Time To Make Some Tea

Preparing tea is not a complicated process, yet it is still easy to go very, very wrong.

Most people are familiar with how to make tea using a tea bag: mug, hot water, tea bag.  Okay - there’s actually more to it than that, but that’s how I suspect most people in the U.S. grew up drinking their tea.  That was certainly my experience.  We bought tea bags from the grocery store, poured some boiling water over them, and left them until the water turned to the “right” color.  Occasionally you would dunk the bag, because it made you feel like you were doing something useful.  Let me make this VERY clear - that is NOT the best way to make tea.

Today I’ll be focusing on what some call the “conventional” style of brewing tea.  In future posts I’ll talk about other methods such as gong fu brewing and some of the different teaware and how the methods differ. 

The water

Use fresh, clean water.  Filtered water or spring water are best so impurities in the water do not impact the flavor of your tea.  Remember, your finished cup is primarily water so quality is important. 

Temperature

Fill a kettle or pan with the water and heat. The right temperature is very important and is dependent upon the type of tea you are making.  I would recommend starting with these guidelines.

• Green teas and white teas: Between 160° and 190°F. (Japanese green teas and white teas generally use lower temperatures than Chinese greens.)
• Oolongs: 180° to 203°F, depending on how oxidized or “dark” the tea is
• Black teas and puerhs: At or just below boiling—203° to 212°F (Some puerhs may require lower temperatures.)

Hot the pot

Before adding the leaves, add hot water to the pot to warm it up.  Otherwise, your perfectly warmed water will cool off before your tea is steeped!

Add the tea

Some tea sites will recommend that you weigh your tea, using about 2.5 grams per 6 ounces of water.  This is definitely the most accurate.  Many of us guess-timate and use about 1 tsp per 6 ounces of water.  Keep in mind that some teas like silver needle have very large leaves that are tough to measure by teaspoon so you may wish to add more.

Rinsing

There has been some discussion on the tea forums of late about whether or not tea leaves should be “rinsed” before brewing.  I would definitely recommend rinsing puerhs - pour hot water on and immediately drain.  Discard this rinse water.  I often also “rinse” tightly rolled oolongs to begin opening the leaves.

Brewing Times

As with all components of brewing that I’m describing here, this information should be used as a guideline.  You may find that you wish to use less time (or more) than I’m suggesting.  Be very careful about increasing time, however.  Oversteeped tea becomes very bitter.  It is better to increase the amount of leaf than the time.

• Green tea and oolongs - 1 to 3 minutes
• White tea - 3 to 4 minutes
• Black teas - 3 to 5 minutes
• Puerh - Up to 1 minute

Another note on brewing times.  Tea bags often use much smaller leaves so the steep times should be shorter.  The flavors will be extracted much more quickly and overbrewing it is easy.

Decant

Remove the leaves or decant the tea into a separate vessel so the tea does not continue to steep.

Re-Steeping

Many teas can be re-steeped.  This is something I love about oolongs.  I often re-steep oolongs five or six times.  Some puerhs can be steeped ten or twelve times!  One important note here: Do not re-boil water.  Much of the oxygen is removed when you boil water so if you boil it multiple times, your tea will start to taste “flat.”  It is best to refill your kettle or to use a kettle than can retain temperature.