Brewing Guides
How to brew loose-leaf tea
Three variables decide almost everything: how much leaf, how hot the water, and how long you leave it.
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Use about a tablespoon of leaf per 8 ounces of water. Heat the water to the temperature that tea type wants — 160-180F for green, 200-212F for black. Pour over the leaves, cover the vessel, and set a timer. When it sounds, remove the leaves. That is the whole method, and everything else on this page is why each step is there.
The five steps
1. Dose the leaf
Art of Tea publishes about one tablespoon of loose leaf per 8 ounces of water. A 12 oz mug wants roughly one and a half; a 15 oz mug wants about two.
Under-dosing is the single most common reason loose leaf disappoints someone who has switched from bags. They dose a large mug like a teacup, get thin tea, and conclude the format is overrated.
2. Get the water right
Art of Tea's published bands: 160-185F for white, 160-180F for green, 185-205F for oolong, 200-212F for black and herbal, and 195-212F across raw and ripe pu-erh.
If you drink only black and herbal tea, a kettle at the moment it clicks off is already correct and this step costs you nothing.
3. Pour over the leaves, not down the side
You want every leaf wet at the same moment, because the steep clock starts on contact. Pouring down the side of the vessel wets one part of the dose several seconds before the rest.
This is a small effect in a mug and a real one in a small vessel, which is the honest case for a gooseneck spout in tea brewing.
4. Cover it
An uncovered mug loses heat quickly through the open surface, so the back half of the steep happens well below the temperature you chose. A saucer, a lid, a small plate — anything.
This is the least glamorous instruction in tea and one of the most effective, and it is why infuser mugs come with lids.
5. Time it, then remove the leaves
One to three minutes for green and white, three to five for black, three to seven for oolong, five to seven for herbal. Then take the leaves out — extraction stops when they leave the water, not when the timer sounds.
The three variables, and how to adjust them
| The cup is... | Change this | Not this |
|---|---|---|
| Thin and watery | More leaf | More time — that adds bitterness, not body |
| Bitter and drying | Cooler water, or less time | Less leaf, which makes it thin as well |
| Weak and bitter at once | A wider infuser — the leaf is packed | The tea, which is probably fine |
| Fine but cools too fast | Cover the vessel; preheat it | Anything else |
| Different every time | Weigh the leaf instead of spooning it | The kettle |
That table is the most useful thing on this page. Almost every brewing question is one of those five rows.
Re-steeping
Most whole-leaf tea gives a second cup and some give a fourth. Oolong and pu-erh are the obvious candidates, and they change character between infusions rather than simply fading.
Add a little time to each successive round, because the most soluble compounds have already gone. Do not leave the leaves sitting wet for hours between steeps.
What we did not do
We have not run brewing trials or tasted anything in a controlled way. The temperatures, times and the ratio are Art of Tea's published guidance, cited below. The diagnostic table is reasoning from how extraction works, and you are welcome to disagree with any row of it once you have tried the alternative.
Questions
How do you brew loose-leaf tea properly?
About a tablespoon of leaf per 8 ounces of water, at the temperature that tea type wants, covered, timed, with the leaves removed at the end. Those five steps cover almost everything.
How much loose-leaf tea per cup?
Art of Tea publishes roughly one tablespoon per 8 ounces of water. A 15 oz mug therefore wants close to two tablespoons, which is more than most people use.
Should you cover tea while it steeps?
Yes. An open mug loses heat quickly, so the back half of the steep happens below the temperature you chose. A saucer on top is enough.
Why does my loose-leaf tea taste bitter?
Usually water too hot for the type, or too long a steep. Tannins come out late and taste bitter and drying. Drop the temperature before you cut the time — that keeps the body.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of these, retrieved during the research pass for this article. Where a maker publishes nothing we could verify, the page says so instead of substituting a number.
Read next
- Tea brewing temperature chartPublished brewing temperatures in F and C for every tea type, with the source named for each figure.
- How long to steep teaPublished steep times by type, the reason the ranges are wide, and what over-steeping actually does to the cup.
- How much loose-leaf tea per cupThe published ratio, why a spoon is unreliable across tea types, and the point at which weighing starts to matter.
- How to use a tea infuserThe method in six steps, with the two mistakes that account for most disappointing cups.
- The tea brewing accessories worth buyingFour accessories ordered by impact rather than price, including the one we tell you to buy last.