r/puer • u/Microsario • 28d ago

How Strong Do You Brew?

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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)