I don't rinse oolongs at all, since they are roasted anything unwanted would be gone. All the essence from the rolling process is on the dried leaf, IMO rinsing is just like throwing out the tastiest part . Try it, especially when you drink the high mountain 2000m stuff. I only rinse puerhs twice for cooked and once for raw.

That and also to clean off any unwanted residue on the leaves since they are hand harvested and processed. The same reason people wash any veggies or fruit bought from a market.

i dont know how much rinsing does to clean the leaf
depending on how much pressure was used in handling the leaf- smashing particles in the leaf surface,
how much oils from the broken leaf itself oils from people's hands making a water insoluble residue on the leaf
what sort of processing done afterwards - tight rolling and pressing leaf i think would stick whatever dirts and such pretty well to the leaf
= making alot of the residue hard to take off ... just my theory anyway....
probably most of the storage dust is taken away...
tho hopefully like 50% of residue i'd think would go...
its not like we shoot 100psi pressured water at it or scrub it like cleaning an apple

My take on the rinse...
so I'm starting to rinse most teas twice, but it's not as extreem as you think. I do a 5 second rinse with hot water (doesn't have to be boiling). Then, I wait about 5 minutes (doesn't have to be exactly 5 min). This allows the leaves to unfurl and whatnot (leaves don't have to "unfurl" completely) lol. I do another 5 second rinse once the leaves are more opened to get off that gunk. Now, I go about my brewing business, decreasing my first steep time from what it was before my rinsing habits changed. xxx

Many thanks for so many replies. So rinsing serves to unfurl the tea rather than reducing the caffeine and not all teas should be rinsed.

One or two 10 second rinses usually does it for me.

rinsing does not reduce caffeine content. >> chadao article

You just killed his placebo effect

Personally i just do one quick rinse. Like 5 seconds. Ive also seen videos of gong fu style where they did this (and it was Chinese who made it). They also gave the same reason as you (hand processing).
Don't know if such a short rinse is wrong "officially" though.

Many thanks for all feedbacks. Nice to hear your experiences

for the tightly rolled Oolongs I do about 30sec rinse to let the leaves unfurl a little bit before my first "official" infusion. I tend to agree that it does not remove a lot of the caffeine content as I am quite wired after a few cups (like right now)

Hello people
I'm just curious about the oolong brewing methode you use. I used to threw away the first brew to rinse away dirt from the tea due to hand processing.
It is common in Guangdong and also HongKong.
For me it gives a plus point which I can reduce the caffeine content so I can sleep well at night.
My question is, if you also practise the same method, how many seconds will you brew the first brew before pouring it out?
I'm talking about 150 mL gongfu pot brewing methode.
Many thanks for any feedback

I've seen too many teas laid out on streets, sidewalks, and other unwholesome places. I rinse twisted-leaf oolongs for one flash infusion (pour water in, make sure all leaves get pushed under, pour out). For rolled oolongs I'd go more like 1 15-30 second rinse, depending on how tightly rolled.

What he said. Plus, I pretty much never rinse sheng and don't always rinse shu, esp if it's good shu.

Obviously, everyone's got their own way of doing things that works for them.

Now, I'm wondering how you can get a rolled oolong, with no rinse, to give you a flavorful First infusion in ten seconds? Much less the first three infusions in that amount of time? You need to tell me where you get your leaves!

I don't rinse, if I tasted something unpleasant in a first brew then I would consider giving the tea a rinse in future or placing it in the bin.

Aside from some pu-erh's it always seemed like a waste of good tea to me. Two five second rinses? that could be the first three brews.

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