> I probably have the dullest
> taste buds of anyone on this group, and even > I can tell the
difference.
> There's not much linear about tea brewing,
> especially for the first few
> steeps of a rolled or fisted tea.

DM,
Some days it's a "Dog day afternoon"? :-)
I didn't express myself very well when I said "short + more = long +
less". I didn't mean to say the two were equal, but rather, the
essence of gung fu is to use more tea and less time. You are right: it
often doesn't taste the same as a slow brew. (But only when the tea is
complex, many cheap teas taste identifical.) My point is not to make
gung fu more complicated than it is. The art is to get your timings
right to bring out the full flavor from the leaf--this requires optimal
timings and temperatures and number of infusions. Not a science but an
art.