The Perfect Cup of Green Tea

Standard Brewing Method

Boil at least 7 cups of water in a kettle.

Warm up the cups and tea pot by pouring in hot water. This is especially important if the cups are cold.

Empty out the hot water from the tea pot in to tea cups when it has warmed up. Add 3 tablespoons of Mount Fuji green tea leaves in the pot.

Transfer the hot water from the cups to the tea pot and leave the tea pot for 1 minute before serving tea.

Serve the tea into cups, being careful to fill each to three quarters full.

Instructions for brewing iced green tea

Detailed Considerations for perfect brewing

Brewing pure leaf teas is easy. Water quality, temperature, quantity of leaves, and steeping time are all important factors in preparing tea. Tea should be made to match your personal taste. This will get you off to a perfect start.

Water Quality

Tea is only as good as water. We recommend using non-chlorinated water for brewing tea, especially for subtle green and white teas. Chlorinated tap water destroys the flavor of tea. When available we recommend using a carbon block water filter system which gives water a pH level of slightly over 7.

Water Temperature

Never boil water. This is contrary to conventional wisdom that recommends bringing the kettle to a boil. The reason is that boiling water tends to "cook and stew" the tea leaves. In addition, when water is boiled, oxygen evaporates, and the crisp mineral texture in the brew is lost. White and green teas should be steeped with well below boiling water. That is, at temperatures not exceeding 140F to 175 F. Lower temperature water gives the tea a "fuller body". When you see the Fish Eyes breaking the surface, (those first small bubbles) the water is at 160 -180F and is ready to pour.

Whereas, Oolong, Red, PU-ER, and Black teas can be steeped with near boiling water.

Quantity of Leaves and Steeping time

Always use lesser amount of leaves and steep longer. This provides more control to the tea drinker. Secondly, avoid tight metal ball strainers or narrow teapots. Pure tea leaves offer the best flavor when provided ample room to brew and exude their best. Finally, we prefer letting the leaves sit in the water and not necessarily straining them out. Good quality tea leaves, when used in correct quantities will not go bitter, unless left for a very long time.

As a general rule of thumb, the smaller the leaf the less leaf you'll need. The fluffier the tea leaves (mostly, white teas, some chinese greens) the more the tea leaf you'll need.

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.