How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea

Equipment first

A gaiwan or a small porcelain teapot works best for oolong. A gaiwan shows the most: you smell the leaves between steeps and see their colour without a lid muffling the aroma. Use a cup sized to the number of people you are actually pouring for. If you drink tea once a week, one cup for one person is enough.

You do not need a set of tools. What you need is something that pours cleanly, a way to strain leaves, and a cup you enjoy holding.

Water temperature

Oolong wants the water at a rolling boil, just off the boil, around 95-100°C (203-212°F). Tepid water leaves the leaves quiet; a full rolling boil scorches them into bitterness. In practice, bring the water to a boil, wait 10-15 seconds, then pour.

Green and white teas are the exception: they want water closer to 80°C. If you have no thermometer, pour boiling water into a cold cup first, then into the pot.

How much leaf

For 50g of tie guan yin or phoenix oolong, use about 5g per 100ml of water — roughly one heaped teaspoon. Loose leaf is not like a tea bag: the same leaf is brewed three to six times, and the second and third steeps are usually the best. Do not throw the leaves away after one pour.

A basic brewing sequence

• Rinse: 10 seconds, then discard the water. This wakes the leaf and warms the vessel.
• First steep: 20 seconds.
• Second: 15 seconds — usually the sweetest.
• Third and beyond: add 10 seconds each time, and use hotter water.

Adjust by taste, not by rule. If a steep tastes thin, add time; if it tastes harsh, shorten it. Oolong is forgiving enough that a small mistake costs you one cup, not the session.

On the tea itself

Start with a mid-range loose-leaf oolong rather than the cheapest or the most expensive. Cheap oolong is often blended from several harvests, which makes it hard to recognise what you are tasting. Very expensive tea is wasted on a beginner because you have nothing to compare it with.

Storing what you buy

Keep the tea in the tin it arrived in, out of sunlight and away from the stove. Oolong and white tea take on smells very easily, so do not store them beside spices or coffee. A 50g tin lasts about four to six weeks of daily brewing, which is a good size: you finish it before it fades.