"Ralf Schreiner" > wrote in message
...
> Hi group,
>
> I came across a few different samples of green darjeeling as well as
> an oolong from daarjeeling in my local tea shop. Must say that I was
> not soo happy with them. They were 'good' teas, no doubt, but failed
> to satisfy me, I am more into chinese teas, this is not my topic as
> this is a matter of personal taste.
>
> My question: I tried with many different relations tea/water
> temperature/steeping time but never found any relation that would
> allow to have more than one steep from a tea, which I find a little
> odd for green and oolong teas in general. Why is that? I do not think
> this is a matter of 'quality' as I use very cheap green tea which I
> steep at least three times. What can it be?
>
> I noted that all the green/oolong darjeelings had a basic aroma that
> is very typical for (good) black darjeeling, can it be that the
> fermentation process is simply more complete that witzh chinese green
> teas? They looked a little like that...
>
> Thanks for any input
>
> Ralf
>

Ralf,

My experience is that the number of steeps one can get from a particular tea
is more dependent on the leaf style than anything else. If the leaf style
is very "bold" (i.e., large or close to full leaf) then at least two steeps
are possible, assuming that the length of the first was not excessive. I
have a Darjeeling from the Seeyok garden called "Silver Pearls" which
reminds me of a hand-rolled Chinese tea (think Tiekuanyin or gunpowder); it
is largely whole leaf, and I can get two very satisfactory steeps from it.
But most Darjeeling is BOP (broken orange pekoe), and the leaves release
almost everything of interest during the first steep.

I could be wrong (the beauty of the internet is that someone will disagree
with every expressed opinion <g>), but I think the oxidation level is less
an indicator of multiple steeps than leaf size. Of course, an "acceptable"
steep is also a matter of personal taste.

Regards,
Dean