If you use a Chatsford, why don't you use the basket? Then you could
just lift the leaves out.

Some teas will stand a second steep, some won't. In general, oolongs
and greens and pu ers will give you a nice second steep, but black teas
won't. Of course, you may like the way your Earl Grey comes out on a
second steep where other people wouldn't. But then you come up against
the one abolute rule about making tea: If you like the results, you're
doing it right.

dmh

LurfysMa wrote:
> Is it true that a batch of tea leaves can be reused (re-steeped) at
> least once?
>
> I use a Chatsford teapot. I put the loose leaves in, add boiling
> water, set the timer, then pour it through a strainer into a cup or
> thermos.
>
> To make a second steep, can I just dump the leaves back into the pot
> and go again? I just tried that with a batch of Earl Grey. The second
> steep was slightly weaker than the first, but still fairly good.
>
> Is the second steep the same time as the first? Perhaps I should have
> steeped it a bit longer the second time.
>
> Is the second steep likely to be bitter? This one wasn't. It was
> actually a bit milder on both the taste scale as well as the
> bitterness scale. Everyone keep saying that steeping too long causes
> the tea to be bitter. How come two 3-minutes steeps are not bitter but
> one 6-minute steep is?
>