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.

Cheongtaejeon

Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha)Synthesised parameters

Water temperature

95100 °C

Typically 100 °C

Leaf for 250 ml

23.8 g

Typically 2.5 g

Ratio

0.81.5 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 1300sA whole disc, or a piece of one, simmered rather than steeped. Ginger is a common addition and is traditional rather than a modern flourish.

Equipment

  • Kettle
  • Brewing saucepan
  • Tea strainer
  • Tetsubin (unlined iron kettle)
  • Teapot warmer
  • Boiling teapotThe vessel for boiling rather than steeping: heat-resistant, wide-based, and made to sit on a heat source with the leaf in it.
  • Electric ceramic tea stoveA radiant plate takes the glass and clay vessels that boiling calls for.
  • Induction plateWorks only with ferromagnetic material, so an unlined iron kettle is fine and the glass boiling pot beside it is not.

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)

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.