gong fu the same greens, and the key is to remember to use 1g less than usual for your amount of water compared to pu'er, and use really warm water- not even close to boiling. Start off with an instant rinse, then do 13s, while leaving a small amount of water left in the gaiwan. When you gongfu greens this tiny amount of water leftover is referred to as the "root". The next handful of infusions can be around 10s, and add 5-10s whenever it starts to weaken. Dragonwell takes pretty well to this treatment, as do most other greens but for some reason bi luo chun is a little trickier. Play around with these loose suggestions, and I'm pretty sure you'll find your own preferred way.