On Feb 18, 9:01 pm, wrote:
I've been drinking tea for some years, but never managed to
understando how to do multiple infusions of the same leaves. So, I
have the the impression that I am wasting the leaves, not withdrawing
all their potential.
As I am the only tea drinker at home, I use a mug with a Chatsford
mesh infuser.
My questions are these:
Multiple infusions must be made one immediately after another? If not,
how long can I wait before infusing the same leaves again? One hour?
12 hour? One day? a couple of days? That's an important issue, because
normally I only drink tea at night and not always like to drink
several mugs, specially if they are of the same type of tea.
If I can store used leaves for one day, I should I do it? Keep them in
the infuser?

Thanks in advance!

Joao Baptista
Lisbon - Portugal

Olá Joao,

Well, I think multiple infusions may be tough to do with your current
setup. Not that there is anything wrong with it, just that it isn't
optimal for multiple infusions beyond maybe two. I'm not sure what
kind of tea you are drinking either, so maybe let us know that bit of
info too if you would.

Basically multiple infusions are done with smaller vessels and a
decent amount of leaves. Small as in a gaiwan, brew-in mug, or smaller
Yixing teapots. They should all be done in a fairly short time frame
and at most a couple hours, personally in a covered vessel I'd say 6-8
hours max before the air is going to react with the tea and affect the
flavor, but 2-4 is normally as long as I personally would go. Some
types of tea stand up better than others as well, Puerhs being tops
and other higher fermented/fired teas blacks, oolongs, etc. White teas
are hit or miss and might be good for 2-3 infusions and the same with
most greens... again depending on the individual tea.

In a large teapot and with only one person drinking it, one or two
infusions is about all you could ask for. Hope that helps!

- Dominic