Slammed through the video as it's published, and ready to experiment with my tea. This is going to be especially helpful on some of the darker offerings I've got that have the delicate aromas in the background. What a treat to have more control and get some of the subtleties into the foreground. Thanks, Don!
Thank you for the breaking leaves advice. I've had a Meng Ding Mao Feng that I been frustrated by it's muted flavor. Breaking the leaves makes a huge difference.
really informative video- i understand so much more about those fleeting high notes!! was iffy about chaozhou style before, but this video really Makes Sense to me and i will definitely be experimenting. also the craziest thing happened to me the other day- my name on league of legends is loose leaf tea and someone asked me about gong fu brewing and i said yes! and then they said something about “the revelation” and i was like ??? MEI LEAF?????? it was crazy bc most people that play league are toxic and you wouldnt expect them to like tea but. anyways we’re friends now LOL
Wow! I was not expecting this at all. That was super informative. I will try this although I feel a little bit guilty for breaking the leaves... 😅 But if Don says so I feel more confident about it.
Very informative, I didn't know how much I didn't know about tea! I have some large, tough tea leaves in the freezer, left behind by an old roommate, and your video is definitely going to help me enjoy them. It's also going to step up my herbal tea game. Great video :)
this is so good. thank you. confirmed a lot of what i'm already doing, but this idea of breaking part of the brew is incredible, can't wait to experiment!
Hi Don, thank you for the thought provoking video! Actually, it came at the perfect time for me. I’m already Chaozhou brewing my Dancongs (especially the Royal Peach Orchid -> best way with great aromatics this way, I was swooning on the fresh sweet peach 🍑 notes this morning). But I find it even more exciting for Wuyi Yancha, as I’m starting to dive deeper into them, but haven’t found the aromatic fruits at a level I’d like yet. Brewing cooler, faster, with 10% broken leaves sounds like a great solution. For me, the roasted warm notes were sometimes too dominant. So thank you very much for opening the alternative route! Love what you’re doing: improving our tea experience day by day! Have a great rest of weekend & good luck on Fig Dipper! 🙏❤️🙋🏻♀️
Wow, thank you for this video. What a difference it makes. I always like my tea with some strength in it, with some astringency and thick. Also the brewing session last much longer I try this with Mi Lan Xiang and it is amazing... Thank u so much Don...
Ohhhhh yeah great video and eye opener I brewed chaozhou unintentionally a couple of times (some dust of the cakes) but now the whole brewing game changed for me I have the best taste results ever and I can dial in how much of which taste n texture I want I tried Dancongs (simply amazing with a fruity Ya Shi), Da Hong Pao vanilla heaven with an aged one that wasn’t too strong in taste and even some Sheng had good results (but needs more experimenting on the flash brews) Thank you again for this extremely helpful masterclass
Thant is super awesome useful video 😊 Thank you guys 🙏 Last time I’ve checked it was just few signatures left for reaching the goal under petition. Please let us know is there anything else we can do about it.
@@MeiLeaf tea lengends, tea local process techniques, tea and meridians, tea phitocharacterisation, teaware meterial science, teaware history and styles, tea iconic people came out of my mind just like that. greetings 🙋
Mei Leaf definitely more tea history/education, I can’t get enough of that! As someone else mentioned different techniques, icons, etc! I just love your videos, and would love to learn more while I’m engaged in activities (such as driving, cleaning, etc.), and I am unable to sit and watch.
hi Don, thanks for this informative video! i hope you make one about arc brewing technique in the future... I have tryed this method (crushing the leaves) but i also added the age dimension, leaving 3 weeks the crushed leaves before brewing them, in order to appreciate any difference. but it was the same taste and aroma XD
Wonderfully informative with just the right amount of GEEK thrown in! Please tell me about the glass brewing container you were using at the end... I would love to try this type of brewing. It would be fun to see the color of the tea as it's brewing instead of the usual color surprise! Another hit video!
Very useful parameters and great video as always. I hope you win your petition appeal. Perhaps also emphasizing the age of those tea trees might be a persuasive angle. This isn't something you burn or dump in the river. Some of those trees are old enough to have breathed during the Dark Ages of Europe. How tragic to be born in the Dark Ages only to be burned in Enlightenment. The could make a great article if you must use the threat.
Hi Don. Very interesting lesson in tea-ology as always. I was wondering if you have ever thought of writing up your vast knowledge in a book and publish it (maybe self-published online, for instance). Thanks.
:) Don, as you had hit your teacups at the beginning of the video I remembered my yesterday evening when I broke one of my A B tasting gaiwans (when I was washing it... hard luck :) ). But now I have a question. I noticed that some teas became more bitter, when the liquor gets colder. What could be the cause? If I can remember it was less oxidised and less roasted Mi Lan Xiang (less fruity, more flowery and with amazing honey aroma). So - as I am thinking about it now and according to your last video - possibly I used too hot water, but why I noticed bitternes right after the liquor in my cup got colder and not when it was hot? By the way I have remaining 5g of Bei Dou Da Hong Pao.That amount is on the bottom of a pack, so there are some broken leaves and now I look forward to tomorrow when I am going to try brew it in this new way. :) I am curious. Usually I only reduced water temperature or reduced brewing time (or both), when I had some tea with more broken parts. I never tried to separate it before the tea rinse. Perfect video with new interesting informations. Thank you.
Could the effect of broken leaves be an explanation for the noticeable variability of brews from the same cake of puerh (esp. raw)? How we break off the tea for any one brewing session can drive a higher or lower ratio of whole to broken leaf that goes into the pot.
@@MeiLeaf So, how can we use this knowledge to improve the consistency of our brewing of such teas? I have brewed tea one day from a cake that was sublime - All the high notes balanced against the low notes to deliver a transcendent tea experience. The next day, same tea, same water, same steeping schedule, same teaware, same cake of tea, same number of grams of tea - all the variables the same - the tea was dull, flat, hardly worth the time to brew. It now makes sense that I was lucky the first day and picked the right way to brew the tea that came off one part of the cake that day. The next day I may have taken my few grams of tea from another spot that was more or less compressed, that I broke off rather than carefully flaked off, whatever. The unfortunate truth is that we only get one shot at brewing those particular leaves that we take from the cake each time. We can not set up several parallel universes in which we can experiment with time, temperature, leaf to water ratios, etc to rediscover how to bring out the best in that one clump of leaf. Any suggestion on how to promote more consistency here so we can dial in our variables for a given cake in the first several brewings from it and then enjoy a reliable and enjoyable sessions from there to the end of the cake?
Very in depth video, I like it! My tea skill level definitely goes up thanks to your videos. For example, yesterday I figured out how to make a fantastic rendition of commercial iced tea (keto, with stevia, salt, ACV and lime) using second (hot) infusion of a combination of Da Hong Pao and Golden needle. Keep up the great work Don! Also can you do a video about Milk Oolongs please? :)
What do you think of this: not breaking expensive whole leaves, instead adding a small amount of a cheaper grade whose leaves are already broken? Would the result be as good?
Would you ever consider doing a taste testing on a certain brand that I buy from to see if it quality tea? I'm new to loose leaf so I'm curious. Freshroastedcoffee.com sells a pound of loose leaf for like 16-20 bucks in America dollars. Are they selling quality or just quantity? I'd like to know from a professional.
Hello, you do not need to ask the professional. I have experiences with several different tea sellers or shops. I checked products in that Freshroastedcoffee.com and it looks just like Oxalis.cz in my country. They trade with tea in large amounts. They might have some medium quality teas, but mostly they have teas poor in taste or aroma. (Now I do not mean artificially scented teas, but original natural teas.) I do not buy tea from such sellers, because for me it is reasonable no more from a time when I tasted really good tea. Freshroastedcoffee.com seems to me like a seller who focuses on certificates, but do not understand tea at all. From their offer only that White Peony seems to me normal (according the photo of the leaves) and could be good. But I have no experience with you seller - my opinion is based on what I know and what I could see on his e-shop.
We don't taste test other brands because we don't want to be directing any criticism to an individual seller. Of course, their tea might be great but we prefer not to take a risk of affecting someone else's business.
@@MeiLeaf Mei Leaf That's totally understandable. Thank you! Because of other videos of yours, I was able to determine whether or not it was quality. Like Jan G said, that company mostly goes for certifications and know very little about tea. The tea would smell very great out of the bag, but once you get it wet, you couldn't smell the tea of the actual leafs any longer and you'd be lucky to get a second infusion out of the leafs. Thanks for your videos and the knowledge that you share.
Ronnie Brooks I suspect it would improve the health benefits. More permeability, so more of the beneficial chemicals flow out into the water. In an earlier video, Don said that if you're concerned only about health, and not taste, you should brew long and hot. I think the same principle applies here, for the same reasons - more beneficial chemicals going into the water.
Taste is completely subjective. You're teaching what you prefer and what you experience. Keep your leaves whole and I've keep my broken up. And I'll use bags when I'm making iced tea (since it tastes better to me).
So nice to hear you use proper technical/scientific terminology. You must have quite an audience of chemists and engineers :)
I appreciate how into tea you are and that you can still be so enthusiastic for years and years.
43:54 Philosophy of drinking tea: "Nobody deserves bad tea"
Also the philosophy of drinking tea: "The rinse for the enemy"
Slammed through the video as it's published, and ready to experiment with my tea. This is going to be especially helpful on some of the darker offerings I've got that have the delicate aromas in the background. What a treat to have more control and get some of the subtleties into the foreground. Thanks, Don!
Thank you for the breaking leaves advice. I've had a Meng Ding Mao Feng that I been frustrated by it's muted flavor. Breaking the leaves makes a huge difference.
Great video as always! Also, I noticed we exceeded the 1000 signature goal for the petition, so great job, all of you!
How delicious I have become really into whole leaf. I hav e also become quite the matcha fan. I saw your videos on that.
really informative video- i understand so much more about those fleeting high notes!! was iffy about chaozhou style before, but this video really Makes Sense to me and i will definitely be experimenting. also the craziest thing happened to me the other day- my name on league of legends is loose leaf tea and someone asked me about gong fu brewing and i said yes! and then they said something about “the revelation” and i was like ??? MEI LEAF?????? it was crazy bc most people that play league are toxic and you wouldnt expect them to like tea but. anyways we’re friends now LOL
Wow! I was not expecting this at all. That was super informative. I will try this although I feel a little bit guilty for breaking the leaves... 😅 But if Don says so I feel more confident about it.
Very informative, I didn't know how much I didn't know about tea!
I have some large, tough tea leaves in the freezer, left behind by an old roommate, and your video is definitely going to help me enjoy them. It's also going to step up my herbal tea game.
Great video :)
this is so good. thank you. confirmed a lot of what i'm already doing, but this idea of breaking part of the brew is incredible, can't wait to experiment!
Wow! So interesting, and makes total sense. Can’t wait to try it with a wuyi rock oolong, with which I’ve mostly felt like I was missing something
Geekier than you probably realize ... your marble model is a good description of chromatography.
Very interesting topic, for sure.
Don, this is incredible. Thanks for a very carefully thought-out video!
Hi Don, thank you for the thought provoking video! Actually, it came at the perfect time for me. I’m already Chaozhou brewing my Dancongs (especially the Royal Peach Orchid -> best way with great aromatics this way, I was swooning on the fresh sweet peach 🍑 notes this morning). But I find it even more exciting for Wuyi Yancha, as I’m starting to dive deeper into them, but haven’t found the aromatic fruits at a level I’d like yet. Brewing cooler, faster, with 10% broken leaves sounds like a great solution. For me, the roasted warm notes were sometimes too dominant. So thank you very much for opening the alternative route! Love what you’re doing: improving our tea experience day by day! Have a great rest of weekend & good luck on Fig Dipper! 🙏❤️🙋🏻♀️
I love this geeky videos! 😍
Wow, thank you for this video.
What a difference it makes.
I always like my tea with some strength in it, with some astringency and thick. Also the brewing session last much longer
I try this with Mi Lan Xiang and it is amazing...
Thank u so much Don...
Ohhhhh yeah great video and eye opener
I brewed chaozhou unintentionally a couple of times (some dust of the cakes) but now the whole brewing game changed for me
I have the best taste results ever and I can dial in how much of which taste n texture I want
I tried Dancongs (simply amazing with a fruity Ya Shi), Da Hong Pao vanilla heaven with an aged one that wasn’t too strong in taste and even some Sheng had good results (but needs more experimenting on the flash brews)
Thank you again for this extremely helpful masterclass
Thant is super awesome useful video 😊
Thank you guys 🙏
Last time I’ve checked it was just few signatures left for reaching the goal under petition.
Please let us know is there anything else we can do about it.
stunning openning
So much to learn!
Thanks, Don, for making it easier! :)
A suggestion for a future video: water. How does water quality affect tea. Tap water, filtered, spring, bottled, r/o etc.
You need a podcast! ❤️🍵
What content would you like to hear on a podcast as we are considering this idea.
@@MeiLeaf tea lengends, tea local process techniques, tea and meridians, tea phitocharacterisation, teaware meterial science, teaware history and styles, tea iconic people came out of my mind just like that. greetings 🙋
Mei Leaf definitely more tea history/education, I can’t get enough of that! As someone else mentioned different techniques, icons, etc! I just love your videos, and would love to learn more while I’m engaged in activities (such as driving, cleaning, etc.), and I am unable to sit and watch.
Yesss... This was E p i c... I guess we're all waiting for the book. [*_* ] Thnx much for the upload!
hi Don, thanks for this informative video! i hope you make one about arc brewing technique in the future...
I have tryed this method (crushing the leaves) but i also added the age dimension, leaving 3 weeks the crushed leaves before brewing them, in order to appreciate any difference. but it was the same taste and aroma XD
This is so well thought out
I missed your videos!
Thank You Don-Good information!
Wonderfully informative with just the right amount of GEEK thrown in! Please tell me about the glass brewing container you were using at the end... I would love to try this type of brewing. It would be fun to see the color of the tea as it's brewing instead of the usual color surprise! Another hit video!
Oops, silly me! I just found it on your site.
Very useful parameters and great video as always.
I hope you win your petition appeal. Perhaps also emphasizing the age of those tea trees might be a persuasive angle. This isn't something you burn or dump in the river. Some of those trees are old enough to have breathed during the Dark Ages of Europe. How tragic to be born in the Dark Ages only to be burned in Enlightenment. The could make a great article if you must use the threat.
Thank you 😀
wow , nice job !
Hi Don. Very interesting lesson in tea-ology as always. I was wondering if you have ever thought of writing up your vast knowledge in a book and publish it (maybe self-published online, for instance). Thanks.
:) Don, as you had hit your teacups at the beginning of the video I remembered my yesterday evening when I broke one of my A B tasting gaiwans (when I was washing it... hard luck :) ). But now I have a question. I noticed that some teas became more bitter, when the liquor gets colder. What could be the cause? If I can remember it was less oxidised and less roasted Mi Lan Xiang (less fruity, more flowery and with amazing honey aroma). So - as I am thinking about it now and according to your last video - possibly I used too hot water, but why I noticed bitternes right after the liquor in my cup got colder and not when it was hot?
By the way I have remaining 5g of Bei Dou Da Hong Pao.That amount is on the bottom of a pack, so there are some broken leaves and now I look forward to tomorrow when I am going to try brew it in this new way. :) I am curious. Usually I only reduced water temperature or reduced brewing time (or both), when I had some tea with more broken parts. I never tried to separate it before the tea rinse.
Perfect video with new interesting informations. Thank you.
Can we get a video about only rolled tea, and different kinds of it?
Does the rolled leafs volatile aromatic lower by rinsing?
Interesting
I want to take a bath in tea. What would be therapeutic and good for my skin?
Could the effect of broken leaves be an explanation for the noticeable variability of brews from the same cake of puerh (esp. raw)? How we break off the tea for any one brewing session can drive a higher or lower ratio of whole to broken leaf that goes into the pot.
Absolutely.
@@MeiLeaf So, how can we use this knowledge to improve the consistency of our brewing of such teas?
I have brewed tea one day from a cake that was sublime - All the high notes balanced against the low notes to deliver a transcendent tea experience. The next day, same tea, same water, same steeping schedule, same teaware, same cake of tea, same number of grams of tea - all the variables the same - the tea was dull, flat, hardly worth the time to brew.
It now makes sense that I was lucky the first day and picked the right way to brew the tea that came off one part of the cake that day. The next day I may have taken my few grams of tea from another spot that was more or less compressed, that I broke off rather than carefully flaked off, whatever.
The unfortunate truth is that we only get one shot at brewing those particular leaves that we take from the cake each time. We can not set up several parallel universes in which we can experiment with time, temperature, leaf to water ratios, etc to rediscover how to bring out the best in that one clump of leaf.
Any suggestion on how to promote more consistency here so we can dial in our variables for a given cake in the first several brewings from it and then enjoy a reliable and enjoyable sessions from there to the end of the cake?
What is meant by texture? I find this confusing because I would think the texture of all tea is water. Is it more like mouth feel?
Very in depth video, I like it! My tea skill level definitely goes up thanks to your videos.
For example, yesterday I figured out how to make a fantastic rendition of commercial iced tea (keto, with stevia, salt, ACV and lime) using second (hot) infusion of a combination of Da Hong Pao and Golden needle. Keep up the great work Don!
Also can you do a video about Milk Oolongs please? :)
Don: as I've said a few times before, I'm eagerly awaiting that ramp to be built. Are you up for it? :D :D :D
Am I the only one to realise Don is not using the usual Gong Fu Guru station ? 😁😂
I think its the water tray that came with the gong fu story.
Do you ship /service to the US? Your web-site and such make for a much more detailed and appealing experience than most available here...
Yes we ship everyday to the US
You can change the prices to dollars by clicking the flag in top left of screen.
@@MeiLeaf Welp, sorry about that. Thanks.
What do you think of this: not breaking expensive whole leaves, instead adding a small amount of a cheaper grade whose leaves are already broken? Would the result be as good?
The mulch vs the beauty. Haha
*Matcha dislikes the video*
Would you ever consider doing a taste testing on a certain brand that I buy from to see if it quality tea? I'm new to loose leaf so I'm curious. Freshroastedcoffee.com sells a pound of loose leaf for like 16-20 bucks in America dollars. Are they selling quality or just quantity? I'd like to know from a professional.
Hello, you do not need to ask the professional. I have experiences with several different tea sellers or shops. I checked products in that Freshroastedcoffee.com and it looks just like Oxalis.cz in my country. They trade with tea in large amounts. They might have some medium quality teas, but mostly they have teas poor in taste or aroma. (Now I do not mean artificially scented teas, but original natural teas.) I do not buy tea from such sellers, because for me it is reasonable no more from a time when I tasted really good tea. Freshroastedcoffee.com seems to me like a seller who focuses on certificates, but do not understand tea at all. From their offer only that White Peony seems to me normal (according the photo of the leaves) and could be good. But I have no experience with you seller - my opinion is based on what I know and what I could see on his e-shop.
We don't taste test other brands because we don't want to be directing any criticism to an individual seller. Of course, their tea might be great but we prefer not to take a risk of affecting someone else's business.
@@MeiLeaf Mei Leaf That's totally understandable. Thank you! Because of other videos of yours, I was able to determine whether or not it was quality. Like Jan G said, that company mostly goes for certifications and know very little about tea. The tea would smell very great out of the bag, but once you get it wet, you couldn't smell the tea of the actual leafs any longer and you'd be lucky to get a second infusion out of the leafs. Thanks for your videos and the knowledge that you share.
@Mei Leaf What effect would crushing the leaves have on any health benefits from the tea?
Ronnie Brooks I suspect it would improve the health benefits. More permeability, so more of the beneficial chemicals flow out into the water. In an earlier video, Don said that if you're concerned only about health, and not taste, you should brew long and hot. I think the same principle applies here, for the same reasons - more beneficial chemicals going into the water.
Where do you buy your shirts? Would like to find those
Someone just ran off with my tea. Think I’ve been mugged…
Taste is completely subjective. You're teaching what you prefer and what you experience.
Keep your leaves whole and I've keep my broken up. And I'll use bags when I'm making iced tea (since it tastes better to me).