How-To Brew Tea

    I use one rounded teaspoon of tea, whatever stays on the spoon goes in. Not the measuring tsp. but the one you use at the table. You could also use weight, but for tea I don’t. For every teaspoon of tea use 8oz of water. Always bring your water to a boil no-matter the temp you use, if you need water cooler than 212 just let it cool down. Also, always preheat your tea pot or infuser that you use, run some hot tap water in to it.
    First, place your tea in the tea pot or whatever you are using , then pour your water in on top of the tea. Next, allow your tea to steep for the recommended amount of time. You don’t want to stir the tea while it is infusing, you’ll just make it more bitter. Finally, pour the tea through a strainer. You don’t have to use a strainer if you don’t mind the leaves in your cup, the tea will sink to the bottom.
    One more note on tea. I personally think that you shouldn’t use an infuser basket. Why? Well tea needs room to bloom which is required for a good extraction. Yes, I know loose leaf tea  looks so small. Wait until its wet, it will become as much as 10x the original size, especially with oolongs.

The Time and Temp varies for each specific tea but in general:

Black teas should be steeped in boiling water that is 212F or 100C for a brew time of 5 minutes.

Oolong teas should be steeped in off boiling water that is 180F or 82C for a brew time of  4 minutes.

Green teas should be steeped in off boiling water that is 170F or 76C for a brew time of 3 minutes.

White teas should be steeped in off boiling water that is 170F or 76C for a brew time of  7 minutes.

Now remember that these temps and times are only rough guidelines only to be used if your tea did not come with any brewing instructions.

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How-To Brew Tea by Noah Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.