Can you reuse loose leaf tea? How many times to steep each type
One of the quiet advantages of loose leaf over bags is that a lot of it can be used again. A tea bag is cut so fine it gives everything up in one go. Whole leaf opens slowly and holds something back for the second cup, and sometimes the third. Here is how far each type will go.
The teas built for it
Oolong is the champion. Milk Oolong and Orange Oolong will give three or four good steeps, and many people think the second is the best of the lot. Add about a minute to the brewing time each round.
Pu-erh is the same. One Mini Tuocha nest makes a pot for three, and after that pot it will make another, and often a third. The flavour gets rounder as it goes.
White tea like Pai Mu Tan is gentle enough that two or three steeps are normal. The first is delicate, the second a touch fuller.
Green tea
Sencha, Jasmine, Gunpowder and Genmaicha manage two good cups. The second cup is lighter but still clearly the same tea. Keep the water at about 80°C for the second steep, as hotter water pulls out bitterness from leaf that has already opened. Brew the second cup a minute longer than the first.
Black tea
Black tea is the one type that is mostly spent after one cup. A second steep of Scottish Breakfast or Assam is weak and a bit woody. Darjeeling and Lapsang Souchong do a little better, since they are whole leaf rather than CTC. If you want to try, brew the second cup two minutes longer. For a strong cup, though, use fresh leaf.
Herbals and fruit teas
Rooibos and honeybush will go twice. Peppermint, chamomile and lavender give most of their oils to the first cup, so the second is faint. Crimson Berry is a one cup tea, since the colour and the sharpness all come out in the first brew.
How to do it
The only rule is to not leave the wet leaf sitting in water between steeps. Pour the first cup off completely, leave the leaf in the infuser or pot, and brew again when you are ready. If you are coming back to it later in the day, that is fine. Overnight is pushing it, since wet leaf at room temperature is not something you want to drink the next morning.
Reusing leaf also changes the cost. A 100g pouch of Milk Oolong at £20.80 looks dear next to a black tea until you count three cups from every spoon, which brings it to about 17p a cup.