Why Do People “Rinse” their Tea?

Oct 8

If you have ever had the pleasure of watching someone prepare tea gong fu style or in any of my videos showing how to make the perfect cup of tea, you will notice there is one step that can appear puzzling: rinsing the tea.

What is Up with the Rinsing?

When preparing tea in the traditional Chinese gong fu brewing style one of the first steps after heating the cups and gaiwan or teapot, is to quickly rinse the teas.

This means, you pour some water over the tea leaves, and then after 1 or 2 seconds, pour the water out.

What is the point of that?!

Tea Rinsing is like Stretching Before Running

Remember when we talked about the principles for optimal tea brewing and we said the whole goal for all tea brewing is to open up the tea leaves and give them room to unfurl and release their flavors?

Well, the rinse is giving the tea a little warm up, getting the leaves warm, prepped, and ready to really open and release all their natural flavors on the first steeping.

That’s why I regularly compare the initial tea rinse to stretching to get your muscles ready before running.

You don’t HAVE to do this step, but it is a nice little touch to bring out the best in your teas when you have the chance.

Tea Rinsing and the Reducing Caffeine Myth

We tackled the #1 Myth regarding tea and caffeine, but another myth that motivates some people to rinse their tea is to supposedly reduce the caffeine in the brew.

According to the studies cited here, steeping times and the corresponding caffeine removal are pretty minimal:

30 seconds: 9% caffeine removal

1 minute: 18% caffeine removal

2 minutes: 34% caffeine removal

And like I said, a tea rinse in the gong fu tea brewing sense is pouring out the water after 1-2 seconds, so if caffeine removal is your main reason for rinsing, it is not going to achieve much.

The main reason to rinse your teas is to prep them for the ultimate infusion and your perfect cup of tea on your first and subsequent steepings.

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