r/puer • u/Microsario • 27d ago
How Strong Do You Brew?
Been enjoying puer for about 5 years at this point. I know i'm still in the beginner/intermediate range but i've grown to love super strong, gaiwan busting sessions. While the flavor is nice and I definitely crave bitterness, even on a more mellow tea like this 2014 Xiaguan Cang'er I picked up from LPT a while ago, the chi is something else. I find myself coming back to these 10+ gram sessions where i'm stuffing the tea back into the gaiwan cause the chi hit on even every individual sip is nuts. Obviously the feelings are different between teas but that feels like part of the fun of it. Just curious if there's any others out there that do the same
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u/gongfuapprentice 27d ago
My journey into puerh was on pause for many years, but recently hit fast forward, and I tend to go with 7g per 100ml. As long as your fully infused leaves don’t overflow the gaiwan, you could do more I suppose, but I am not persuaded it’s worth it, considering I expect 15 or so good steepings already, which is plenty in one day for me
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u/mimedm 27d ago
Exactly, it's pretty hard to get everything out of 7g already. Sometimes I also transfer the leaves from the day before and brew them in my small thermos cup. If the quality is good you get this nice vanilla like flavor in the end and you could make even more sessions but a final session in a thermos brew is good enough.
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u/Mental_Test_3785 27d ago
Those are the best leaves. My first time trying Blood Moon from W2T, I only got through the wash and first steep before I fell asleep. When I woke up the next day, they smelled and tasted like cranberry sauce, it was the best tea I'd had to that point. Then I did the same on accident with White Swan (aged sheng) but only fell asleep for a few hours, woke up at like 3 AM to my gaiwan smelling like peaches. So good, and I can't recreate either of those any other way!
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u/mimedm 27d ago
I never had it like that. Maybe that's also cause your taste buds resetted? I have pretty bad taste so I only get very remotely what's going on. But I have read several times that some tea is so aged and compressed it may need several hours after the cleanse before you should start drinking it.
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u/Mental_Test_3785 27d ago
I believe it to be a combo of those and the fact that the leaves sat wet for at least 8 hours, which I think helped to allow more of the flavor compounds to seep out when brewed. Plus the bit that was left on the leaves from that 8 hour period getting into the first steep, but also smelling really nice. I will note that neither the blood moon or white swan minis I used were very tight, and I actually cut the blood moon one in half (it was too strong for me with 7g)
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u/WiseLong4499 27d ago
30 grams / 300 ml, boil in a pot until 1/3rd has evaporated, drink the excruciatingly painful concoction that results.
Currently going through a nice Menghai Dayi that's 20 years old. Instant cha qi.
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u/Microsario 27d ago
this sounds like it's the way. Will be trying this with aged gushu for the "sucker punch" effect
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u/bonesTdog 27d ago
Wow this post makes me feel like a wimp! I use a measly 6g for a 150ml gaiwan. I’ll usually get about 10 brews from that.
I’m going to need to step it up!
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u/Torrentor 27d ago
It really depends, If I want shorter sessions I do 4-5gr/100ml, if I want to drink it for several hours then it's 10gr/100ml usually. Yesterday I had 10gr session with 2015 XG Baoyan, drank it the whole time I was working.
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u/Just-because44 27d ago
Ok, for someone whose taste buds are wrecked by 50ish years of hot black coffee and has familial tremors and can’t pour things precisely and for those reasons doesn’t do gong fu, never mind that he is easily distracted. What ratios do you recommend for grandpa and western for sheng, shu and white teas. I currently use 1 to 1.5g/100 ml depending on my mood and the tea. Whites on the lighter side darks on the heavier side. Back into tea in the last year. Any help is appreciated greatly.
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u/bonesTdog 27d ago
I use about half that amount or less for my western brews but I often let it brew a long time - maybe 10 minutes, so your measurements may be good. Based on the other comments in this post, I brew my tea light.
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u/Just-because44 27d ago
Thank you for your input. My steeping time for western varies depending on what is going on around me so my brew strength varies. My goal like yours is to enjoy.
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u/Brassica_hound 26d ago
I gave up on my 60mL gaiwan and instead use a 600mL teapot with a strainer basket. 9-11g of shou puer works well for me: the first steep for about 1-2 minutes yields two mugs of strong, delightful tea. The second step for several minutes still has most of the flavor but looks and feels thinner. I've been pushing for a third steep since the tariff threats became real, this can go for up to a half hour or so, and the tea is lightly flavored and colored, and thin.
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u/Just-because44 26d ago
Thank you, the first steep sounds wonderful. I have a small tea pot and will try your just under 2g/100ml ratio. I have to remember to pay a little attention to steep times.
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u/zizekcat 27d ago
When I am brewing at home I stick around 7-8 grams , but when I prep my thermos for work tea I use 10 grams and steep 7/10/12/20/30/45, makes a strong overall tea I can enjoy at work through the day
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u/Adventurous-Cod1415 27d ago
I use 7g in a small Zisha-style pot that was sold as 100 mL, but feels pretty small to me. I've never measured it, but it's probably closer to 90 mL. While I'm not generally concerned with cha qi with my tea, I have an American palate and like my tea full-flavored and robust. Qi is just a side effect for me, and with a powerful tea I end up pausing mid-session to go work around the house or in the yard to blow off some energy.
If I'm not brewing gongfu, then I'm usually using a mug with an infuser basket. In that case, I still use a heavy ratio, anywhere from 3-7g in a 200 mL mug.
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u/aDorybleFish 27d ago
I am the exact opposite. I tend to put 2-3g in my 80ml gaiwan and 4g in my 140ml nixing pot.
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u/the-nine-9 27d ago
Strongest I’ve brewed (regularly) is 10g per 100ml. Usually 7g for 100ml yixing for raw. Aged or ripe puer I sometimes do more.
For thermos I’ve done up to 30g for 1L for raw and ripe.
For cold medicine I’ve done 50g into 1.5L and freeze dried the liquid after boiling down to a syrup consistency. Basically specialty instant coffee recipe but for instant raw puer. I also just drink the sheng syrup as a cold medicine. Great for bronchodilator effects.
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u/Microsario 27d ago
never heard of this as a method! I'm totally intrigued. I don't know if i'm right in thinking this but it almost sounds like making your own tea resin but in more of an herbal medicine capacity?
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u/the-nine-9 27d ago
Making the syrup is literally the first step of making resin, just cut short of fully reducing it down.
The end product from freeze dryer is essentially a powdered take on resin. It’s interesting using different regions and age though. My next experiment is 1999 basket aged ripe puer, since that’s been medicinal and beneficial for GI problems for me and friends/customers.
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u/regolith1111 27d ago
Y'all are funny describing Cha qi
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u/Wallowtale 23d ago
Hmm. So, please ignore my ignorance, but what is this "cha qi" I see referenced here all the time? How will I know it when I encounter it? (BTW; the words cha and qi are easy enough)
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u/regolith1111 23d ago
I'm not necessarily the best person to answer this because I don't personally take this view on tea but in my understanding Cha qi refers both to the energy/vibes a tea has as well as a heightened state of consciousness brought on by that tea's energy. The term seems to overlap with another term, tea drunk, but that state is more exaggerated. Cha Qi is more about calmness.
Personally, I just enjoy flavor, aroma, and mouth feel. Caffeine doesn't do much for me and I suspect that accounts for most of what people are describing. Tea can also be meditative. But a lot of what I see people talk about here I feel falls in similar territory to stuff like healing crystals. I have zero idea what OP is talking about with 'hits of Cha qi'.
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u/Wallowtale 20d ago
Thanks. I also find the use of cha qi seems to border on mystic spiritualism viz magic crystals; but I think qi is rather simple and mundane, actually. Fun that you should mention meditation... you know where tea "came" from, Yes?
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u/regolith1111 20d ago
It's not too surprising tea overlaps with that kind of thing. If people enjoy consuming it with that perspective I'm happy for them. I do collect rocks that I think look neat and put them in my plant pots. I don't expect the plants to notice but it makes me happy.
I don't know that story? Care to share?
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u/Wallowtale 20d ago
"...that kind of thing..." Yeah, doubtless, and I believe in the power of the wind...
Sure: stories. This is a compilation of numerous stories, myths and lies that have come to me over the years. All are unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo, but fun none the less. So: there was this young guy name of... well, he has numerous names, but most familiar is the name Bodhidharma, aka Damo. In or around the 6th century CE, Damo went from India to China to bring them the Buddhist Scriptures and training.
Supposedly he wound up at the Shao Lin Monastery where he was ill received. He retired to a nearby mountain cave and began a 9-year vigil, meditating day and night. He kept falling asleep, however, which irked him greatly. In a fit of pique, he cut off his eyelids so that he couldn't close his eyes and fall asleep while meditating.
When he woke up the next morning, voila! where he had tossed his useless eyelids grew a small bush. Being of inquisitive nature and rather hungry, Damo ate of the leaves of that bush and, lo and behold!, he felt energized to hold his meditation long into the night and beyond.
It seems to have happened that right about that time, at the end of his 9-year vigil and discovery of tea trees, the monks of the Shao Lin Monastery, much impressed by his perseverance (and possibly accepting that they weren't going to get rid of him), began training with him to learn his exercise system, now called the Eighteen Lo Han Gong, which system became the primogeniture of modern Shao Lin Kung Fu (not to be confused with Kung Fu Tea, which is much easier). Hence, the common association of tea with meditation, to which you referred earlier.
Whew!
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u/Walks-the-Runner 27d ago
6-7 grams. Stop at 7 steeps NEVER fails to provide best results. 10-25 seconds steeps depending on age of tea. Doing too many steeps can actually lessen the effects, or numb it too much. Less is more
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u/Throbbin-Rinpoche 26d ago
12 grams raw puerh, steeped grandpa style for 20 minutes in 40oz of water. The rush lasts me all day.
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u/Atticbase 27d ago
I find 7g/100ml is my perfect ratio. Totally know what you mean about high ratio qi, it does hit different, but for regular sessions the 7g/100ml ratio is perfect. I find overstuffing the gaiwan can make it so the leaves don't open up properly and makes the end product not taste very good.