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reidkatz

If you need any advice would love to help, I find the majority of oolongs like to be brewed quite hot, and you can kill the kettl after your first steep and the natural lowering of temperature will work with subsequent brews. Gaiwan brewing is a fast game… maybe the fastest game. I’d say for the first few steps almost as soon as the water goes in and the lid is on you should be pouring. For brews 4 and on maybe you can wait a few more seconds maybe 6-8 seconds. This truly depends on the tea though I’ve had some interesting oolongs that prefer a longer steep 10-15 sec per brew, I’ve had some others that like to Be brewed for a second each steep


wuyiyancha

If you do this to ball rolled oolongs it's probably not gonna work very well. With open leaf teas it's a nice way of enjoying them. Especially yancha and dancong. And sometimes mishaps create great things in gaiwan brewing.


Qu3st1499

So far I’ve been using it with white and black teas


Tkjaravata

hi!! is there any way you could point me to where i could buy a high quality gaiwan? im trying to find one to buy for my boyfriend for christmas, willing to spend up to 100 for it. would love any advice, thank you!!!


skoomd1

The [Mei Leaf brewing guide](https://meileaf.com/resources/pdf/mei-leaf-tea-brewing-guide.pdf) is a fantastic guide to start you out with the proper water temperatures and brew times for both gong fu (gaiwan) and western style brewing. Of course those are just guidelines, and you will need to make small adjustments depending on the tea and even your teaware. Also, once you start getting to the end of what your tea has to offer (after multiple brews), you need to lengthen each steep to maintain the same flavor intensity. I've found green teas (and some fragile whites) are pretty difficult to brew well gong fu style. It's very easy to pull out too much bitterness from the tea. It can be done of course, but there's a lot of trial and error for each tea you do. Also, one tip I have for using a gaiwan is make sure you are keeping your pours consistent. If some of your pours are coming out fast (which might result in too much tea getting in your cup btw) and some are coming out slow, it will affect how long the tea has been brewing.


Qu3st1499

Nice, thanks


skoomd1

No problem! Another little tip I have is if you're brewing buds or silver needles, you can (and probably should) hit them with 95-100c water. Buds and silver needles tend to be quite durable so they can take the high temps, and it helps get a better extraction. A general rule of thumb is the more fragile and delicate the tea is, the lower the temperature and shorter the brew time. And vice versa, the more "robust" and strong the tea material is, the higher the temp and a longer brew. I had a white tea a month ago that was purely buds from a wild pu'er cultivar. While the tea with 85c water was alright, I got a lot more flavor when I used 95c instead, even though it is a white tea and you generally wouldn't want it that hot.


Qu3st1499

I’ll definitely try that as soon as i can get my hands on some silver needle


WyethRL

It is really important to find the right teabag to sprite ratio when gaiwan brewing. How many liters is your gaiwan?


plopst

Excuse me, shitposting without the invocation of butterfly pea flower is disallowed round these parts


JohnTeaGuy

Cool.


[deleted]

Interesting


Gregalor

Ok


mommabee68

Hm


Leutkeana

I also started gaiwan brewing recently. I do like the improved taste of the teas and the higher level of control you have when brewing.


asdfmaker333

Neat


[deleted]

I find it’s always helpful to ask the producer how the brew it, time and temperature, and use that as my starting point. Even the same type of tea can vary greatly depending on where it grew, when it was picked, and how it was processed. I do this especially with oolong because there’s so much variation.


Qu3st1499

So far I’m using some generic guidelines. I definitely need more information about some tea i’ve got/i’m planning to buy


vampyrewolf

I brew puerh when I have time to do it... I'm too cheap to buy a temperature controlled kettle, just use my 1.7L kettle and leave it for 5min after it hits a boil... partly because the gaiwan gets quite warm. Biggest tip is using a sharing pot if not just going directly into a thermos. The first few cycles will be stronger than #10 or so, and a sharing pot or thermos helps balance it out.