menu search
brightness_auto
Ask or Answer anything Anonymously! No sign-up is needed!
more_vert
Not a fan of tea, but started drinking it for the health benefit. I have reused white tea leaves four times with no loss in flavor, but I am not drinking tea for the flavor, so trying to find out how many times I can re-brew the leaves before  the medicinal action is exhausted. I make tea by bringing a cup of water to a boil, removing from heat and letting it sit for five minutes, then adding the tea leaves, letting that sit for five minutes, then straining.

3 Answers

more_vert
There are at leas three different varieties of "Chinese white tea". These include White peony, Baihao yinzhen and Gong mei. Each of those may come in a variety of forms including fresh, loose leaves or mélange. The actual number of times leaves could be reused for their medicinal qualities depends on the following parameters:

-The water solubility of the medicinal ingredients

-The actual concentration of those ingredients in the tea product (fresh, leaves etc.)

-The quantity and type of the used tea (you can imagine that components in fresh leaves will be much harder to extract)

-The volume of water used to brew the tea

-The temperature and timeframe at which brewing and resting takes place(higher temperatures enhance both solubility and diffusion through naturally forming double-layers in the solute)

That being said it is very difficult to give an estimation without more details/data. However, if anecdotal evidence is acceptable: my sweet little Taiwanese grandma neighbor states that you shouldn't reuse the leaves but if absolutely necessary, then no more than once.
thumb_up_off_alt 1 like thumb_down_off_alt 0 dislike
more_vert
Thanks for answering my question. I buy any kind of white tea (and sometimes yellow tea) that seems affordable. I believe this time it was 'White Needle' tea from an eBay seller in China. It is always loose tea.

I brew two cups at a time (drink half cup twice a day), using two cups distilled water. Being loose tea, it is hard to estimate how much I use. It's two 'pinches', which I estimate to be two to three teaspoons, but is probably more. Loose tea does not conform well to teaspoon measuring, so I just 'eyeball' it.

Anyway, I will limit my tea brewing to one reuse, as per your advice.
more_vert
Chinese White Tea (loose leaves) can generally be reused/rebrewed 2-3 times before losing its medicinal value. The exact number of times may vary.
thumb_up_off_alt 1 like thumb_down_off_alt 0 dislike
more_vert
I think it is best to use it thrice only. The texture will not be good. The best thing is to make ourselves healthy by having some tea in our system.
thumb_up_off_alt 0 like thumb_down_off_alt 0 dislike
Whenever you have a question in your mind, just drop it on Answeree. Help our community grow.
...