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
70–80 °C
Typically 75 °C
Leaf for 250 ml
6.3–10 g
Typically 7.5 g
Ratio
2.5–4 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 160sA full minute at a temperature that feels far too low, which is the whole of Japanese green tea brewing in one instruction.
- Infusion 220sHotter water, much shorter. The second infusion is where a sencha is usually at its best and it is the one most often ruined by treating it like the first.
- Infusion 345s
Equipment
- Kyusu
- Dobin
- Yunomi (Japanese teacup)
- Thermometer
- Brewing timer
- Kyusu filter — The filter built into the pot is the property that most decides whether it suits your tea: sasame, obiami and drop-in basket differ mainly in filtration area.
- Yuzamashi (water cooler) — A wide shallow vessel drops boiled water fast and repeatably before it reaches leaf that would scorch.
Vessel: A side-handled kyusu with a fitted mesh, poured out to the last drop each time — leaf left standing in residual water at this ratio is bitter by the time the next infusion is wanted.
Note: Deliberately a middle setting rather than a precise one, because this tea is two styles under one name: the deep-steamed lowland material is cloudy, thick and forgiving and takes the lower end of the temperature range and the shorter end of the time, while the lightly steamed mountain material is clear and sharper and wants the upper end of both. A drinker who does not know which they have should start in the middle and move toward whichever end the first cup asks for.
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) · 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.