Very Long Steeping Times

Do you ever let tea steep for a very long time? Much longer than a company or common knowledge recommends? I find myself doing this rather often, and not always by accident. It's something that doesn't work with every tea, however, and it only works well when you want a specific kind of experience.

What kind of tea does this work with? What qualities does it tend to bring out?

I find this works best with oolong, green, and white tea, and sometimes Pu-erh, but I generally avoid it with black tea. I also avoid it with stronger teas. It works best with teas that are on the weaker side, and are low on bitterness and astringency. It's particularly good when you want to bring out more bitterness.

Pictured below is a cup of Teavana's Three Kingdoms Mao Feng, my favorite example of a tea that I think is greatly enhanced by long steeping times. I have found I prefer brewing it for 8 minutes rather than Teavana's recommended 1 minute (picture is of a cup that has been brewed for 8 minutes):


I found this tea to be too weak, and a bit boring, the first time I tried it. It's not my favorite green tea by any stretch of the imagination; right now, a Ceylon Green from Oliphant Estate holds this title. I like teas, like that Ceylon, with more kick, more bitterness, more depth to the aroma, and more overall strength. But all of these characteristics are ones that can be brought out by longer steeping times. Upping the infusion time on the Teavana Mao Feng to 3 minutes wasn't enough to me. I settled upon 8 (or more), resulting in a cup of tea that had a very pleasant bitterness and felt darker and deeper. In some respects, the smoothness of a tea actually gives you more flexibility: if there is little bitterness and astringency, you can always brew longer.

Is there a downside of long brewing times?

There are many downsides. Besides the obvious problem of bringing out, at times, overwhelming amounts of bitter, sour, or astringent qualities, there are a few other drawbacks. Generally, if you steep a tea for a very long time, it's done; you will only get one infusion. I find, at times, when doing multiple infusions, I like to use a very long infusion for the last one, to squeeze the last bit of flavor out of the leaves. But other times I just like to make a single, long infusion.

The main downside of this, compared to making many brief infusions, is that all the aroma components get combined (jumbled!) together into a single cup. When making multiple brief infusions, each cup of tea has unique nuances to the aroma and flavor. These are bowled over when you use a single, long steeping time. However, the single resulting cup is often very complex, as it has all the components that often come out individually in each steeping, so this combining can be viewed as either an asset or a downside, depending on your perspective.

Try it out if you haven't, and let me know what you think.

And for those of you who already do this, I'd be curious to hear...what teas do you like to steep for a very long time? How long?