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
50–62 °C
Typically 55 °C
Leaf for 250 ml
12.5–20 g
Typically 15 g
Ratio
5–8 g /100 ml
No rinse
Infusion schedule
A session of 3–4 infusions is typical. The schedule below is authored to 3; beyond that, extend each steep noticeably rather than repeating the last time.
- Infusion 1120sSlow by design. At this temperature the sweet fraction comes out and very little else does.
- Infusion 245sat 65 °C
- Infusion 340sat 75 °C
Equipment
- Houhin
- Shiboridashi
- Kyusu
- Thermometer
- Water cooling bowl (sukwoo)
- Yuzamashi (water cooler) — Broad surface, shallow layer, fast heat loss — the standard way to reach gyokuro temperatures without guessing.
- Kyusu filter — Shaded leaf sheds a great deal of fine material, so filtration area decides whether the cup arrives clear.
Vessel: A houhin or shiboridashi, or any small handleless vessel — nothing here is hot enough to need a handle. Drain it completely; material left standing in warm water has started the next steep without you.
Note: Karigane is made from the stems of shaded tea, which is what makes the low-temperature treatment worth applying to a by-product grade at all — the sweetness is in the stems and cool water is what selects it. Warmer than the gyokuro band and with less material, because neither of these is whole shaded leaf and both give up what they have more readily than a rolled gyokuro does.
What this does not tell you
These parameters are a synthesis of common practice rather than recorded practice for this specific tea.
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) · Kyusu brewing (Japanese style) · Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) · Ice steeping (kōridashi) · Cold brew tea
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.