I'm constantly amazed at the behavior of tea leaves in a pot. I'll
agree with your general conclusions but each pot is entertaining. I
often guage brewing time by tea leaf behavior. When the leaves start
to look water logged I pour. I just had some Yunnan silver needles
and I'd say it took less than a minute for them to form a dam. They
don't bob like the Fujian version. I can say each tea has it's own
density. I also had a pot of BiLoChun and I could count the snails in
my palm but the infused leaf wouldn't. If the infused leaf clings to
the side of the pot when I finish pouring it means to me another
infusion. Spent leaf will loose its stickyness and will fall back in
the pot. Besides leaf in a pot you can tell much about lesser grades
like fines and CTC. The smaller grades that can spin back up in the
pot mean longer brewing times. The ones that don't shorter. I think
each pot is a unique experience. The more action in the pot the more
taste in the cup.

Jim

On Feb 25, 8:47 pm, "cha bing" > wrote:
....I delete you...
> I often find myself looking at tea leaves after I drink tea, but I am
> never sure what I am looking for. I know there are a ton of different
> things that can likely be told from leaves, and maybe there is no easy
> way to catalog it all into an easy reference. But if anyone has
> resources on this topic, I would be interested in hearing more. If
> anyone has thoughts about the observations above, or other
> observations, I would also be curious to read them. Sorry for long
> post.