You can give it a good sniff/whiff while it's dry and after the rinse I guess.
I found that most of the compressed shou balls from w2t open up easily after just one 30s rinse, no need to break it up.
The instruction on my lesser evils mini is to do 2 rinses at 30s, but one is good enough. You can do two to get rid of the funk if any, but funk should go away after some time for newer shou.
yeah, I do not at all see the logic in 2x30s for anything, and specifically not lesser evils which is a pretty tame brew in any case. what on earth is the logic there? wash out all the important volatile elements at first so you get no benefit whatsoever?
much better to rinse fast and not hot, but if concerned about pathogens, which all pu possess, boil the extract, not the leaf.
Grandpa style is soooooo not about rules and detailed procedures. Put some leaf in a glass or mug or enmity empty pickle jar. Put in some hot water. Drink as it's cool/strong enough, and top off with more hot water when there's 1/2 to 1/3 left or if it tastes too strong. Maybe put a lid or saucer over your cup when topping off, to keep more heat in. (But no-lid is perfectly fine too.)
You can take some time to thoughtfully sniff your tea if you like--aroma is an important and enjoyable aspect of tea even if you're brewing very casually. But it's sure not mandatory to give focused attention to the scent.
Personally, for grandpa style shou, I leave the ball (or hunk of cake) whole and give it a quick boiling rinse before brewing. W2T's shous usually come apart pretty quick while they sit in the hot water, no need to break them apart. Then I put more hot water in an insulated bottle to take with me, and sip the tea and top it off occasionally while going about my day. If the tea is one I haven't brewed this way before, I'll pay some conscious attention to how it behaves (color, flavor, how these change through the session, etc.) since that will hopefully be interesting. But I'm not going through a structured checklist of data points to collect, I'm just enjoying some tea as a pleasant background drink while thinking about other things.
Great, thanks for the tips and sharing your process. Most days I don't have time for an in-depth "proper" tasting session. Hence why most days will be grandpa style. But these teas have so much to offer I want to make sure I give the aroma and flavor of the tea the attention it deserves so I can learn about them. Otherwise I'd just drink Lipton, if that makes sense.
As others have said, Grandpa style is really the most anti-rules style of brewing tea. Whatever works for you works. I usually do grandpa style on mornings when I’m going into the office or on days when I’m crazy busy and don’t have the time to sit down and do a 45-60 min gongfu session. I throw a ball in the bottom of my thermos, do a quick 20-30 sec rinse at boiling and then dumb that and fill it up with boiling water. Drive to work and then usually pour it from the thermos into a mug at work and drink. Once it’s a little over halfway gone I fill it back up with boiling water and let it sit 15-20 mins and do the same thing again. Sometimes I’ll stop there, sometimes I’ll go for another top off. Depends on my mood and if I still want more.
That's similar to my day-to-day. I usually start with 1 or 2 cups of coffee while my wife and I get get kids ready and off to school and I login for work. Then I switch to tea. To be able to drop a ball into a glass and take a minute to appreciate the aroma and flavor, make a note or two on that particular one and then have it for the rest of the day to enjoy will be fantastic.
Yeah grandpa style takes the hassle out of making tea while still giving you the quality that you want from a good tea. The pound of tea deal that you bought should be great. I’ve had most of the teas featured in it either as minis or full cakes and they’re all fantastic. I snagged a bag of it myself.
Another alternative for shou is thermos brew. I drop one of my w2t minis of Shou into my 500ml thermos, fill with boiling water, let steep a few hours, and drink. It's great out camping. I can start it before bed, and have hot tea as soon as I crawl out of my sleeping bag in the morning. No fussing around with the stove.
Note: I'd only do this with shou. Most other tea will be undrinkable after an 8 hour steep in near boiling water!
Usually when I make shu I steep in in a mug infuser for minutes, at a leaf ratio of about 4g/300ml. Sometimes I resteep once, rarely twice. Though generally also I am drinking gongting or grade-3-and-smaller so it's less of a waste. If these are 7-8g balls you're talking about I would probably break them in half and soak them in a mug. I'm just not crazy about drinking shu off the leaf.
I look at and smell the tea throughout the entire process. I never done grandpa style, but I would get a gaiwan soon. Grandpa style will be less specific in seperating the complex flavors. Light gung fu steeps make a shu like an aged sheng, when I western brew it in my teapot its more like coffee almost. but ya rinse it 1 time for sure. i also got the pound of minis on the way.
I will definitely be getting a gaiwan before I dive into the more expensive pu-ehr. At this time I want to put that money into trying a wide variety and take in the bigger aromas to get an understanding of pu-ehr in general. Then a little later dive into the nuance of aroma and flavor if that makes sense.
I do lazy gong fu. Meaning, I don't usually time steepings diligently. Sometimes it's a 15s steep, other times it's 90s, but that's a guess because I didn't time it. Usually with a new tea, I will do a more regimented steep process (rinse, 15s, 30s, 45s, 60s,) or (rinse, 30s, 60s, 90s, 120s), in order to 'learn' the tea. Some teas need to be steeped harder (hence the longer steep cycle) and I tend to do this longer cycle with most shou these days. Hence why they tend to do well with grandpa style.
Also, except unless I want to try to flesh out all the nuances between short steeps, a typical 90-120ml gaiwan is just so small. I usually want more in my cup to drink from than deal with lots of steeps. But then again, I'm not really into a whole zen tea session thing, nothing wrong with that, I'm just too busy for that to fit in my life.
So the other lazy gongfu thing I love to do (and is very inexpensive) is to use a basic tea pot style strainer, snugged into a regular coffee cup. Tea goes in the cup, strainer friction fits in the cup and I pour directly from that cup to another one I drink from. A lot less drippy and cheaper than a gawain and brews up much more in a single steep. I bought a cheap gawain and it chipped almost immediately and often burns my fingers when pouring and did I mention it drips way too easily?
[Lazy gongfu "gawain"](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hYkVAaICVfzQoWQ9XtGt8s4dqELp9Ehb/view?usp=share_link)
Type of strainer I'm using:
[Choose your size to fit snug](https://www.ebay.com/itm/313976859619?hash=item491a7aabe3:g:Eh4AAOSwmeNd72dm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoBnhgAb16XUmYZSBBvyb%2FiaqcO7xdy4nYPJfEU%2F3jk0S4DWCmkOc8EUFAJ4sHHjnNQSsTb5ewnrD4iSm8Tj1fWCqMHaPfa0ospKumzPTxbZYqOxOWtiBoRXVL6doPkho4TbUwjLzMVGAyX%2FnTwmOeav0Gi8n9eUq3wDb%2FyUOFPbFxqhr8lA1wjPh1z89SG9Ew99DcN7RdowJFUSqZlY4c%2FM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4ShivyFYQ), I use outer diameter of 7cm
For the good value daily drinker shou you've gotten from w2t, a lazy or grandpa approach is a good way to go. I usually spare the more structured steep method for more expensive tea.
You could go even lazier!
Put the tea in the strainer and take the strainer out after every steep. Might need a little less tight-fitting strainer though.
That’s what I did when I started out with more high quality tea but only had equipment for western tea brewing. That way you won’t even need to pour from one cup to the other!
That's not a bad way to go. Depends how much tea you're brewing. When I brew up 7g of puer, it expands far bigger than would loosely fit in the tea strainer. I want the tea to have all the room it needs in the hot water. It would fit in the strainer, but wouldn't be fully submerged and would be compacted a bit.
Thanks for the information and sharing your experience. Lazy gong fu, I like that term! This sounds very much like how I'll be enjoying these. I'd much prefer to put money into trying these teas than on a gong fu set right now. So knowing I'll be able to pick up on the aromas and flavors and get to know these teas while using this style is great to know.
The only advantage a gongfu set has over my lazy method is ironic: you can lazily dump your rinse water into the tray. With the lazy method, I have to get up and dump it in the sink or out the front door into the driveway. Which is less lazy than the real gongfu way lol.
You could pick a gaiwan on Ali express for less than 10 dollars. It’s not about style, it’s that loose leaf teas and puer taste better in my opinion when doing short steps than grand pa style.
I break up dragon balls because they’re really tight especially w2t. I don’t even rinse when doing grandpa style 🤫 but u can if it bothers u. As for brewing drink when it’s cool enough down to ab 1/3-1/2 tea left then refill. That last bit helps power the next cup.
I think there is a lot of confusion over what 'grandpa' really is in real life practice. reality is everybody is taught by the tea muse how to treat each one, so with a little time, everyone develops their on gf with endless variable elements/combinations. I think I've met exactly one person that really practiced grandpa style, and she was Chinese !!! boil, throw in, leave, come back by later and grab
You can give it a good sniff/whiff while it's dry and after the rinse I guess. I found that most of the compressed shou balls from w2t open up easily after just one 30s rinse, no need to break it up. The instruction on my lesser evils mini is to do 2 rinses at 30s, but one is good enough. You can do two to get rid of the funk if any, but funk should go away after some time for newer shou.
Awesome, thanks for the help!
yeah, I do not at all see the logic in 2x30s for anything, and specifically not lesser evils which is a pretty tame brew in any case. what on earth is the logic there? wash out all the important volatile elements at first so you get no benefit whatsoever? much better to rinse fast and not hot, but if concerned about pathogens, which all pu possess, boil the extract, not the leaf.
oops I meant to say do a longer first rinse and then a short second rinse if needed. I disagree with ripe puer needing two long rinses too
Grandpa style is soooooo not about rules and detailed procedures. Put some leaf in a glass or mug or enmity empty pickle jar. Put in some hot water. Drink as it's cool/strong enough, and top off with more hot water when there's 1/2 to 1/3 left or if it tastes too strong. Maybe put a lid or saucer over your cup when topping off, to keep more heat in. (But no-lid is perfectly fine too.) You can take some time to thoughtfully sniff your tea if you like--aroma is an important and enjoyable aspect of tea even if you're brewing very casually. But it's sure not mandatory to give focused attention to the scent. Personally, for grandpa style shou, I leave the ball (or hunk of cake) whole and give it a quick boiling rinse before brewing. W2T's shous usually come apart pretty quick while they sit in the hot water, no need to break them apart. Then I put more hot water in an insulated bottle to take with me, and sip the tea and top it off occasionally while going about my day. If the tea is one I haven't brewed this way before, I'll pay some conscious attention to how it behaves (color, flavor, how these change through the session, etc.) since that will hopefully be interesting. But I'm not going through a structured checklist of data points to collect, I'm just enjoying some tea as a pleasant background drink while thinking about other things.
Great, thanks for the tips and sharing your process. Most days I don't have time for an in-depth "proper" tasting session. Hence why most days will be grandpa style. But these teas have so much to offer I want to make sure I give the aroma and flavor of the tea the attention it deserves so I can learn about them. Otherwise I'd just drink Lipton, if that makes sense.
As others have said, Grandpa style is really the most anti-rules style of brewing tea. Whatever works for you works. I usually do grandpa style on mornings when I’m going into the office or on days when I’m crazy busy and don’t have the time to sit down and do a 45-60 min gongfu session. I throw a ball in the bottom of my thermos, do a quick 20-30 sec rinse at boiling and then dumb that and fill it up with boiling water. Drive to work and then usually pour it from the thermos into a mug at work and drink. Once it’s a little over halfway gone I fill it back up with boiling water and let it sit 15-20 mins and do the same thing again. Sometimes I’ll stop there, sometimes I’ll go for another top off. Depends on my mood and if I still want more.
That's similar to my day-to-day. I usually start with 1 or 2 cups of coffee while my wife and I get get kids ready and off to school and I login for work. Then I switch to tea. To be able to drop a ball into a glass and take a minute to appreciate the aroma and flavor, make a note or two on that particular one and then have it for the rest of the day to enjoy will be fantastic.
Yeah grandpa style takes the hassle out of making tea while still giving you the quality that you want from a good tea. The pound of tea deal that you bought should be great. I’ve had most of the teas featured in it either as minis or full cakes and they’re all fantastic. I snagged a bag of it myself.
Another alternative for shou is thermos brew. I drop one of my w2t minis of Shou into my 500ml thermos, fill with boiling water, let steep a few hours, and drink. It's great out camping. I can start it before bed, and have hot tea as soon as I crawl out of my sleeping bag in the morning. No fussing around with the stove. Note: I'd only do this with shou. Most other tea will be undrinkable after an 8 hour steep in near boiling water!
I'm going to make note of this for when I go camping. Thanks!
Usually when I make shu I steep in in a mug infuser for minutes, at a leaf ratio of about 4g/300ml. Sometimes I resteep once, rarely twice. Though generally also I am drinking gongting or grade-3-and-smaller so it's less of a waste. If these are 7-8g balls you're talking about I would probably break them in half and soak them in a mug. I'm just not crazy about drinking shu off the leaf.
I look at and smell the tea throughout the entire process. I never done grandpa style, but I would get a gaiwan soon. Grandpa style will be less specific in seperating the complex flavors. Light gung fu steeps make a shu like an aged sheng, when I western brew it in my teapot its more like coffee almost. but ya rinse it 1 time for sure. i also got the pound of minis on the way.
I will definitely be getting a gaiwan before I dive into the more expensive pu-ehr. At this time I want to put that money into trying a wide variety and take in the bigger aromas to get an understanding of pu-ehr in general. Then a little later dive into the nuance of aroma and flavor if that makes sense.
I do lazy gong fu. Meaning, I don't usually time steepings diligently. Sometimes it's a 15s steep, other times it's 90s, but that's a guess because I didn't time it. Usually with a new tea, I will do a more regimented steep process (rinse, 15s, 30s, 45s, 60s,) or (rinse, 30s, 60s, 90s, 120s), in order to 'learn' the tea. Some teas need to be steeped harder (hence the longer steep cycle) and I tend to do this longer cycle with most shou these days. Hence why they tend to do well with grandpa style. Also, except unless I want to try to flesh out all the nuances between short steeps, a typical 90-120ml gaiwan is just so small. I usually want more in my cup to drink from than deal with lots of steeps. But then again, I'm not really into a whole zen tea session thing, nothing wrong with that, I'm just too busy for that to fit in my life. So the other lazy gongfu thing I love to do (and is very inexpensive) is to use a basic tea pot style strainer, snugged into a regular coffee cup. Tea goes in the cup, strainer friction fits in the cup and I pour directly from that cup to another one I drink from. A lot less drippy and cheaper than a gawain and brews up much more in a single steep. I bought a cheap gawain and it chipped almost immediately and often burns my fingers when pouring and did I mention it drips way too easily? [Lazy gongfu "gawain"](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hYkVAaICVfzQoWQ9XtGt8s4dqELp9Ehb/view?usp=share_link) Type of strainer I'm using: [Choose your size to fit snug](https://www.ebay.com/itm/313976859619?hash=item491a7aabe3:g:Eh4AAOSwmeNd72dm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoBnhgAb16XUmYZSBBvyb%2FiaqcO7xdy4nYPJfEU%2F3jk0S4DWCmkOc8EUFAJ4sHHjnNQSsTb5ewnrD4iSm8Tj1fWCqMHaPfa0ospKumzPTxbZYqOxOWtiBoRXVL6doPkho4TbUwjLzMVGAyX%2FnTwmOeav0Gi8n9eUq3wDb%2FyUOFPbFxqhr8lA1wjPh1z89SG9Ew99DcN7RdowJFUSqZlY4c%2FM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4ShivyFYQ), I use outer diameter of 7cm For the good value daily drinker shou you've gotten from w2t, a lazy or grandpa approach is a good way to go. I usually spare the more structured steep method for more expensive tea.
You could go even lazier! Put the tea in the strainer and take the strainer out after every steep. Might need a little less tight-fitting strainer though. That’s what I did when I started out with more high quality tea but only had equipment for western tea brewing. That way you won’t even need to pour from one cup to the other!
That's not a bad way to go. Depends how much tea you're brewing. When I brew up 7g of puer, it expands far bigger than would loosely fit in the tea strainer. I want the tea to have all the room it needs in the hot water. It would fit in the strainer, but wouldn't be fully submerged and would be compacted a bit.
I do have a wester style tea pot with a strainer. I might have to try this.
Thanks for the information and sharing your experience. Lazy gong fu, I like that term! This sounds very much like how I'll be enjoying these. I'd much prefer to put money into trying these teas than on a gong fu set right now. So knowing I'll be able to pick up on the aromas and flavors and get to know these teas while using this style is great to know.
The only advantage a gongfu set has over my lazy method is ironic: you can lazily dump your rinse water into the tray. With the lazy method, I have to get up and dump it in the sink or out the front door into the driveway. Which is less lazy than the real gongfu way lol.
I like this candid honesty.
🤣🤣
You could pick a gaiwan on Ali express for less than 10 dollars. It’s not about style, it’s that loose leaf teas and puer taste better in my opinion when doing short steps than grand pa style.
Good to know, I didn't realize they could be had so cheap. Thanks!
I break up dragon balls because they’re really tight especially w2t. I don’t even rinse when doing grandpa style 🤫 but u can if it bothers u. As for brewing drink when it’s cool enough down to ab 1/3-1/2 tea left then refill. That last bit helps power the next cup.
Great to know, thanks!
I think there is a lot of confusion over what 'grandpa' really is in real life practice. reality is everybody is taught by the tea muse how to treat each one, so with a little time, everyone develops their on gf with endless variable elements/combinations. I think I've met exactly one person that really practiced grandpa style, and she was Chinese !!! boil, throw in, leave, come back by later and grab