Hi Rona,

Regarding your latter question, hot water is poured over the tea leaves in
order to clean and open them up to "release the aroma" of the tea leaves.
The water should be poured off quickly.

Sometimes the first infusion (after 1-2 minutes of steeping) is poured off
in order to remove the caffeine level.

Daniel
http://www.TeaSpring.com


"Rona Yuthasastrakosol" wrote in message
...
I was having a discussion about brewing tea today. One person mentioned a
Chinese tea which was brewed by pouring boiling water over the leaves,
throwing out that water after 30 seconds, then pouring more water over the
leaves and letting it steep, then drinking that second steeping. I
replied
that when I was in Japan, a similar tea was prepared the same way, but now
I
can't remember what kind of tea it was. I've done a search, and I think
it
might have been kukicha. However, I cannot find brewing instructions for
kukicha. Does anyone know how to brew kukicha? Or of any Japanese tea
that
is brewed the way I described?

Also, I vaguely recall reading a discussion here of why some teas are
prepared the way I described above. I can't remember the reasons for
throwing out the initial steeping/rinsing (removing astringency?) and
can't
find it using google groups. Could someone enlighten me once more?

Thanks!

rona

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