1, 2, or 3 steeps?

indeed it does depend on those variables.

some puerh will brew for over 15 steeps.

Most flavoured teas will do two steeps well.

Depends on the tea quality. Sachets,I assume only 1 steep. But I think it comes down to flavor and what you think still tastes good. I figure it never hurts to push for 1 more steep and if its blah, then toss it no real harm done.

It definitely depends on the type of tea! I drink a lot of flavored teas and tisanes and almost never re-steep them. I do re-steep good quality black tea at least once. And oolong seems to hold up to multiple re-steepings…I remember one traditional milk oolong that I steeped 8 or 9 times before it lost its flavor!

I love steeping multiple times. You can find different nuances in different steeps and it gives you an overall better idea of the complete range of flavors available in the tea you’re drinking. Also it’s a thrifty thing to do, and can even allow you to fit more teas into your budget.

Sometimes the second or third steep is the best, especially with strong teas. (Some people even “rinse” their tea leaves by steeping for a few seconds or half a minute and then discarding the water, so it’s almost like they’re starting with the second steep.) Of course, there are some teas that just aren’t worth steeping more than once or twice because they don’t have any flavor left by that point. These types of tea generally include teabags (or sachets or whatever you want to call them) and some types of low-quality or less flavorful loose leaf teas as well.

ETA: The number of times I re-use the same leaves depends on the type of tea I’m drinking. I’m not really sure how I’d estimate an average. But if I’m using teabags I usually only steep once (twice if it’s a strong tea), whereas with loose leaf tea I have a theoretically unlimited number of steeps. It also depends a little on whether I’m using the recommended amount of leaves for the water volume; sometimes I use twice as much water and only get half the number of steeps out of it. So there are a lot of variables.