Don: "when you brew a tea for too long..." Me: "oh shit! My tea!"

@saffron1996

2 ай бұрын

lmfao

I "top" tea regularly and have been for years. In 1986 I saw old men in Chao Zhou doing this back then

Don I cannot express to you how unprepared I was this morning to open my cozy little tea video and hear "Topping!!" 😂

@hazesummer8328

2 ай бұрын

😂😂😂

@MrDgmiller

2 ай бұрын

Damn. You must be a freak

@darriangario3447

2 ай бұрын

Lmao

I have thought of doing it, now I will give it a go, thanks Don for being the guinea pig 🐹.

I topped Autumn light with Little tong mu. Same ratio as you suggested. I was very satisfied with the result. First time I did it was month ago when I was out of rippened tea with fruity notes.

@desertfox432

2 ай бұрын

One on my favorite combinations. I go even smaller ratio for black to not over power the silky pu erh.

I do something similar to this often (adding a few more fresh leaves to a pot), and I’ve definitely seen others doing this too, but I’ve never done it quite like you’re describing here. What I tend to do (and commonly see) is not at the third or fourth infusion, but later after the tea has faded more. I especially do it when serving tea and people want a little more of something but it doesn’t make sense to brew a whole new pot. But what you’re describing here, though it sounds similar, is really quite different, and I appreciate you fleshing out its benefits. I’ll have to give that way a go!

Not what I thought it was going to be at all! I saw the coquettishly vague photo on fb and thought it was brewing with a bombilla and gourd (still an intriguing idea, maybe with a really slow-to-brew tea like a lao cha tou). I may be commenting pre-emptively here (1:40 into the vid), but I've always thought of gongfu brewing in terms of 'heads, hearts and tails' in the distillation sense, though with different implications. With tea each is as valued as the other (unlike distillation), at least for me, so taking the heads from a tea and mixing it with the tails results in another unique experience, and you can extrapolate that ad infinitum. You've gotten my cogs whirring!

@darraghchapman

2 ай бұрын

14:49 I must disagree here. If I've got a really good tea, I want to experience everything it has to offer from start to finish every time. Using it as a sort of 'booster' (also inevitably chucking the aforementioned 'tails' when the original brew runs out) feels like a disservice. That said, the *only* way to brew 'correctly' is to brew it in a way that gives you the most pleasure, at least for my context.

That tea tray is very pretty. Reminds me of a beach.

@maksspiga1106

2 ай бұрын

especially when it's accompanied by the orange crab tea pet.

I do it all the time. But I top with various herbs, not with a different tea. I start with the 1st Gong fu infusion, and just add new herbs on each consecutive infusion, up to 6-7 infusions per session. i.e. - nettle, Dandelion, Moringa, Ginger, galangal, turmeric, hibiscus, just to name a few...

I could see this method working well for floral scented leaves. I have a gardenia scented Mao Feng that I love! But if course green teas only last so long, so extending by adding more leaf after the 3rd infusion may not be a bad idea. I however, would choose to use smaller quantities until I like and master this method. I also have a "white" Tie Guan Yin that has a lovely lemon aftertaste. 😋

At the beginning of my tea journey I blended some anxi bai, some taiping hon kui and some aged silver needled. Crazy good

I have done it ! At night times ! When no one was looking 😂 Very nice with oolong !

I use this method by adding black (red) tea to shu puerh after like the 5th or 6th brew. I imagine there being endless varieties to the options. And the more you know your teas, the more and better matches you can make.

Also, at the beginning I was like "Dan, I'm a gay married man don't try and educate me on topping." 😅

@saffron1996

2 ай бұрын

😭

I top when it’s getting late and I want to extend my tea a little longer. Sometimes I’ll take a few leaves out of my pot to make room and top with some freshies. A nice way to get a few more extractions out and not be up all damned night 😅

I also came up with the idea of mixing the teas during this process ❤. I recommend Keemun, it works very well with other black teas

Thank you Don for sharing this, it's something I thought sometimes but I didn't know if it was legit as I'm quite a purist on brewing techniques 🤣

I have thought of doing this many times and now I will just simply have to.

I do top up teas sometimes. I like drinking tea for health reasons so I like to extract as much goodness out of the leaves as possible. Some teas will last many brews but lose too much of the beautiful aromas you get in the first few brews. So I top them up with a little fresh leaf. I have never topped up with a different tea but I'm now excited to try it out with some gorgeous Eastern Beauty.

The cheap black tea I got is only really good for 1-2 washes. Sometimes when my green tea is past the 3rd wash I just put in a spoon of black tea. It's then mostly a black tea but with some faint green teaness to it. I often can't get myself to toss the leaves just yet 😅

My guilty secret is bringing out the florals in green oolongs by adding a little semi-skimmed milk 🙊 It's a great way of redeeming lower quality oolongs too.

I do this fairly often - balancing aromatics like you say, taste (umami and bitterness) and other effects

Very interesting! In Korea there is a tradition of brewing green tea in which during summer you first pour in the water and then the leaves on top, in the autumn/spring you fill the pot half way, then add the leaves, then add the rest of the water and in winter you first add leaves and then water. I haven't experimented with this myself yet but might also make for an interesting video just like this one😊?

This is what I come to mei leaf for. ❤❤ Great tea service, knowledge and bits.. plus, great tea and personalities. ❤❤

Great video Don! Haven't thought of it like that. Will give it a go. Probably with a black and a white first. Maybe give this technique a session together with the Pu Boys?

I can see myself having open-end sessions from now on. 😄 Brilliant!

Wielka, wielka ochota!

that 'longevity peach' teacup you are using is one of the best teaware items you sold. it's perfectly weighty, a great size for a larger solo session, and visually pleasing. It seems to have sold out a while ago. Are there any plans to rerelease it? or perhaps release another version with different art? I'm ready to buy.

Love this... can't wait to try it with Ruby Black. I always miss the intense camphor of the first 2-3 infusions after the 4th one.

Interesting - will definitely give it several tries, at least. Thanks for sharing Don.

"Lucky my tongue is asbestos" wth man 😂😂😂

Amazing. With the mixing method, what are some good general principles in choosing an appropriate “top”?

I've been doing that for years. Most of the time it's because I put in to much or to little tea in. To much i take a bit out and re add it as I go along or if I have not put enough in I add a bit as I go along. Most of the time a do it with green just to extend a session a bit.

I’ve been doing this for years. I never thought of it as a new or different brewing method; rather, I considered it to be a case of me wanting to extend my session, but being too lazy to go through the whole process over again 🤔 🤨

Ok I’m topping Pinglin Bao Zhong , which I start infusing yesterday …🤯 powerful stuff!

I found a nice but plain shou pu'erh. I would drink it, but not my fav... I got some Nuo Mi Xiang (rice scented herb) and put a pinch or two in with it. Gives it that extra character I wanted from the tea. Ez Pz way to "top" your tea. :)

Why not double drop instead? If you have the additional desk real estate, a spare gaiwan, fairness and 6g of tea on hand - then sure. But if you'd like to keep it minimalistic - it's best to top off with 1g or a couple more grams of fresh leaf instead. If it's rolled tea or it needs rinsing - I pour water over it in a strainer and let it "come to life" before adding it in.

Been doing this forever!

i do this with western brewing my indians. 2g/100ml 3,4,5min brews then add another 2g and start brewing from 3mins again

HaHaa. I had exactly that situation yesterday evening. And now this🎉😂

*Weird but wonderful 'Way'? 😋

22:43 I thought maybe (e.g.) Laocong Black X Eastern Beauty, as they do with plant genetics (a cross), but maybe Laocong Black + Eastern Beauty would be a better way to write it. Still a 'cross' (L. 'crux'), but not sure how to say it differently.

Hello ... Nice .. brewing topic I have ask about cold and making ice teas

Sacred Owl post 5th infusion topped with Royal Peach Orchid...

@InconspicuousOwl

2 ай бұрын

🎉

@desertfox432

2 ай бұрын

@@InconspicuousOwl Is this a covert invitation to a masked soirée of certain extracurricular activites?

@InconspicuousOwl

2 ай бұрын

@@desertfox432 lol perhaps

That's what I always did before, but the bitterness / sourness of the old leaves was always too strong and I didn't enjoy my tea anymore 😅😅 maybe now I should try again with an other tea 😮

@user-gt4gs5xu6s

2 ай бұрын

If it's bitter it's bad tea or you're brewing it wrong

@Lau_rao

2 ай бұрын

@user-gt4gs5xu6s no it was not bad tea, and no I wasn't brewing it wrong it was just I don't like the taste after lot of infusion. .

@user-gt4gs5xu6s

2 ай бұрын

@@Lau_rao it really shouldn't be bitter after like the third infusion regardless. So idk how you're making them that way. I'd love to know since after like three infusions all the bitterness that I enjoy go away

@Lau_rao

2 ай бұрын

@user-gt4gs5xu6s idk .. maybe it's my tastebuds, like I said I used to do it but stopped. And it was few years ago so memory not clear. But maybe I used a tea incompatible for that? I overbrewed it? I don't know. Long time ago..

@user-gt4gs5xu6s

2 ай бұрын

@@Lau_rao maybe you were over brewing the new tea you put in? Experiment and lmk 😁

hey Don, why o why you give away tea masters secrets :) I do topping 25+ years is really nice way to boost tea time joy.

Nothing new here, Taiwanese tea masters brew it like this all the time.

@vgamedude12

2 ай бұрын

Do they have a name for it ?

@AhimSaah

2 ай бұрын

@@vgamedude12 don't know about that, I communicated with them via translations and never privately. But they do add more tea when it gets weak and if they don't that means the guest should slowly leave.

Another tea!? Blasphemy! 😅