We are continuously espousing the way of Gong Fu brewing and that you should always remove your tea leaves from the water to prevent them from stewing (unless you are coldbrewing). Well, as with everything in tea there are always exceptions to the rules and Grandpa Brewing is one of those exceptions.
If you ever visit China and sit in a taxi, I am willing to bet that somewhere amongst the driver's mess will be a glass bottle filled with tea leaves and water. This is Grandpa Style brewing and is the most basic way to brew tea.
Essentially the tea leaves are always in water and brewing away until you have drunk about two thirds of the liquor. Then you add more hot water using the one third of (usually quite strong) tea to 'seed' your next infusion.
This style of brewing works for teas which are lighter in flavour or do not extract too quickly (larger leaves). In this video I chose a Hou Kui Green tea which is my favourite with Grandpa brewing.
As always, you can control the strength of brewing by playing around with water temperature (cooler means slower extraction) and amount of leaf (use less for lighter brewing).
Grandpa style is not going to make the most delicious tea out there but for a simple tea on the go or while sitting by your desk at work it can be a fun way to get your tea fix.
