Brew assistant
Pick a tea and a brewing style. Everything below is transcribed from that tea's own authored parameters — nothing is scaled from another style, because a ratio and a steep time do not transfer between styles.
Water temperature
78–88 °C
Typically 82 °C
Leaf for 250 ml
1.5–3 g
Typically 2 g
Ratio
0.6–1.2 g /100 ml
No rinse
Infusion schedule
This is a multi-infusion style. The schedule below is authored to 1 infusions; beyond that, extend each steep noticeably rather than repeating the last time.
- Infusion 1240sFour minutes before the first mouthful, by which time the leaf has sunk. There is no end point — top up at about half a glass and stop when the leaf gives nothing.
Equipment
- Travel infuser bottle
- Vacuum flask
- Chinese lidded mug — The lid holds heat through a long slow drink and, tilted, holds the leaf back while you sip — which is why the inner basket is optional.
- Double-walled glass — An air gap keeps the outer skin holdable while leaf sits in near-boiling water all morning.
- Hot water boiler — Topping up all day needs hot water available all day, which is what the insulated boiler is for.
Vessel: A tall glass, ideally with a lip narrow enough to hold the floating leaf back for the first few sips. A vacuum flask works identically and keeps the water hotter for longer, which shortens the useful life of the leaf rather than extending it.
Note: Slightly more leaf and slightly longer than the famous-name greens take, because these are leafier regional teas rather than early bud pickings and they start slower. The water is deliberately not at boiling: with no way to remove the leaf, a hot glass keeps extracting hard, and the cooler start is what makes the plateau a pleasant one rather than a bitter one.
What this does not tell you
These parameters are a synthesis of common practice rather than recorded practice for this specific tea.
How many infusions this tea will give beyond the schedule below is not recorded.
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea, so the assistant cannot tell you how strong the cup will be in that sense.
Leaf weight is a weight. A teaspoon is not — a fluffy white tea and a tightly rolled oolong differ several-fold by volume, so scales beat spoons here.
Other authored styles for this tea: Western brewing (teapot or mug) · Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
Methods TeaHQ describes but cannot give numbers for
1 of 28 brewing methods have no authored parameters on any tea. They are listed rather than hidden: the method exists and is described, the numbers are simply not written yet. Nothing here is estimated from a neighbouring style.
- Herbal infusion (tisane)
Herbal infusion is on that list for a second reason as well: the herbal catalogue is two records held in review, so there is nothing to brew even once parameters exist.