>The gongfu method
>can produce more infusions but the taste from a brown betty allowing
>for volume is the same that is you couldn't tell the difference if
>blindfolded. If 80% caffeine is extracted in all teas for the first
>infusion then what percentage of overall taste also is also extracted?

Since you're talking anecdotal evidence, you can't assume that you're
100 percent correct on the issue; show us some numbers if you want to
get all scientific on us. What does it matter if 80 percent of the
caffine is extracted or not? Caffine does not = taste. If 80 percent
of the taste in tea was extracted by a first flush, I seriously doubt
some of us would be spending like a hundred bucks on some tasteless,
green/brown Chinese tea.


>Take any tea you want, brew
>it according to any method you want, and it will essentially taste the
>same as any other method.

I disagree with this statement wholeheartedly. You cannot say that
brewing high grade TGY in a large pot would yield the same flavor as
using a yixing pot even if the amounts were proportional. I have
seen/tasted many a brew of tea ruined by friends, some that know a bit
about tea, of mine that I have sent tea to as an example. There is no
better way to drink Chinese tea than the way they drink it (gongfu),
and they drink it that way for a reason. It isn't as much about
ceremony, like in Japan, as it is with trying to get the best out of
the tea that they possibly can.

I realize many of us don't have the time to enjoy the tea in this way
all the time, but they really don't know what they are missing. I WILL
NOT drink my Chinese tea in any other way.