Loose-leaf tea for beginners

White, green, oolong, black and pu-erh all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The difference is how long the picked leaf is allowed to oxidize before it is heated to stop the process. White is barely oxidized, black is fully oxidized, and everything else sits in between. Herbal tea is not tea at all — it is other plants, which is why it behaves differently.

The types, and what that means for brewing

The pattern is worth internalizing because it means you never have to memorize the table: the less oxidized the tea, the cooler the water and the shorter the steep.

Which to start with

Start with a loose version of something you already drink. If your usual bag is breakfast tea, buy a loose black tea. You will have a reference point, and the comparison will tell you immediately whether the switch is worth it to you.

If you have no reference point, a rolled oolong is the most rewarding first purchase. It is forgiving on temperature, it re-steeps several times with genuinely different results each round, and it is the tea most likely to make someone understand what the fuss is about.

The one to avoid first is a delicate green like gyokuro. It is superb and it is unforgiving — get the water thirty degrees too hot and it tastes like disappointment, and you will blame the tea.

The four mistakes

1. Not enough leaf

This is the most common by a distance. Art of Tea publishes about a tablespoon per 8 ounces of water, and a 15 oz mug therefore wants close to two. People dose a large mug like a teacup and conclude that loose leaf is weaker than bags.

2. Water too hot for the type

Boiling water on green tea produces astringency and a flat cooked flavor. An enormous number of people believe they dislike green tea when what they dislike is green tea brewed at 212F.

3. Leaving the leaves in

Extraction does not stop when the timer goes; it stops when the leaves leave the water. A mug with the infuser still in it gets more astringent as you drink it.

4. Storing it badly

Air, light, heat and moisture all degrade tea. The beautiful glass jar on a sunny shelf is the worst possible storage, and the cupboard above the hob is the second worst. Opaque, airtight, cool.

The vocabulary, briefly

• Kyusu — a teapot. Usually a Japanese one with a side handle.
• Tetsubin — a cast iron pot. Traditionally used for boiling; modern ones are usually for brewing only.
• Gaiwan — a lidded bowl you brew in and pour from, using the lid as a gate.
• Gongfu — brewing with a lot of leaf and very short infusions, repeated many times.
• Tisane — a herbal infusion. Not made from the tea plant.
• Oxidation — what turns green leaf into black tea. Often incorrectly called fermentation.

None of these words is a gate. They are shorter than the descriptions, which is the only reason they exist.

What to do tonight

1. Put a tablespoon of leaf per 8 ounces into a basket, filled no more than a third.
2. Use water at the temperature the table says for that type.
3. Cover the mug and set a timer.
4. Take the basket out when it goes off.
5. If it is too strong, use less leaf next time rather than less time. If it is too weak, use more leaf.