General Guidelines for Steeping Tea

How to Brew Tea

Semi-Fermented Tea Brewing
- Gong Fu Method

How to Brew A Herbal Tisane

General Guidelines for Steeping Tea Per 6 - 8 oz. of Water

Based on the Shape of the Leaf and the Type of Tea

Type of Tea	Amount of Tea (teaspoons)	Water Temperature (Farenheit)	Steeping Time (minutes)
White Tea (Yin Zhen)	3	158°	7-15
Semi-Oxidized (Oolong, Tung Ting)	1	203°	7
Whole Leaf Black Teas Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP), Orange Pekoe (OP), Souchong	1	203°	5
Flavored Black Teas	1	203°	3-4.5
Broken Black Teas Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) and Broken Pekoe Souchong (BPS)	1	203°	3
Black Tea - Fannings BOPF	1	203°	2
Darjeeling First Flush	1	195°	3
Finest Chinese Green Teas (Pi Lo Chun, Silver Dragon, Dragon Well)	2	185°	3
Gyokuro, Green (Japan)	4	145°-160°	2.5
Other Japanese Green Teas	2-3	158°-203°	1-2 min

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How to Brew - Black, Semi-Fermented and Green Teas

To begin, you will need the following items:

        * a tea kettle
        * two teapots of similar size
        * a fine mesh tea strainer
        * a measuring spoon (teaspoon or a tea caddy spoon)
        * loose tea
        * a tea cozy

NOTE: For Oolong and Green tea, DO NOT boil the water. Refer to the above chart for the recommended water temperature for a specific green, white or oolong tea.

1. Run cold water faucet for 15 seconds. This clears stale water from the tap water line, or better yet use bottled spring water or charcoal-filtered water.
2. Fill your tea kettle to the level needed with fresh water. Never use previously boiled water. Also, add enough water for pre-heating the teapot.
3. Heat the water.
4. When the water begins to "talk to you," pour several cupfuls of the water into the brewing teapot to warm it.
5. When the talk becomes a chatter, just before boiling, empty the water from the brewing teapot into the serving teapot to start to preheat it.
6. Spoon the appropriate amount of tea into the brewing teapot (use one level teaspoon for each cup).
7. Pour just-boiling water onto the leaves into the brewing teapot. Place the lid on the teapot.
8. Let the tea steep from two to five minutes. The time will vary depending upon the type of black tea that you are using. If the tea is bitter, you have brewed it too long. NOTE: The Cultured Cup indicates the optimum steeping time on each bag of bulk Mariage Frères tea.
9. Empty the water from the serving pot. Then place a strainer over the opening and pour the contents from the brew pot into the warmed serving teapot.
10. As with decanting wine, disturb the sediment as little as possible. Particularly with black tea, leave that last ounce or two of liquid in with the infused tea- it's very bitter.
11. Place a cozy around the teapot. Enjoy!!!

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Gong Fu Method for Brewing Semi-Fermented Teas

1. Using a small, unglazed Chinese (Yi Xing ) teapot, fill the teapot half full with Jing Shuan tea leaves. Do not pack the tea leaves.
2. Heat spring or filtered water to 185° Fahrenheit.
3. Pour heated water over tea leaves and steep with the lid on for 20 seconds.
4. Keeping the tea leaves in the tea pot, pour the first steeping liquid into a bowl. This tea will not be consumed, as the First Steeping is used for rinsing and opening up the tea leaves and for seasoning the teapot.
5. Place the small teapot (with its lid on) in a bowl large enough to allow the teapot to sit on the bottom of the bowl.
6. Pour the tea from the First Steeping on the outside surface of the small teapot. Do not pour the First Steeping into the spout.
7. For a few seconds, allow the outside of the teapot to drain in the bowl. The teapot is now seasoned.
8. Pour 185° Fahrenheit water into the teapot until full.
9. Place the lid on the teapot and steep the tea for 50 seconds.
10. Serve tea in tiny Chinese unglazed or glazed teacups that have been rinsed and warmed using the First Steeped tea.
11. If all the tea is not poured out of the teapot, pour the remaining tea in a small pitcher. After each steeping,ensure that all the water is poured out of the teapot. If water remains after the correct steeping time, the taste of subsequent steepings will be negatively affected.
12. When your guests need more tea, pour 185° water into the teapot and steep for 60 seconds (Third Steeping). Serve.
13. This tea can be used for a Fourth Steeping, infuse 75 seconds; for a Fifth Steeping, infuse 90 seconds.
14. When finished making tea, remove tea leaves and rinse teapot with clean water. Do not wash with soap!!
15. Carefully dry teapot and lid, inside and out.

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How to Brew a Herbal Tisane

1. Bring fresh water just to a boil in a kettle. If you are using cold tap water, be sure and let the water run a short time before filling the kettle. The water that has been sitting in your pipes will taste flat because it has lost some of its oxygen. Never use hot water, as the water has been sitting in your hot water heater for hours and imparts strong mineral taste.
2. After the water kettle has started to heat, preheat your teapot with warm water.
3. Before brewing your herbal tea, pour the warm water out of the teapot.
   Using one heaping teaspoon of Tisane per 6-8 oz. cup, place the Herbal tea directly in a warmed teapot or in a large, finely meshed infuser and add the just boiled water.
4. Cover the tea pot and allow the mixture to steep for 5 minutes.
5. Strain the tea into your cup or remove the infuser and enjoy.