The Perfect Cup of Tea

Steeping Times

For conventional style of brewing, we recommend that for brewing a 16 ounce pot of tea is to use 1.5 teaspoons of leaf and brew for 3.5 to 5 minutes.

White teas:

If brewed in a pot, most white teas can be steeped for 5-7 minutes, with well below boiling water.

Green teas:

It is easy to steep many green teas for too long. Most Japanese green teas (such as Bancha, Sencha, Gyokuro, Genmaicha) can be steeped in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 minutes. It can sometimes be difficult to obtain many infusions from Japanese green teas.

On the other hand, many Chinese teas are very forgiving, and can provide multiple infusions. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the tea leaf, the faster the infusion.

Oolong teas:

High quality Oolong tea leaves are tightly rolled into small pellets or twisted sideways. As such they have the ability to give many infusions. In general, a teaspoon of leaf for a 16 ounce teapot with 5-6 minutes ofd steeping will provide full flavor.

Black/Red teas:

Most "First Flush" (teas of the first plucking of the year- generally, March thru april) black and red teas should be steeped at 175F. This is because they still contain some green leaves and are not as hardy as teas in the later part of the year. Second Flush teas are more hardy, and can be steeped with near boiling water. Use 1.5 teapoons of leaf for 16 ounce teapot and stepep for 3-4 minutes.

Pu-er teas:

Pu-ers are the most forgiving of all teas. For most Pu-ers, the longer you steep, the smoother they become. For the compressed pu-ers, steep at least 6-8 minutes. Loose leaf Pu-ers take significantly less time at about 3-4 minutes

Herbal teas:

All the herbals (non Camellia Sinensis teas), have different steeping times. Depending on your taste, most flower top herbals (Chamomile, Red Clover, Echinacea, etc) can be steeped 5 minutes or longer. Flower petal teas such as Rose hips, Hibiscus take significanty less time. Root herbals such as Ginseng, Kava Kava, require significant time (10 to 15 minutes) to bring out the flavor.