Brewing tea 泡茶

You can brew the same tea as one long infusion in a big cup or as a dozen short ones in a small gaiwan. Either way, three variables set the flavor: leaf, water and time.

Hot water draws aroma, sweetness, bitterness and astringency out of the leaf, but not all at once. Aroma and sweetness arrive first; bitterness and astringency catch up later. Brewing well comes down to stopping at the right moment, and there are two ways to do it.

Two approaches

Western style: 2–3 g of leaf to a 200–250 ml cup, one infusion of 2–5 minutes. The leaf releases nearly everything in that one steep, so a second infusion comes out noticeably weaker. This suits a morning cup of black tea or a big pot for a group.

Gongfu cha works the other way round. You use 4–8 g of leaf per 100 ml of water, the first infusion lasts 10–40 seconds, and a session runs from five to fifteen infusions. Each one differs a little from the last, and over a single session the tea reveals its full range, from the aromatic early infusions to the thin, sweet final ones. This is how oolongs and pu-erh are brewed, in a gaiwan or a Yixing teapot.

Three variables

Leaf

How much dry leaf goes into a given volume of water. The more leaf, the shorter the infusion.

Water

Temperature and composition. Brew green tea at 75–85 °C; pu-erh and rock oolongs take water at a full boil. Hard water dulls the aroma at any temperature. See water for tea for how to choose it and how far to heat it.

Time

The length of the infusion. Two extra minutes in a Western cup or ten extra seconds in a gaiwan will turn the liquor bitter.

The variables are linked. Use more leaf and you need a shorter steep; drop the temperature and you need a longer one. Adjust one at a time.

If the tea goes wrong

If the liquor is bitter, shorten the steep time or lower the temperature. If it tastes thin, add leaf, because a long infusion builds bitterness faster than flavor. Every tea's page lists starting figures in its brewing box. Work from those, one step per session.