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.

Chai blend base

Tea bag brewingSynthesised parameters

Water temperature

96100 °C

Typically 99 °C

Leaf for 250 ml

35 g

Typically 3.8 g

Ratio

1.22 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.

  1. Infusion 1180sThree minutes, longer than a bag usually gets. This material is chosen to stand up to milk and sugar, and pulled early it tastes thin rather than delicate.

Equipment

  • Empty filter bag
  • Pyramid teabag
  • Hot water boilerThe office and household case for a held-hot boiler is exactly this one — a bag, a mug and no waiting.

Vessel: A mug, and squeeze the bag against the side before removing it. With this grade that adds body rather than the harshness the same action adds to a fine tea.

Note: The strongest teabag set in the catalogue and it is meant to be drunk with milk. A chai base is small-particle black tea selected for colour and grip, and judged as a plain cup it is aggressive; judged as the tea half of a milk drink it is doing exactly what it was blended for. Boiling water throughout — nothing here is protected by restraint.

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: Chai preparation · Mug infuser brewing

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.