Mug infuser brewing

How it works

Two to three grams of leaf per 250 ml mug, water at the temperature the tea calls for, steeped for the tea’s stated time, then the basket is lifted out and set aside. The critical variable is basket size: leaf expands to several times its dry volume, and a basket that cramps it extracts poorly however long it steeps.

Why choose it

It needs one cheap piece of equipment, produces a single cup with no waste, and is the realistic everyday method for most people at a desk.

Equipment

• Mug infuser basket — Stainless steel mesh, or plastic with a fine screen

Tea types it suits

Recorded on the method rather than inferred from the catalogue. A type missing here is not ruled out; it simply has not been written down.

• Black tea
• Green tea
• White tea

Common problems

• A basket too small for the leaf to open, which is the main cause of weak loose-leaf tea
• Leaving the basket in the mug, so the tea keeps extracting as it cools
• No saucer or lid to put the wet basket on, so it goes back in out of convenience

Diagnosed problems

Written from the symptom, with the likely causes in order and a question to rule each one out.

• I bought a water filter for my tea and it changed nothing — A filter jug or tap filter was bought specifically to improve the tea, and the cup tastes the same as it did before — with the same dullness, the same film and the same scale in the kettle.
• My green tea goes yellow or brown in the cup — The liquor is green when poured and turns yellow, olive or brownish within minutes, sometimes with a darker rim.
• My leaf floats on top and will not sink — Dry leaf sits on the surface in a dry-looking raft, and the tea underneath is pale long after it should have been ready.
• My second infusion is thin and watery — The first cup is good and the second has body but no flavour, or no body at all — thin rather than bitter.
• My tea came out too strong — can I just add water? — A cup or pot is far stronger than intended, and the obvious response is to dilute it.
• My tea gets drier and harsher as it cools — The first mouthful is balanced and the last one, several minutes later, grips the tongue and feels rough — from the same cup, with nothing added.
• My tea is harsh and I cannot tell whether it is bitter or astringent — The cup is unpleasant in a way that is hard to name, and every piece of advice about it assumes you already know which of the two words applies.
• My tea tastes of chlorine, metal or the kettle — A chemical, swimming-pool or metallic note sits over the tea, and it is there whichever tea is brewed.
• My tea tastes sour or acidic — A tart, sharp or faintly vinegary edge sits in the cup — closer to lemon or to wine than to the bitterness or dryness tea is usually criticised for.
• My tea tastes weak or watery — The cup is thin and has little flavour, however long it is left to steep.
• Tea from the office boiler or the hot tap never tastes right — The same tea that works at home is thin, flat or stewed when made from a plumbed hot tap, a wall boiler or a catering urn.
• The leaves swell up and push out of the infuser — Wet leaf lifts the lid off the basket, escapes round the edges, or packs so tightly that water barely passes through.
• The same spoonful gives a different strength every time — Following the same recipe — a level teaspoon per cup — produces tea that is strong one day and thin the next, with no other change.
• There are black spots inside my teapot or infuser — Dark speckling inside a spout, under a lid seal, in the mesh of an infuser or around the gasket of a travel bottle.
• There is an oily film on the surface of my tea — An iridescent or dull skin sits on the surface of a cup or pot, breaking into patches when disturbed and clinging to the side as the level drops.

Teas with parameters authored for this method

46 teas have a parameter set written for mug infuser brewing. The first 40 are shown, in alphabetical order. Each row is transcribed from that tea’s own record.

Other western methods

Same family, so the approach is close — the vessel, the ratio and the intent still differ.

• Herbal infusion (tisane) — Steeping leaves, flowers or fruit that are not Camellia sinensis. The method looks like tea brewing and follows different rules, because the material has none of the compounds that make tea sensitive to heat and time.
• Korean green tea brewing — A low-temperature approach to Korean green tea in which the water is cooled through a separate open vessel before it ever meets the leaf, and the pot is emptied entirely into the cups each time. Darye names the etiquette; the brewing approach below is shared by everyday practice outside any formal setting.
• Kyusu brewing (Japanese style) — The Japanese domestic approach to green tea: a moderate quantity of leaf, water well off the boil, short steeps, and two or three infusions from the same leaf with the times adjusted each time.
• Low-temperature brewing (gyokuro style) — A great deal of shaded Japanese leaf in a very small volume of water that is deliberately far below boiling — cool enough that the vessel can be held bare-handed. It is the most extreme low-temperature steeping in common practice, and it exists to extract one part of the leaf while leaving another behind.
• Sweet tea (American Southern style) — Black tea brewed hot and strong as a concentrate, sweetened while it is still hot, then diluted with cold water and chilled. It is a regional American household staple, and the sequence of those four steps is the whole method — rearranging them produces a different and worse drink.
• Tea bag brewing — Pre-portioned tea in a permeable bag. The format was an accident of early twentieth-century sampling practice and became the dominant way tea is drunk worldwide, because it removes every decision except how long to leave it in.
• Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.

Sources