Three ways to brew Reprocessed tea
Reprocessed tea covers two things: scented tea, and compressed tea that is pressed dark tea. The three brewing methods apply differently to each.
Scented tea behaves like a delicate green or white base. Compressed tea behaves like dark tea, because that is what it is.
Gongfu suits both, with different water. The Western method suits scented tea and struggles with compressed. Grandpa style suits scented tea well.
Everything depends on identifying which half you have first. Petals in the leaf means scented, a pressed shape means compressed.
Get that wrong and no method will save the cup.
The naming does not help. Both halves are sold as reprocessed tea, and neither the price nor the shop label will tell you which you have.
Gongfu: small pot, high leaf, short pours
For scented tea, 3 grams in a 150 millilitre gaiwan at 85 degrees, 45 seconds, adding 10 seconds per round.
For compressed tea, 5 grams in 200 millilitres at a full boil, a five second rinse discarded, then 20 second steeps.
Porcelain or glass for the scented half, clay or thick ceramic for the compressed half.
Do not rinse the scented half. The aroma sits on the surface of the leaf, and a rinse pours it away.
Scented tea runs four or five steeps and is best early. Compressed tea improves through the fifth, like any dark tea.
Scented tea gives its best in the first two steeps. Compressed tea is still improving at the fifth, and expecting the same from both is the common error.
Use a wide mouthed vessel for the compressed half. Bricks break into irregular chunks, and a narrow mouth means crushing them to fit.
Western: a normal teapot, longer steep
For scented tea, 5 grams in 500 millilitres at 85 degrees for three minutes, and lift the leaf out.
That is a reasonable everyday method for jasmine, and it is what most people outside China use.
For compressed tea the Western pot is a poor fit. Five minutes at any temperature will not open a pressed brick.
If you want to use a pot for the compressed half, use boiling water, 8 grams per 500 millilitres, and give it five minutes minimum.
Either way, pour the pot out when the time is up. Neither half improves by sitting on the leaf.
Jasmine is the most forgiving of the scented teas in a pot. More delicate flowerings such as osmanthus need the gaiwan and cooler water.
Grandpa: leaf in the cup
Grandpa style is a good fit for the scented half. Two grams in a 300 millilitre glass at 85 degrees, topped up through the day.
Jasmine pearls are the ideal leaf for it, because the rolled shape releases slowly and the low ratio keeps the cup sweet.
Use glass. The pearls opening into a flower shape is worth watching, and it tells you when the aroma has released.
Do not use this method for the compressed half. A low ratio and a glass vessel give you pale, thin liquor.
Cold brewing is the summer version and it works well. Twenty grams in a litre of cold water, eight hours in the fridge.
Replace the leaf once during the day. Two grams of jasmine will give you a morning, and a fresh dose after lunch is better than topping up for ever.
Which to choose
Identify the tea first. That single step decides everything, and it takes five seconds.
For jasmine and other scented teas, use grandpa style for all day or a gaiwan for tasting. Both are good.
For compressed tea, use gongfu with boiling water and a rinse, or a thermos if you are working.
Keep two vessels if you drink both halves. One shared pot ends with jasmine flavoured pu-erh.
And store them apart. A cake left beside an open tin of jasmine will smell of jasmine within a few weeks.
Write on the packet which half it is and what water it liked. The category name will not remind you next month.
If a reprocessed tea disappoints you, check the identification before you blame the method. That one question resolves most of the category’s problems.
Compressed scented teas exist as well, and they are the easiest to misjudge. They carry petals, but they are brewed like the compressed half, at a full boil.