While living in China, I discovered that it was a good idea to rinse tea with hot water before brewing it. The rinse removes a certain rough taste — easy to notice in side-by-side comparisons. A Chinese college student made an interesting analogy:
Entertainment news is like drinking tea, first time is like washing tea leafs, no one really cares. Maybe 2nd or 3rd time it will have the sweet taste, but in the end it gets weaker and weaker.
Yeah, rinse all the lead out! Congrats on the discovery.
Is there only taste benefits ?
Could it remove Mycotoxins? Are mycotocins something to care about?
I’ve noticed that expensive tea doesn’t need to be washed as much as cheap tea. I inherited a huge amount of cheap tea from HaiNan (not known for quality tea). If I try to drink it straight, it is awful (too strong, bitter, something just off), but if I wash it (pour on hot water, leave on 5 seconds, pour off) it tastes just like expensive tea. Sorry this comment has nothing to do with news.
It depends on the tea. You don’t want to do this with an oolong, but it is the only way to get a drinkable cup of pu-er tea. Go to a good tea shop and they’ll tell you how to get the best cup when you brew. (We learned a lot at high-end Ten Ren.)
Wow, I’ve had an intuition to rinse my tea for years, but I’ve never done it! I’m going to try it tonight and probably from now on…Thanks Seth.