Boiling and decoction
Leaf, and usually other ingredients, simmered in water or milk rather than steeped — the basis of masala chai, butter tea and noon chai.
Also called boiled tea, decocted tea, simmered tea.
How it works
Ingredients are brought to and held at or near a simmer, extracting heavily and continuously. Because the extraction is aggressive, decoction suits robust leaf — CTC black tea above all — and would strip a delicate green tea to bitterness within a minute.
Why choose it
It is the only approach that properly extracts whole spices and stands up to milk, sugar and salt without the tea disappearing.
Equipment
No vessel is recorded as required for this method. Browse teaware for what is commonly used, including what to reach for when the traditional object is not to hand.
Common problems
- Using a delicate whole-leaf tea, which cannot survive the method
- Adding milk too early, which slows extraction and can scorch
Diagnosed problems
Written from the symptom, with the likely causes in order and a question to rule each one out.
- My chai catches on the pan or boils over — A scorched note runs through the finished drink, or the pan foams over the moment your back is turned.
- My chai is harsh and drying rather than rich — The drink is strong enough but unpleasant with it: a rough, drying grip on the tongue and a flat cooked note, rather than the round sweetness a good chai has.
- My chai tastes of hot spiced milk rather than tea — The drink is pleasant and sweet and the tea is nowhere in it — no colour to speak of, no briskness, and nothing that would tell you tea had been involved.
- My tea is weak since I moved somewhere high — The same tea, the same dose and the same timer produce a thin, under-developed cup, and the water is boiling — visibly and vigorously — before it goes in.
Teas with parameters authored for this method
15 teas have a parameter set written for boiling and decoction, in alphabetical order. Each row is transcribed from that tea’s own record.
| Tea | Leaf (g/100 ml) | Water (°C) | Authored infusions | First infusion (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aged Gong Mei | 0.8–1.4 | 96–100 | 1 | 420 |
| Aged Shou Mei | 0.8–1.4 | 96–100 | 1 | 420 |
| Aged white tea cake | 0.5–1 | 95–100 | 1 | 480 |
| Anhua dark tea | 0.5–1 | 95–100 | 1 | 600 |
| Awabancha | 0.5–1.5 | 95–100 | 1 | 300 |
| Batabatacha | 0.8–1.5 | 95–100 | 1 | 300 |
| Fu Zhuan | 0.5–1 | 95–100 | 1 | 600 |
| Goishicha | 0.5–1.5 | 95–100 | 1 | 600 |
| Kang Zhuan | 0.5–1.5 | 95–100 | 1 | 900 |
| Kenyan black tea | 1.5–2.5 | 95–100 | 1 | 300 |
| Kyobancha | 0.5–1.5 | 95–100 | 1 | 300 |
| Liu Bao | 0.5–1 | 95–100 | 1 | 600 |
| Miang | 1–2 | 95–100 | 1 | 300 |
| Qing Zhuan | 0.5–1 | 95–100 | 1 | 600 |
| Shou Mei | 0.5–1 | 95–100 | 1 | 300 |
Other boiled and decocted methods
Same family, so the approach is close — the vessel, the ratio and the intent still differ.
- Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha) — Compressed or aged dark tea put into a kettle of water and brought to a simmer rather than steeped. It is a normal winter preparation for Liu Bao, aged shou pu-erh, brick tea and tea nuggets, and it is also what a gongfu session’s exhausted leaf is for.
- Butter tea churning — Brick tea boiled at length, then churned with butter and salt into an emulsion. It is a daily staple across the Tibetan plateau and neighbouring highlands, and calling it a savoury drink undersells what it is: the churning changes its physical state, not just its seasoning.
- Chai preparation — Tea simmered with milk, sugar and whole spices rather than steeped — a decoction, and the daily preparation of a very large part of the world. There is no single authoritative recipe, and regional and household variation is enormous.
- Hong Kong milk tea (sock-strained) — A blend of black teas brewed very strong and passed repeatedly through a long cloth filter between two pots, then finished with evaporated milk. The filter stains to a deep tan with use, which is where the popular name comes from — there is no stocking involved.
- Mongolian milk tea (suutei tsai) — Brick or green tea boiled in water and milk with salt, and aerated by being ladled and poured back into the pot repeatedly. It is an everyday drink in Mongolia and in Inner Mongolia rather than a ceremonial one, and it is savoury by design rather than as a variation on a sweet drink.
- Moroccan mint tea preparation — Chinese gunpowder green tea brewed strong with a large quantity of fresh spearmint and sugar, and poured from height into small glasses. It is the daily preparation and the hospitality ritual across the Maghreb, and the pour is functional as well as expressive.
- Noon chai (Kashmiri pink tea) — Green tea boiled long with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, shocked with cold water, aerated, then finished with milk and salt. The pink colour is the visible consequence of the chemistry rather than an added ingredient, and the preparation belongs to Kashmiri households on both sides of the Line of Control.
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description of this method. It is written from common practice as TeaHQ understands it, and the parameters in the table above come from each tea’s own record rather than from this page.
The numbers for this method are held per tea, never on the method itself. Where a tea has no set written for boiling and decoction, TeaHQ shows nothing rather than converting its numbers from another style — a scaled ratio and a halved time read as an answer while being one nobody authored.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this method against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Decoction vs infusion — The distinction is old, precise and almost never explained on a packet. Infusion pours hot water over material and waits; decoction holds the material at a simmer. Which one a botanical needs is decided by how tough it is, not by what it is called.