Rinse (Awakening the Leaf)
A rinse is a quick first pour of hot water over tea leaf that is discarded rather than drunk, used to wash and open tightly rolled or compressed tea.
Definition
The rinse, also called "washing the tea" (洗茶, xi cha) or "awakening the leaf" (醒茶, xing cha), is a short infusion of 3-10 seconds that is poured away before the first drinking steep. It is a standard step in gongfu brewing for pu'er, hei cha, and tightly rolled oolongs. The rinse does two jobs. For compressed and aged teas, it removes surface dust and fragments of the cake or brick that loosened during prying, and starts to soften the leaf so the first real infusion is not weak and thin. For ball-rolled oolongs such as Tieguanyin or Dong Ding, it starts the leaf unfurling so the following steeps extract evenly. A rinse is not a decaffeinating step. Caffeine is soluble but needs time to diffuse out of the leaf, and a 5-second rinse removes only a small fraction of it. The rinse is also usually skipped for delicate green teas, Japanese teas and high-grade white tea, where the first infusion is often the most aromatic and pouring it away wastes the best cup.
In Depth
How to rinse: fill the gaiwan or pot with water at brewing temperature, cover, and pour off immediately or after up to 10 seconds. For shou pu'er or older, dusty cakes, two short rinses are common. Many brewers use the rinse water to warm cups and pour over a tea pet.
After rinsing, some brewers leave the lid on for 30-60 seconds before the first infusion, letting the warm, damp leaf open further. Smelling the lid or the empty vessel at this stage is the best preview of the tea's aroma.
With loose oolong of good quality, the rinse is optional and partly a matter of taste. Try one session with and one without; if the first steep without a rinse tastes thin or muddy, rinse next time.
See Also
- Pu'er Preparation
- Gongfu Brewing Steps
- Washing the Tea