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
95–100 °C
Typically 98 °C
Leaf for 250 ml
10–17.5 g
Typically 12.5 g
Ratio
4–7 g /100 ml
No rinse
Infusion schedule
This style is authored as a single infusion. A second steep from the same leaf will be thinner rather than merely weaker.
- Infusion 1720sTwelve minutes for the concentrate, then held warm on the crown of the urn and never re-boiled.
Equipment
- Samovar
- Podstakannik (glass holder)
- Tea glass
- Vacuum flask
- Zavarnik (concentrate pot) — The small pot on the crown holds a concentrate that is not meant to be drinkable as poured; it is diluted in the glass from the tap below.
- Copper and brass teaware — Samovars, urns and trays were historically made in copper and brass, with the interior tinned because copper reacts with an acidic drink.
Vessel: A small pot standing on top of the samovar, warmed by rising heat rather than set over a flame. Direct heat stews the concentrate, which is the failure the arrangement exists to make unlikely.
Note: THESE ARE CONCENTRATE FIGURES. Nobody drinks the pot: a glass takes roughly one part concentrate to three or four parts water from the urn, and the drinker sets that ratio. Ceylon black is the leaf Iranian samovar service is most often made with, imported in quantity rather than grown locally, and it is a different choice from the Russian preference for a smoky orthodox blend — the band this method covers stretches from Russia to Iran and Central Asia and does not brew alike.
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.
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) · Mug infuser brewing · Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) · Hong Kong milk tea (sock-strained) · Flash-chilled iced tea · Tea bag brewing · Sweet tea (American Southern style) · Chai preparation · Çaydanlık brewing (Turkish double pot)
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.