Tea Brewing

The way I brew my tea.

Implements

For actually making tea, I combine a few different utensils, kitchenware and tools.

A Kyusu teapot. A glassware electric kettle. A small glass pitcher, thermally resistant. Analog thermometer (a sugar thermometer, in my case). A double-walled borosilicate cup. A sub-gram digital pocket scale. A small ceramic bowl, for holding tea while on the scale.

Instructions

Fill the tea kettle with cold tap water and start the kettle. While the kettle is going, clear any old leaves from the teapot and rinse it. Dry it off.

Place the measuring bowl on the scale, zeroing it out. Take out the container for the tea you are using, remember or take note of the suggested brewing time and amount for that tea. Measure out the amount of tea you will be using: 7g tea if filling my kyusu teapot to 75% (~1.75dl water?) otherwise I use 5-6g for the smaller amount of water (1.2 dl?). A common rule of thumb is to use 20-40g per liter, but it depends on your own preferences and a given tea.

Listen to the kettle: is it nearing your target temperature?

If it is, stop the kettle and stick in the thermometer to check. I can see the temperature gauge through the kettle’s glass walls. Hot tea needs to be brewed at least at 60 degrees to taste good, so if it’s below that definitely heat it more. If you’re off by 5-10 degrees from the target temperature (in any direction) and it’s a new tea, try it any way? It could result in a brew you enjoy.

If the water is too hot: pour in cold water and notice how the temperature sinks. If the desired temperature is achieved, next steps!

Fill the teapot to 50% or 75% with hot water from the kettle to heat it up. If you don’t heat the teapot, it will leech heat from the water and affect the brewing! After a short while empty the hot water from the teapot into the glass pitcher. Pour tea leaves into the teapot and fill with the desired amount of water.

Set a timer for the target time. For the first brew, it is often 1 minute, and rarely 1min30s. It depends on the tea, for some oolongs I have to do at least 2 minutes for the taste to bloom. The second and subsequent brews are often 20s for fine Japanese green teas, like a steamed sencha (Fukamushi Sencha). While the timer is ticking down, pour some of the pitcher water into the cup. Empty the water from the pitcher.

When the time is up, empty the teapot into the pitcher, pour from the pitcher to the cup. Enjoy your tea!

If drinking in the morning, use the already heated water at the right temperature to brew another batch immediately after pouring from the pitcher. Brew the tea 2-3-4 times depending on the tea, your mood, its strength and the time of day, however.

I find the process very enjoyable and it takes as long as the time for the kettle to reach the ~correct temperature and for the tea to brew.

Notes

Two excellent online tea suppliers are Nio Teas for fine Japanese-style green teas and Yunnan Sourcing for Chinese-style green teas and oolongs (they specialize particularly in Pu’erh, however).