The Three T’s of Tea — Tea-to-water Ratio, Temp, and Time

Use these simple guidelines to brew your perfect cup of tea.

Tea to Water Ratio

With loose leaf teas you can adjust the strength of the brew by using more or less tea per volume of water. We recommend starting out with one teaspoon, or about two grams, of tea for every 6 ounces of water. Note that teas come in different forms, with finely chopped leaves or more dense teas requiring less volume to achieve the same concentration of flavor than large, loose leaves. For a stronger flavor, use more tea rather than steeping longer.

Temperature

Use full boiling water for black, herbal and pu-erh teas and below boiling for other types. Excessively hot water will vaporize the more delicate flavors in green, white, and oolong teas and can also cause bitterness.

Time

For black teas, we recommend a three to four minute steep. Oolong and green teas should steep for one to three minutes while white teas should only steep for one or two. Steeping too long can cause bitterness, steeping too short causes the tea to be weak. Some teas can be steeped several times, with new flavors emerging with each steeping.