On 06 Sep 2008 15:55:58 -0400, Lewis Perin panix.com> wrote:

I would think that brewing 2g for 1 minute would not be the same as
brewing 1g for 2 minutes (same amount/temp of water).

Taken to a more extreme example, I would expect 8g brewed for 1 minute
to be quite different from 1g brewed for 8 minutes. I would esxpect
the former to be strong and the latter bitter.

I don't think I am assuming that at all and, in fact, am trying to
eliminate that effect.

Let's take a simple example. Suppose I put 4g of tea in a 2-cup pot,
add hot water, and start steeping. After 1 minute, I strain 1 cup into
a cup and allow the rest to continue to steep. After 1 more minute, I
drain the rest (1 cup) into a second cup.

I now have 2 cups of tea.

Cup 1 is clearly the result of brewing 2g of tea in 1 cup of water for
1 minute.

The question is, "What's in cup 2?".

It is clear that cup 2 is NOT the result of brewing 2g of tea in 1 cup
of water for 2 minutes. It is somewhat stronger than that and may have
other characteristics.

It is also clear that it is NOT the result of brewing 4g of tea in 1
cup of water for 2 minutes. It is somewhat weaker than that and may
have other characteristics.

A simple average would put the contents of cup 2 at the equivalent of
brewing 3g of tea in 1 cup of water for 2 minutes.

I am not sure that the contents of cup 2 are "exactly" equal to any
kind of average between 2g and 4g of tea in 1 cup of water for 2
minutes, but I believe a simple average is close enough to what's
really in cup 2 to be of use in taste testing.

I created an Excel spreadsheet to make these calculations. I'd be
happy to upload it someplace if anyone is interested.

I just used it to run a test on Earl Grey Bravo from Adagio. Here are
the results:

B C
1,000 ml Water
250 ml Cup size (for strength calculations)
4 Cups in this pot
6.0 g Tea
1.5 g Strength (g/cup)
250 ml Sample size each interval

Gram Cum
Cup# Water Tea Min Strength -Min G-M Strength
1 1,000 ml 6.0 g 1 1.50 g/cup 1.50 1.50 1.50 g/cup
2 750 ml 6.0 g 2 2.00 g/cup 2.00 3.50 1.75 g/cup
3 500 ml 6.0 g 3 3.00 g/cup 3.00 6.50 2.17 g/cup

This entire experiment is a weaker brew than planned. I initially
planned to start with 750 ml of water and 6g of tea (2g/cup). (I am
using 250ml for a "cup".) After I had weighed the 6g of tea, I decided
to increase the water so that the difference from cup to cup would be
less, but I forgot to increase the tea to 8g. I'll redo the experiment
with 8g later.

After I poured the 3rd cup, I strained the remaining tea into a
measuring cup. It showed that I had 225 ml left. I will modify my
spreadsheet to take that into account.

Here are the results:

Cup 1 had a nice taste, but was just slightly weak. I actually didn't
notice that so much until I weas able to compare it to the other cups.

Cup 2 was the best. Again, this was clearer after I tasted all three.

Cup 3 tasted about the same as Cup 2 at first, but then I noticed that
it had an aftertaste that was slightly bitter. After going back and
forth several times, it was clear this tea is not good after 7
minutes.

Overall, this was very educational. I would want to follow this up
with some regular steepings and drink several cups on different days
to get a good feel for a tea, but this definitely gives me an upper
and lower bound on the time.

My new Digital Kettle Pro is supposed to arrive on Monday. That will
make running these experiments a lot easier.

I also want to get at least one IngenuiTea teapot/infuser. That should
make getting an accurate water measurement a lot easier and also make
it easier to dispense a cup at a time (I hope).

Finally, I want to get some clear glass tea cups so I can see the
color and clarity of the tea.

Cheers...