Infusers, Steepers & Strainers
How to use a tea infuser
Six steps, three of which people skip, and one that decides whether the cup is any good.
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Put about a tablespoon of leaf per 8 ounces of water into the basket, filling it no more than a third. Add water at the right temperature for your tea. Cover the mug. Set a timer. When it goes off, lift the infuser out and put it down on something. That is the whole method.
The six steps, with the reasons
- Dose the leaf. Art of Tea publishes about one tablespoon per 8 ounces of water. A 15 oz mug therefore wants closer to two.
- Fill the basket no more than a third. The leaf needs room to triple in size, and a packed basket has the same problem a tea ball does.
- Get the water right. Art of Tea publishes 160-180F for green, 160-185F for white, 185-205F for oolong and 200-212F for black and herbal.
- Pour over the leaf, not down the side. You want every leaf wet at the same moment, because the steep clock starts on contact.
- Cover the mug. A saucer, a lid, anything. It keeps the water near the temperature you chose instead of letting it fall through the steep.
- Time it, then remove the infuser. Leaves left in water keep extracting, and the last thing they give up is bitterness.
The step people skip
Removing the infuser. It feels finicky and it is the difference between a good cup and a cup that gets worse as you drink it. Extraction does not stop because you decided the steep was over; it stops when the leaf leaves the water.
This is why a lid that doubles as a saucer is genuinely useful rather than a design flourish. If there is nowhere to put the wet infuser, you will leave it in, and then the second half of the mug will be astringent.
Temperature, without buying anything
If you do not have a variable-temperature kettle, boil the water and then wait. An open mug of boiled water falls fast at first and then slows, so a couple of minutes gets you into the green-tea band and about one minute gets you into the oolong band.
We are not going to publish a precise cooling curve, because it depends on the volume, the vessel and the room, and we have not measured it. An instant-read thermometer removes all the guesswork for about fifteen dollars, which is why it appears on this page rather than a rule of thumb we invented.
Re-steeping
Most whole-leaf tea will give you a second cup and some will give you a fourth. Oolong and pu-erh are the obvious candidates and they change character between infusions rather than simply weakening.
Two rules make it work. Do not let the leaves sit wet for hours between steeps, and add a little time to each successive infusion because the leaf has already given up its most soluble compounds.
What goes wrong, in order of frequency
| Symptom | Usual cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Weak and watery | Under-dosed for the mug size | Dose by volume: about 1 tbsp per 8 oz |
| Bitter and drying | Too long, or water too hot for the type | Time it; check the temperature band |
| Weak and bitter together | Packed infuser, uneven extraction | Fill the basket a third full |
| Silt in the bottom of the cup | Mesh too coarse for the leaf grade | Finer mesh for rooibos and broken leaf |
| Cools before it is ready | Uncovered mug | Put a saucer on top while it steeps |
Cleaning
Tip the leaves out and rinse while it is still wet, which takes about five seconds. Dried-on leaf takes far longer, and mesh eventually stains, which is cosmetic rather than a problem. finum publishes that its Brewing Basket is dishwasher safe; FORLIFE publishes that its infuser is dishwasher safe but must stay out of the microwave. There is a full page on cleaning if a basket has got away from you.
Questions
How much tea do I put in an infuser?
Art of Tea publishes about one tablespoon of loose leaf per 8 ounces of water, and the basket should be no more than a third full so the leaves can expand.
How long do I leave a tea infuser in?
Art of Tea publishes one to three minutes for green and white, three to five for black, three to seven for oolong depending on leaf, and five to seven for herbal. Then take it out — leaves left in keep extracting.
Should I cover my mug while tea steeps?
Yes. An uncovered mug loses heat quickly through the surface, so the back half of the steep happens at a lower temperature than you chose. A saucer works fine.
Can I reuse loose-leaf tea in an infuser?
Often. Whole-leaf oolong and pu-erh re-steep well and change character each time. Add a little time to each successive infusion and do not leave the leaves sitting wet for hours.
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
- The best tea infusersFour infusers, one of which we tell you not to buy. The format matters more than the brand.
- How to brew loose-leaf teaThe complete method in five steps, with published parameters and the four mistakes that account for most bad cups.
- 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 clean a tea infuserFive-second daily cleaning, the soak that clears a clogged mesh, and what the brown stain actually is.
- How to brew loose-leaf tea without an infuserFour no-equipment methods, honestly ranked, and the ten-dollar object that beats all of them.