Re-steeping tea

Some teas can be re-steeped and some can’t. Generally black teas and tisanes don’t re-steep well. Oolong, green and whites can generally be re-steeped. Of course there are exceptions. Some higher end black teas can be re-steeped where as some lower grade green teas may not re-steep well. How do you know if they can be re-steeped? Well, you can look at the packaging to see if there are any instructions that state that the tea could be re-steeped or you can just give it a try and re-steep the tea. If it doesn’t taste good on the second steep, then it probably couldn’t of been re-steeped.

I don’t believe fruit pieces have much flavor after the first steep.

After the first steep, I generally leave the leaves in the teapot or the tea basket. You don’t really have to lay them out on the napkin or let them dry. If you don’t use them after several hours you might want to throw it out.

Thanks Ricky!

i try and resteep most things, flavored and teavana blend teas tend to take to it least well, but try adding time and givign it a go, worst case you get colored water and need to toss it right?

You can generally re-steep
Chinese green teas 2-3 times
Black teas and oolong 3-4
Pu-erh, depends on the grade, can go from 3-5 times based on those I have tried
White tea 2 times
Caveat: no oversteeping or water temperature that is too high
once the tea tastes astringents, subsequent brews are spoiled
also differs for different blend, above is just a general guide

The way I was taught is that green and oolongs stand up the best to a resteep, and I can see that refected here. On top of that, I’ve been told that oolongs change flavour noticeably between the first and second steeping as the leaves fully expand and the oils leave fully.

I drink primarily black loose-leaf Chinese and Indian teas, and my personal rule is no more than 3 steepings. As said above, I believe pu-erhs can be resteeped more than that, but I have no experience with them myself (yet! I have a sample waiting to be tried.)

yeah, there’s no hard rule here. i re-steep teas as long as they continue to give me a flavor that i enjoy. good quality whole leaf teas can always be used more than CTC. I often have a cup, go elsewhere, then use the same leaves (simply left in the gaiwan or pot sitting on my table) later in the day with no problem.

I see good info on here already :) i like the second steep of my oolongs better than the first and some of my puehrs are really the best on their third steep also some of those i can resteep like 10 times

From my personal experience, I don’t really like to re-steep blacks because generally a person is drinking black for their strong flavour and most black teas lack that it the re-steep. Herbals are also not the best re-steeeped.
Green, pu-erh, white, rooibos, and oolongs I always steep at least twice if I have a chance.
I usually just keep the leaves in my mug and infuser or teapot, stored in the fridge, and resteep!

I agree that there is no rule for the re-steeping tea, and this is also depend on your personal preference. some people prefer steeping one time, and some like multiple steeping. But for me, I do like re-steeping tea in Chinese style, that is to say, using Gaiwan or Sand-fired teapot.

Here is a brief information about how many times that the tea can be re-steep:

White tea: 4-6 times

Black tea: keemun for 3-4 times, Yunnan black tea for more than 10 times

Pu-erh tea: at least 12 times

Oolong teas: 7 times or more

Green tea: at least 4 time, except Dragon well, Bi Luo Chun, Huang Shan Mao Feng, Xin Yang Mao Jian, Tai Ping Hou Kui, and Liu An Guan Pian(3 times)