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Quick Notes on Tea Brewing
Quick Notes on Tea Brewing
You may always need to adjust brewing methods based on specific teas and your own taste preference. But here are some simple suggestions to begin with. Some of them are commonly used, while you may also find some of them contradicting brewing instructions from other sources. They always work for us. It's your decision how well they work for you. Your comments, suggestions and critics are always welcome!
About Water:
Unless otherwise specified, hottest, newly boiled water is our by-default preference, for all tea categories. Generally speaking, we do NOT believe Chinese green tea or white tea should use significantly low water temperature.
About Brewing Vessels:
For Oolong, we recommend a small (2-6 oz.) teapot or gaiwan (traditional wisdom!), OR a mug (easy and safe!). We don't recommend teapots larger than 10 oz.
For Green Tea, we recommend a mug, or a liquor glass of comparable size. We don't recommend teapots larger than 10 oz. Compared with mug brewing, small teapots demand greater care about infusion time.
1a. Oolong, ball-shaped dry tea leaves
Vessel: gaiwan or small teapot
Water temperature: newly boiled water (above 95 °C or 203 °F)
Amount of leaves: 5 gram for every 120ml total volume (Or reduce the amount to 3 gram for some heavy oxidation and/or heavy roast products)
Warm-up infusion: pour hot water in the vessel, and immediately drain it. Wait for about 1min. before starting the next infusion.
Time for each of the first 3 infusions (after warm-up): 20sec. (Or reduce the infusion time to 10-15sec. for some heavy oxidation and/or heavy roast products)
Extend infusion time based on taste for later infusions. Most oolong tea can well last for at least 5-7 infusions.
1b. Oolong, Wuyi Yan Cha (Rock Tea) with strip-shaped dry tea leaves
Vessel: （same as "1a"）gaiwan or small teapot
Water temperature: （same as "1a"）newly boiled water (above 95 °C or 203 °F)
Amount of leaves: 7 gram for every 120ml total volume
Warm-up infusion: （same as "1a"）pour hot water in the vessel, and immediately drain it. Wait for about 1min. before starting the next infusion.
Time for each of the first 3 infusions (after warm-up): 10sec.
Extend infusion time based on taste for later infusions. Most Wuyi Yan Cha can well last for at least 7-10 infusions.
1c. Oolong, Feng Huang (Phoenix) Dan Cong (Single Bush)
Vessel: （same as "1a"）gaiwan or small teapot
Water temperature: (same as "1a") newly boiled water (around 95 °C or 203 °F)
Amount of leaves: (same as "1b") 7 gram for every 120ml total volume
Warm-up infusion: (same as "1a") pour hot water in the vessel, and immediately drain it. Wait for about 1min. before starting the next infusion.
Time for each of the first 3 infusions (after warm-up): 5-10sec.
Extend infusion time based on taste for later infusions. Most Dan Cong can well last for at least 7-15 infusions.
1d. Oolong, Go easy...
(recommended if you would like to go easy; not recommended if the tea is expensive to you and you expect very strong flavor in every sip.)
Vessel: mug
Water temperature: (same as "1a") newly boiled water (around 95 °C or 203 °F)
Amount of leaves:
ball-shaped oolong: 15-20 grains of dry tea leaves
stripe-shaped oolong: 10-20 whole leaves
Steep time: 1-2 minutes
Re-steep: when there is 1/3 liquor left in the vessel, add hot water to re-steep.
* Estimate how much oolong tea leaves to use in Gong Fu style:
Taiwan ball-shaped oolong: lay 1-2 layers of dry leaf balls at the bottom of gaiwan or teapot, as Taiwan oolongs are generally curled tighter than Southern Fujian oolongs.
Southern Fujian ball-shaped oolong: lay 2-3 layers of dry leaf balls at the bottom of gaiwan or teapot.
Wuyi Yan Cha and Phoenix Dan Cong: fill 2/3 to full height of the gaiwan with tea leaves, OR 1/2 to full height of a small teapot, depending on shape of the teapot
For all above oolongs, ideally, after 7 infusions or so, spent tea leaves loosely fill the full volume of the gaiwan or teapot.
2a. Chinese Green Tea (except for all-bud varieties)
Vessel: mug, gaiwan, or whatever cup of proper size
Water temperature: newly boiled water (around 95 °C or 203 °F)
Amount of Leaves: let dry loose leaves cover the mug/cup bottom, but don't pile up
Time: when most leaves sink to the bottom, it's good to drink
Re-steep: when there is 1/3 liquor left in the vessel, add hot water to re-steep. Most Chinese green teas can be infused for at least 3 times.
When using a teapot, leave the lid OFF and steep for 1 minute for each of the first 2 infusions.
2b. Chinese early spring Green Tea with mostly leaf buds
Method (1):
Vessel: mug or whatever cup of proper size
Water temperature: boiled water that has sat aside for 2-5 minutes (around 90 °C or 194 °F)
Amount of Leaves: (same as "2a") let dry loose leaves cover the mug/cup bottom, but don't pile up
Time: (same as "2a") when most leaves sink to the bottom, it's good to drink
Re-steep: (same as "2a") when there is 1/3 liquor left in the vessel, add hot water to re-steep. Most Chinese green teas can be infused for at least 3 times.
Method (2):
Vessel: Gaiwan
Water temperature: boiled water that has sat aside for 5-10 minutes (around 80-85 °C or 180 °F)
Amount of leaves: (same as "2a") let dry loose leaves cover the mug/cup bottom, but don't pile up
Time: wait for 1-2 minutes, with the Gaiwan lid OFF. Then use the gaiwan lid to gently wave away any floating leaves, and meantime start drinking SLOWLY.
Re-steep: same as "2a"
3. Chinese Red Tea
Same as "2a". When using a teapot, leave the lid OFF and steep for 1 minute for each of the first 2 infusions.
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