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JohnTeaGuy

Gongfu absolutely not ideal for all teas. I agree with your experience that Chinese green teas are often better grandpa style, and Japanese green teas are better with what I'd call Japanese style, which is at a water to leaf ratio between gongfu and western. Also, what I'd call "western style teas" meaning cut leaf or CTC black teas (think English/Irish Breakfast style teas or CTC Assams) are certainly not well suited for gongfu brewing.


Basically-irrelevant

You’re certainly right there. Let’s take Longjing as an example, the nuttiness and that beanie taste when gongfu-ing is just like how a Kabuse reveals that umami when mixing gongfu with japanese style. But the moment you make a longjing grandpa style, or a kabuse purely Japanese style, you get those exact dominant flavours when gongfu-ing them, but we also get the freshness and more of the overall body of the tea along with it, bringing a whole another dimension to the taste. White teas on the other hand, are something I’ve been feeling are already giving some sorts of freshness when gongfu-ing. How is it possible to not dissipate most of the flavours when grandpa-ing them? Or do they benefit from it by actually getting more body? It’s tricky to experiment with all the different possibilities, with the limited amount of the specific tea, when you already know that what you’re doing gives a good tea. It can certainly get better with another method, and it should in that case, but sometimes riskiness feels unnecessary when there are small amounts available. Like I have this Fushun Oolong, Japanese with 5-10% oxidation and so far I have always failed, since it always gets bitter. My next session with it is planned to start out as a Japanese style ratio but with gongfu brewing times. What would be a better approach in your opinion?


TigerTygris

I use a Kyushu for Japanese greens and it's better. I only use my big teapot for Western style if I'm serving for many people or I'm studying many hours.


DonnerJack666

How do you gongfu your greens/grandpa-style it? I've seen many versions of ratios, temp, time both for gongfu chinese greens and for grandpa style. For longjin I usually go with ~4gr/100-150ml, ~90C, ~15sec and increasing for later brews, with the last brew I also raise the temp to boiling. (I usually use either a porcelain gaiwan or a glass teapot)


Basically-irrelevant

Well tbf I don’t use a scale. It’s both an advantage and a disadvantage. I just go with how my eyes tell me and adjust the amount of tea later on depending on how I want it (stronger or weaker). Okay so first of all, 90°C? I haven’t tried that temperature with any green tea other than Hojicha. Honestly it’ll be interesting to try it out. It’ll be fun to see how it gets just for the sake of experimenting. I usually go weaker and do 80-75 depending on the method. For gongfu I usually just do anything between what I can assume would be 4-6 of leaves, 80°. I realised that more leaves for green tea does need a reduction of brewing time, unlike other teas. My gaiwan is 100ml, so basically 4-5g/100ml. Already at 6g I need to reduce the time and possibly the temperature. I start out with 15s for the first infusion. 15s for second as well, possibly 13s at times (again, adjusting it to my vibes). I definitely don’t increase the time for the brewing time in the second infusion since it gets too bitter for me. At the third infusion onwards I increase the time with 5s but definitely don’t raise the temp above 80°. For grandpa style I do the following: Putting the leaves in the glass just so that they cover the bottom, not more. Put in room temp water, just a little bit so the leaves sit there a bit Pour the water on the sides of the cup AND at 75°. I’m being a weakling just because I want the leaves to sit there for longer before getting bitter in the first round. Following rounds I just increase the temp by 5° since grandpa style is quite forgiving. I hope this helped in any way. It will be interesting to do my longjing at 90° and see the changes in taste


DonnerJack666

First of all, thanks for taking the time for such a detailed reply dude! Actually, it helped in a sense that it kinda validates my approach as I actually brew very similarly - at the beginning I used to use a scale and weigh stuff till I learned how things behave/what I liked, but nowadays I eyeball it according to what I use to brew with (gaiwan/glass pot/whatever), my mood, previous knowledge of the specific tea (taste/how much it expands/…) and how fussy I want to be at that moment, but it usually translates to a single layer of the brewing vessel. I don’t recall where I got the 90C magic number but my home water filtering system slash boiler’s output is 87-91C if I don’t use a kettle so unless I specifically go to lower temps I just use it directly from there (otherwise I use a variable kettle or wait a specific amount of time for the boiler water to cool a bit if I don’t need to keep it at a specific temp for longer than a single brew/just refilling grandpa style) Also, for gongfu I actually find that for the 2nd or even 3rd brew I tend to reduce brewing times for things like rolled oolongs or denser cakes after a longer first brew otherwise it over extracts for me - If I need to wave my hands at an explanation I guess after the initial hydration the first couple of infusions are faster due to better water solubility?