Don Mei: Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei
Leaf. In this video: How To Brew Puerh Tea.
For those of you who are familiar with this
YouTube channel you know how much I adore
raw Puerh. I love all tea types, but if I
was backed into a corner, and I had to pick
my "desert island tea" it would definitely
be a raw Puerh. And I realized that despite
doing plenty of tasting videos, and educational
videos, about raw Puerh tea I've never done
a step-by-step brewing session with you, showing
you how I like to brew this tea, and appreciate
it. So let's do that today. If you've got
any tea in front of you - especially if you've
got raw Puerh - then make sure you stick on
the kettle, and let's have a session together.
And if you are new to the game, and you don't
know what raw Puerh is, or you want to know
more about raw Puerh, then check out the links
in the description below. [There are] plenty
of videos all about raw Puerh tea so that
you can build up your knowledge in this amazing
tea type. The reason why I love raw Puerh
tea, and it would be my "desert island" tea
is because it is probably the tea which, for
me, represents the intricacies of terroir
more than any other tea. What do I mean by
that? I mean that the flavor profiles - the
diversity in taste, and aroma, finish, texture,
of raw Puerh tea - is relatively unprocessed.
It's really dependent upon the idiosyncrasies;
such as the soil, the climate, [and] the surrounding
nature of very specific mountain areas in
Yunnan, in China. It's such an exciting world,
raw Puerh. Those Puerh-heads out there know
what I'm talking about. And all you seasoned
Puerh-heads, if you're watching this thinking,
"I know how to brew Puerh tea." stick around,
because you never know. You might find that
you learn something new, and you can certainly
contribute your ideas in the comments section
below. So today we are going to be drinking
"Nuzzle Diver'. It's been just under a year
since I tasted this last, so I'm excited to
see how it's developed; to see how it's aged.
This is a 2018 He Kai raw Puer. It's not a
Gu Shu - which means "ancient" tea tree - but
it is definitely old tea trees. So, let's
begin. First of all, I've got my "[Gong Fu]
Guru" here. Top tip: there are a couple of
Gurus - if you're watching on the weekend
of this release - there are a couple of Gurus
on sale on the web site. So I've got my Guru
here. I've got the cake. I've got my blue
[150 milliliter] Gai Wan. I've got a Gong
Dao Bei, and I've got a cup. This is "Nuzzle
Diver". We're going to open it up, [and] we're
going to start from "square one", so in case
you've purchased a cake and you want to see
how to do the whole process from beginning
to end, let's go. And it's worth saying, from
the outset, that everybody is different, and
every tea is different. So please use this
video guide as a guide - as a starting point
- for your brewing, and your experimentation
with Puerh tea. This is certainly not definitive.
You can have your own ways of brewing, and
in fact, that's the joy of brewing Gong Fu
style, is adapting to your taste, and the
particular tea in front of you. And the reason
why I find raw Puerh tea so fascinating to
get the right brewing parameters on is because
of the picking. You can see here that the
picking is varied. We've got buds here. You
can see these buds. And then we've got larger
leaves here. We'll break it up, and we'll
take a look and see the leaves. Because of
the fact that you've got a very varied picking,
from buds all the way down to larger leaves,
you've got a very wide spectrum of aromatics
and compounds that you can extract. Therefore,
when you're making your selections, in terms
of brewing, you've got plenty of scope to
play around in order to get the exact balance
that you like. Right. So [the] knife goes
in, and you just lift. [The] knife goes in,
just lift. [It's] very, very simple. Different
cakes have different levels of compression,
but this one is relatively loose. So let's
take out a nice chunk, and what you want to
try to do is just not break up the leaves,
not crack them - or as little as possible.
Try to keep them as whole as possible, like
this, [and] separate out the leaves. What
I like to do, in terms of quantity, is about
5 grams of leaf per 100 [milliliter] container.
So what I have here is 150 [milliliter] Gai
Wan, which means I want minimum of about 7.5
grams of tea. [I'll] put this on here, "zero"
it down, and I want to measure 7.5 grams.
Let's see how close I was. [I'm] going there.
Whoo! That was 6.0. Okay. That's 8.3 [ADDS
LEAF], 7.9, [ADDS LEAF], 7.53 [grams]. There
you go. So [that's] 7.5 grams. We're going
to quickly wrap this up. Make sure you keep
your Puerh cakes wrapped in paper, and stored
away from odors, in normal room conditions.
I've done a video all about how to store Puerh
tea. You can check that out yourself. Right,
so now we've got 7.5 grams of leaf. Let's
go through everything one step at a time.
First, let's talk about the quantity that
I've used here - 5 grams per 100 [milliters].The
quantity is going to affect the richness of
the brew, and the thickness - or texture - of
the brew. So more leaf means richer, and generally,
more texture. So 5 grams per 100 ML is a good
starting point, [but] I like to crank it up
a little bit if I'm feeling like I want to
treat myself. Next up [is] water. Water is
a very complicated subject in itself, and
certainly everyone has different preferences,
in terms of their water quality. I am using
here filtered tap water that's gone through
a softener. It's gone through a filter. It's
been "Granderized", which is a different system
for treating the water; a "Grander" system.
I'll put links to all of this in the description
below. And finally, it's been left for at
least five or six hours in a container which
contains this bamboo charcoal. I love this
bamboo charcoal. This is a great way to sort
of remineralize the water, and it certainly
adds a certain depth and sweetness that you
don't get without it. I can't drink water
now without it being affected, or treated,
by this bamboo charcoal. I'll put links in
the description below, if you want to pick
up any bamboo charcoal. Right. So the water
is heating up to 95 degrees [Celsius] - that's
205 [degrees] Fahrenheit. It was already hot,
so this is now warm. I am now going to pour
this warm water into the Gong Dao Bei, [and]
transfer the heat. I'm actually going to add
even more hot water in here. I want everything
warm. The reason for that is because, first
of all, when you are serving your tea you
don't want the tea to cool too quickly. But
in this case, the most important think here
is bringing the teaware to temperature so
that when the leaf goes into the Gai Wan the
heat is already affecting it, and the aromas
are starting to be released. So we're getting
a lot of aromatic release here. All of the
volatiles are starting to emerge. I'm going
to leave it in here for about five seconds,
just to allow the heat to start to have an
affect, and cause the aromas to really build
up in that Gai Wan. Okay, so let's give these
leaves a smell. So first of all, [the] lid.
Now I like to bring the lid just below my
nose. [SMELLS TEA] Oh! Ooh, it's been a while
since I tasted this tea. [SMELLS TEA] It's
definitely darkened. [SMELLS TEA] Mmm. I'm
getting toffees, [SMELLS TEA] salted caramels,
nougats, [and] a little bit of orange. Now
you can alter the way that you pick up aromatics
by the way that you smell. So short, sharp
sniffs will capture more of those high, bright
aromatics, and focus them up your nose, whereas
longer, deeper, slower sniffs will bring out
more of the warmer notes in the tea. So let's
go with the short ones. [SMELLS TEA] Yeah,
more of the orange zest coming through. [SMELLS
TEA] And then long, [SMELLS TEA] I'm getting
more of those aromatics that come from toffee
and malt. Okay, now the dry leaf. [Let's do]
the same thing. [SMELLS TEA] Ooh, a little
incense note coming through. [SMELLS TEA]
[There's] brown bread ice cream [and] sultanas,
for sure. [SMELLS TEA] I'm getting deep, deep
raisiny notes coming through. [SMELLS TEA]
Oh! It's like raisins and butter, [SMELLS
TEA] and toffee, and a bit of honey, as well,
coming through. [It's] beautiful. Right. Now
let's take a look at these leaves, now that
they've been prized apart and they're all
nice and open. We can see that we've got a
variety of leaf, from the buds and the larger
leaves, and the color is key. So if I have
larger leaves, and darker color, that means
the tea can be brewed hotter and harder. We're
going to go through what I mean by "harder"
brewing in a little bit. If it's more young
leaves, and it's greener, then I would advise
that you brew softer, by default. And of course,
you're now trying to dial in your parameters.
You're going to get to know a tea, and you'll
change your brewing parameters with every
session, and even during the session. But
just as a starting point, when you're looking
at the leaves you're looking at color and
picking. And what I see here is a nice variation
between buds and larger leaves, and I'm seeing
a slightly darker color, obviously, than it
was a year ago, when it was harvested, because
it has aged, and therefore I can brew this
a little bit harder. What do I mean by "hard
brewing" versus "soft brewing". Soft brewing
means that you're extracting at lower temperatures,
or you're brewing for shorter periods of time.
It's all about getting a lighter, more gentle,
extraction. Versus "hard brewing", where you
are brewing either longer, or at hotter temperatures.
How does that affect the experience in the
cup? Well, with aromatics and taste, if you
brew cooler, or you brew shorter, in general
you're going to preserve more of those high,
bright aromatics. So you're going to get more
brighter, delicate notes in the tea. Versus
brewing harder, where you'll have more strength,
and the aroma profile will move more towards
the deeper, bassier profiles of the tea. What
about bitterness and astringency? "Softer
brewing" will mean lower bitterness, and a
softer texture in the tea, versus "hard brewing"
which will increase the bitterness, and increase
the dryness. [That's] not necessarily a negative
thing here. Bitterness and astringency is
something that people desire when drinking
teas, but finding the right balance is up
to you. Next up is the aftertaste. [It's]
very, very important with Puerh tea appreciation,
and tea appreciation in general; How long
is the finish? How long does the taste persist
in the mouth? And how strong is it? So with
softer brewing, in general, you're going to
have a shorter aftertaste and it's going to
be lighter, versus "hard brewing", where you'll
get a longer and stronger aftertaste. Also,
physicality is a very important part of tea
appreciation. It's not just about stimulating
the aromatic and taste buds in your nose and
mouth. It's also the physical sensation in
your mouth - this sort of tingling sensation,
the juiciness, [and] all of [these] different
sensations which come about when drinking
tea. When you brew softer you're going to
have less physicality. It's going to be lighter,
versus "hard brewing", where it's going to
be more pronounced. And then, finally, the
number of infusions; how many infusions you're
going to get out of the leaf. Well, obviously,
if you're brewing at lower temperatures, or
you're brewing for shorter periods of time,
you can get more infusions out of the same
amount of leaf versus brewing harder. So I
hope that that is clear. We're going to talk
that through a little bit more during this
session. I'm going to pour this hot water
into the cup just to warm that up. I've got
95 degree [Celcius] water here, because I
want to start at a sort of cooler-than-boiling
water. So that's 205 [degrees] Fahrenheit,
because I want to get to know the tea. I don't
want to hit it, and extract too much potential
bitterness, or too much potential astringency
from the get-go. I want to get to know the
tea. First up, what we're going to do - let
me move this aside [and] let me pour this
away. I'm going to give the little fish tea
pet a little dousing. Now we are going to
rinse the leaves. [POURING TEA] Water goes
in. I'm pouring more around than on the leaf.
We're going to go all the way up top. You
don't have to, but I like to, because it makes
it easier for me to just skim off this froth,
which is not bad. It's just sort of pectins
and sugars in the tea, but I like to have
clearer liquor. I'm pouring off some of this
liquor just so that I don't burn myself, [POURING
TEA] and then into the Gong Dao Bei goes the
rinse. I'm going to pour the rinse into the
cup, and I'm going to leave this Gai Wan for
about 10 seconds, just to, again, allow the
steam to start to open up the leaves. What
happens then is that means that my first infusion
can be shorter, so I can reserve those aromatics,
but it won't be too light, because the leaf
has had a chance to open up. So I'm going
to give tea to my little tea pet here, and
I'm going to pour it away, and I'm going to
make sure that it is clear of any little bits
of tea dust. That's one of the advantages
of rinsing the tea leaves, is that you are
pouring away some of the finer particles.
So now I've got a clean Gong Dao Bei, [and]
I've got my cup which is nice and warm, and
being seasoned already. Now let's get our
nose into these leaves. Again, lid first,
[SMELLS TEA] and again, short sniff and long
sniff. [SMELLS TEA] Ooh! I'm still getting
some of the fresh notes of that sort of fresh
laundry smell that we picked up when it was
fresh. But definitely, I'm getting gooseberries.
I'm getting [SMELLS TEA] nougat, salted caramels,
forest honeys. [SMELLS TEA] [It's] really,
really sweet, but still with a slight zestiness,
[and] a slight gooseberry tang to it. All
right. Now that these leaves have had a chance
to dissipate the steam, if I put my nose directly
into the wet leaves, instead of smelling the
[lid] first, then I'll get a nose full of
steam, and that will hamper and affect my
ability to smell. So now you can see these
leaves are not steaming, but they are still
warm. [SMELLS TEA] Oh, malt loaf! [SMELLS
TEA] Oh! Toasted malt loaf. [SMELLS TEA] [There's]
a bit of face cream, [SMELLS TEA] [and] there's
some lemony note coming through as well. [SMELLS
TEA] Maybe [it's] more in the pomelo, [and]
lemony grapefruits, and some flower - lilac
perhaps. So take your time [and] explore.
This is the joy of Puerh drinking. You don't
have to move on to the brew. Actually, what's
really great is [that] as the leaf starts
to cool the aromatics in the nose start to
change as well. Now, let's go for our brew.
We've got 95 degree [Celsius] water, [which
is] 205 [degrees] Fahrenheit. Now watch how
I pour this in. I'm not going to hit the middle
of those leaves. I'm going to pour it around.
We'll talk about that in a little bit, but
just note that. I'm pouring it in. I'm not
going to go necessarily to the top, but close
enough. Remember, we measured this according
to the capacity. I'm going to start a stopwatch,
and I want 15 seconds here for my first brew.
Now some people like to brew very, very short.
Some people like to brew longer. I think 15
seconds is the right amount for assessing
a tea, for starting. [POURING TEA] So that's
15 seconds. Again, I'm not worried about those
little bits of leaf that go in. I prefer to
maintain texture. If you do then use the filter.
[Very importantly], do not leave the lid on
now. [It's] very important that you take the
lid of. We want to preserve, now, the ability
to get as much out of these leaves as possible.
So leaving the lid on would cause too much
mustiness, and steaming, to go on in the Gai
Wan. That's not good, [as] it will damage
the overall resilience and taste of the tea.
So now we're going to pour some tea, and I
don't like to go too high to the top. I like
to bring it to about three-quarters up the
cup so that I get some room for my nose to
pick up a little column of the aroma here.
[SMELLS TEA] Smelling the liquor is something
that you can do. I like to do it a little
bit. Obviously, every time you're drinking
you're bringing aroma into the nose, as well
as the liquor into the mouth. [SMELLS TEA]
And I'm getting a sort of pandan creaminess
coming through here. Okay, first up [is] texture.
[SIPS TEA] [The] texture is nice, and medium-thick.
[It's a] medium-thick texture. If this was
a Gu Shu tea - which is the ancient tea tree
material - you'd expect it to be slightly
thicker. [It's] very, very nice though. [SIPS
TEA] I like to concentrate on texture first,
just because you only get one opportunity
to assess texture before your mouth gets used
to the texture, and it becomes harder to discern.
So [it's] medium-thick. [SIPS TEA] Now we
focus on taste. I'm getting [a] really, really
nice level here of aromatics and base notes.
I'm happy with 15 seconds at 95 degrees [Celsius].
If I'd brewed longer I think it would have
made a stronger tea, for sure, but it [would
start] to reveal a little bit too much dryness
and astringency, and too much of the bassy
notes. So I'm picking up those [SIPS TEA]
honeys. I'm picking up cream - so the brown
bread ice cream, which is one of my most familiar
tasting notes with He Kai tea - which is where
this tea comes from - is definitely there.
[SIPS TEA] Mmm! [It's] really, really nice.
I'm getting that grapefruit tang as well - a
little grapefruit zest. So take your time,
sip along, sip slowly. [SIPS TEA] You can
choose, if you want, to give it a little slurp.
I like to slurp a little bit, but not too
much. I find if I agitate the liquor, and
I try to do all of that [SLURPING SOUND] thing
that a lot of tasters do, for me - [and] I've
done videos about this before - for me, I
don't particularly like it, because it brings
too much humidity, I think, up my nose, and
it becomes harder for me to have retro-nasal
aroma. What do I mean by "retro-nasal aroma"?
What I mean is [that] when the liquor is in
your mouth, if you breathe out through your
nose you're going to pass a lot of nice aromatics
through your nose, and you're going to be
smelling in reverse. It's a great way to amplify
the experience of the tea. [SIPS TEA] Mmm.
I get malty note coming through when I do
that. [There's] definitely more malted creams
coming through. It's not just tea. Do that
with everything. Whenever you're eating breathe
out through your nose. It really, really amplifies
the experience. [SIPS TEA] [That's] really,
really lovely. So now that we've got the initial
taste in our mouth let's start to focus on
the finish, [SIPS TEA] and the aftertaste.
I have to say that it's already building after
just a couple of cups of this tea. And I'm
already starting to feel the body sensation,
but that's for later on. So the finish here,
and the physicality, [SIPS TEA] what I'm looking
for is: How does it make it my mouth feel
after I've swallowed? The true appreciation
of Puerh tea, and most teas in general, is
obviously the whole process, but a fundamental
importance on aftertaste. Because for me,
aftertaste speaks of the quality of the tea
material. Aroma and taste can be manipulated
quite well by good producers. They can take
leaves that are not the top, top quality leaves,
and they can manipulate [them] to bring out
more flavor and aroma. But the taste and the
mouthfeel [is] something that you cannot fake.
And here I'm getting a juiciness. I'm getting
a dry-to-juiciness here, [and] the sides and
the back of my tongue are flooding with saliva,
and that saliva is a sort of zesty, grapefruit
flavor with a little touch of jasmine coming
through. [There’s] jasmine and grapefruit,
[which is] really, really lovely. So I'm very
happy with the level that I've brewed this
tea - 95 degrees [Celsuis], or 205 Fahrenheit,
for 15 seconds, for me has been a good sweet
spot for my beginning of this tea. Now if
I'd felt that it was too light then I may
think, "Hmm, let me crank up the temperature
a little bit, or maybe extend the brewing
time even longer." But right now I'm very,
very happy. So let's brew up the next one.
We've still got 95 degree [Celsuis] water
here. And again, I'm going to pour on the
sides. We're going to talk about that in a
second. I'm going to pour on the sides, and
then I'm going to put my timer on. Now, we're
going to add 5 seconds here, so this is now
going to be a 20-second brew. [I'll] keep
my eye on that. Again, I'm not going to pour
through any filter. I like the texture that
this gives me without the filter. [POURING
TEA] Here we go, [with the] second infusion.
Also, I like to get every single drop out
of here. So take your time. I tend to be a
bit in a rush when I'm doing these videos,
because I'm conscious of your time. Take you
time. And [for] another little trick, here
you go; a special trick for you guys watching
here. I call this the "roll up", okay? This
is an advanced Gai Wan technique for only
you people out there that are watching this
video; the "roll-up". Take your knuckle, [and]
put it in here. You basically grab the lid
with your thumb and your middle finger, and
the index finger knuckle in here, you put
it in at an angle backwards to how you poured,
and then you roll up. You'll get a few extra
drips out. So we call that the "roll-up".
So you've got your standard pour [GESTURES
POURING], [and] then after you pour just look
at the axis going to other way, and then roll
up, and you get every last drop out. You don't
want any liquor, or water, to be hanging around
in those leaves. You want [it to be] dissipating
steam, and also having low moisture in there.
Right, [the] second infusion is waiting for
me. [SIPS TEA] Let me put the kettle back
on. Ooh! I lot of minerality is coming through
in the cup, and you'll find that when you
have left the tea for a little bit the aromatics
start to dissipate naturally, so you start
to lose some of those bright aromas, and you
get more of the structure of the tea. So what
I like to do is, once I've found my sweet
spot - and we happened to chance upon it right
now - then I like to sort of three to five
seconds per infusion, for about probably about
the first five or six infusions. So I don't
mess with temperature, once I know the temperature
is good. And then after that I can start to
crank up the temperature when I feel like
the leaves need a little bit more energy to
get more extraction. And by that point a lot
of the high aromatics of the leaf will already
have been sort of used up in the first five
or six infusions. And so now what we're trying
to do is get the water into the leaf, and
get more of the extraction that's happening
from the plant matter, as opposed to the aromatics,
which live more on the outside of the leaf.
Let's see what the second infusion is like.
[POURING TEA] [It's a] nice, rich, golden
color - [a] beautiful sort of egg yolk orange.
[SIPS TEA] [There's] more minerality. Again,
I'm happy with the dryness, [and] I'm happy
with the bitterness. If you felt that it was
too bitter, or too dry, then you can reduce
your temperature or reduce your brewing time.
So you're going more in that soft brewing
spectrum. If you want more than go harder.
Okay, [SIPS TEA] another way that we can control
how hard or soft our extraction is is by the
pour - where you're pouring the water over
the leaves. If I pour [the water] directly
on the leaves - [which] in China they call
[the "Dan"], the "Cha Dan" - which basically
means the "gall bladder" of the tea, which
I know sounds a bit weird [LAUGHTER]. But
if you pour the water directly onto the "Cha
Dan" - or the "gall bladder" of the tea - then
you're going to extract more bitterness, and
more astringency, and you're going to be moving
the spectrum from softer brewing to harder
brewing. So it's not just the temperature,
[and] it's not just the time, but how you
pour the water has an effect. So if you have
a [raw] Puerh tea which is very soft and very
gentle, and you want to bring out a little
bit more of the bite, then pour directly into
the middle. But if you've got one that's a
little bit more sensitive, is a bit stronger,
[and] has a little bit more of that sort of
aggressive note, then pouring around is very,
very important. I'll show you that. So I'm
going to intentionally break the Cha Dan - or
gall bladder - by pouring directly in. [POURING
TEA] [It's] the same temperature water. That
is now going to make a difference. I will
time it again, [SETTING TIMER] and now we're
going to 25 seconds. I'm going through this
rather quickly, so the tea pet gets a lucky
[amount]. [It's a] lucky day for the tea pet.
[There's] a lot of tea for you. If your Gai
Wan is too full then just use the lid to take
some of the liquor off. [That's] 25 seconds,
[with] the same temperature water. Let's see
what "breaking the gall bladder" - or the
"Cha Dan" - has, in terms effect. So [we're]
getting every last drop, [and] then the "roll-up"
[POURING TEA] [to] get those last stragglers,
and then [take] the lid off [to] make sure
that you let those leaves dissipate and cool
down. So I'm going to quickly sip this tea,
[SIPS TEA] [and] turn off this ticking watch.
[SIPS TEA] So I've got a nice reference of
how dry and bitter the tea has become in that
second infusion, where we poured around. [SIPS
TEA] [There's a] noticable difference - a
noticeable difference in specifically the
dryness, because this tea is not bitter at
all. So this tea is very, very nice and soft,
and has some bitterness, but not as much as
some of those powerhouse areas like Lao Man
Er and Lao Ban Jiang; and those real, real
powerhouse mountain areas. But I notice [SIPS
TEA] the level of astringency and dryness
is definitely higher when you break the "gall
bladder" - or the "Cha Dan" - of the tea.
Now, some people are very precious about it.
Some people like to only pour in one area.
Some people like to pour the water for each
infusion in different areas. For me, I don't
like to pour directly in the same place every
time. If I'm brewing with a side pour - so
I'm brewing softer brewing - then I like to
make sure I move around. I don't like the
method [that some people use] where they pour
on one side, water, and they'll always sort
of pour out the tea from the other side, so
the water is always going through in the same
direction. I don't think that that contributes
to a nice balanced display of the tea through
different infusions. I think that if you always
pouring through the same direction through
the leaf you are not getting the true diversity
of the flavor of the tea. I like to go around,
if I'm pouring with the side-pouring method.
And also, just to follow on from that, after
I get to say infusion eight, nine, 10, and
I feel like the tea is flagging a little bit,
I like to actually move the leaf around a
little bit more, [and] be a bit more aggressive
about it. Sometimes what I'll do is I'll shake
it, flip it, take the tea and intentionally
scoop it back in, so that I've moved and rotated
the leaves. Again, what I'm trying to do is
make sure that we're not just always extracting
from the same sides of the leaf, the same
surface of the leaf, and the same direction.
I don't think that that works. I think it's
much nicer if you vary it up. But I won’t
do that - I won't move it around until the
tea has started to flag a little bit, and
it needs a little bit of help, and I want
to try and get more out of the tea leaves.
Right. Cheers everybody. [SIPS TEA] So we've
talked about soft-brewing, we've talked about
hard-brewing, we've talked about temperature,
we've talked about time, [and] we've talked
about the pouring method. We've gone through
the different stages of appreciating aroma
[SIPS TEA] and taste of the liquor. [What's]
very, very important [is] the smell of the
empty cup. I would normally have done this
even after the first infusion. So [for the]
smell of the empty cup [SMELLS TEA] again,
for me, speaks of the quality of the leaves,
just in the same way as the aftertaste does.
The more minerality, [and] the more compounds
the tea has, the more it'll build up on the
surface of the porcelain, [SMELLS TEA] and
you're going to get an aroma. [SMELLS TEA]
And the aroma that I get here is definitely
one of honeys, treacles, [and] a little bit
bready. [SMELLS TEA] [It's] almost sourdough
bread. So you're getting that crust of sourdough,
but also the fermented tang from a sourdough
bread. [For] body sensation, raw Puerhs are
renowned for having strong affects on the
body. They can range from sort of woozy and
warming, all the way to rushy and uplifting.
I think that "Nuzzle Diver" is giving me this
beautiful, gentle, energizing feeling. I'm
getting a warm sensation, [and] a slight perspiration,
but definitely an energy lift from this tea.
[I'm] really, really enjoying it. So let's
recap. [This is] 5 grams per 100 [milliliters],
[SIPS TEA] 95 degree [Celsius], or 205 [degree]
Fahrenheit water, pouring around the sides
at the beginning. [With] the first infusion
I like to start at 15 seconds, and then add
5 seconds per infusion. The amount of infusions
that you're going to get out of your tea depends
on the tea, and depends on whether you're
going on the softer brewing - [so] lower temperatures
[with] shorter periods of time, therefore
you're going to get more infusions . If you
go harder, hotter, and longer, [you'll get]
less infusions. Generally speaking, you're
looking to get about 10, 12, [or] maybe up
to 15 infusions. [It] depends how far you
want to take it. Please feel free to experiment,
though. These are only the starting points,
and all the brewing recommendations that we
put on our packs are starting points. If you
want to bring out more of those bright aromatic
notes - if you want the tea to be softer,
gentler, and lighter - then go for a softer
brewing method. If you want to be a bit more
bitter, [with] a bit more bite [to ] give
you a bit more of that strong aftertaste and
a physicality, then go harder and find your
happy medium. And make sure that you make
those adaptations during the session as well.
You don't have to stick to it, [like] if you
start it at a certain temperature you're going
to stay at that temperature. Play around.
This is the joy of Gong fu brewing. It's the
way that you're going to get to know the leaf,
and you're going to become a master brewer
yourself. Let us know how you brew your Puerh
tea in the comments section below. That's
it, teaheads. Check out our other videos,
[and] taste our teas wherever you are in the
world by browsing out web site, or visit our
teahouse in London. Other than that, I'm Don
from Mei Leaf. Thank you for being a part
of the revelation of "true tea". Stay away
from those teabags, keep drinking the good
stuff, and spread the word, because nobody
deserves bad tea. Bye.
