How to Brew Tea: Western Teapot
Use 2-3g of loose leaf per 250ml of water, so 8-10g in a 1-liter pot. Steep black tea at 95-100°C (203-212°F) for 3-5 minutes, green at 75-80°C (167-176°F) for 2-3 minutes, and oolong at 90-95°C (194-203°F) for 3-5 minutes. Pour all the liquor off the leaf when time is up.
Western brewing is the one-pot, one-steep method most people learned first. You use a smaller amount of leaf for a large volume of water, steep for minutes rather than seconds, and serve the whole pot at once. The standard ratio is 2-3g of leaf per 250ml, about one level teaspoon of rolled leaf or one heaping teaspoon of fluffy leaf. A 1-liter pot serves four 250ml cups. The method developed in Britain and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries around imported Chinese and later Indian and Ceylon black tea. Large porcelain and earthenware pots, a strainer, milk and sugar were the norm, and the habit spread with British trade to Ireland, Australia, East Africa and North America. The long steep and low ratio give one balanced cup with full body and a clear finish, without the shifting character of multi-infusion brewing. It suits Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling, Keemun and breakfast blends, flavored teas such as Earl Grey, and herbal blends. Greens, whites and oolongs also brew well this way if you lower the temperature and shorten the time. The critical habit is separating leaf from water when the timer ends; a pot left sitting on its leaves keeps extracting tannins and goes bitter within 10 minutes.
Recipe
Teaware
- 1-liter teapot with a removable basket infuser
- Kettle (temperature control helps for green tea)
- Kitchen scale or measuring teaspoon
- Timer
- Fine mesh strainer if the pot has no basket
- Tea cozy or towel for longer steeps
- Second pot or carafe for decanting
Steps
- 1
Heat fresh water
Fill the kettle with fresh cold water and heat it to the temperature for your tea: 95-100°C for black, 90-95°C for oolong, 85°C for white, 75-80°C for green.
Reboiled water has less dissolved oxygen and tastes flatter.
- 2
Warm the pot
Pour about 200ml of hot water into the pot, swirl for 10 seconds and discard.
A cold ceramic pot can pull the water down by 5-8°C, which matters most for black tea.
- 3
Measure the leaf
Add 2-3g per 250ml to the basket: 8-10g for a 1-liter pot.
Use the low end for small, dense leaf (broken Assam, gunpowder) and the high end for large, open leaf (white tea, Darjeeling).
- 4
Add water
Pour the water over the leaf and put the lid on.
Fill to the pot's stated capacity; filling short changes your ratio.
- 5
Steep
Set a timer: black 3-5 minutes, oolong 3-5 minutes, white 4-5 minutes, green 2-3 minutes, herbal 5-7 minutes.
Taste a spoonful 30 seconds before the timer ends; stop early if it is already as strong as you want.
- 6
Remove the leaf
Lift the basket out, or decant all the tea through a strainer into a second warmed pot.
This step is the difference between a good second cup and a bitter one.
- 7
Serve
Pour into cups. Add milk to black tea only after pouring if you want to judge the color.
Strong breakfast blends take milk well; Darjeeling and green tea are best plain.
- 8
Resteep if worthwhile
Whole-leaf oolong, green and white tea can take a second steep with 1-2 extra minutes.
Broken-leaf black tea and tea bags rarely give a worthwhile second pot.
Tips
- One level teaspoon of rolled or broken leaf is about 2.5g; one teaspoon of fluffy white tea is only about 1g, so weigh it.
- A basket infuser that fills most of the pot lets the leaf expand; small ball infusers cramp the leaf and give thin tea.
- For iced tea from a teapot, use double the leaf and pour the finished tea over an equal weight of ice.
- Keep a tea cozy on the pot during long black-tea steeps; the last minute of extraction needs heat.
- If your tap water is hard (over 200 mg/L), filtered water gives a brighter color and less surface film.
Common Mistakes
- Leaving the leaf in the pot — tannins keep extracting and the second cup is bitter; remove the leaf when the timer ends.
- Using boiling water for green tea — the cup turns grassy and harsh; let water cool to 75-80°C.
- Under-leafing a large pot — one tea bag in a 1-liter pot gives weak, watery tea; use 8-10g of leaf.
- Steeping by guesswork — 3 minutes and 7 minutes are very different cups; use a timer.
- Squeezing the leaf or bag — it pushes bitter compounds into the pot; let it drain instead.