Steeping Guide for British Style Loose Tea

This is a general guide. You’ll find as you go you may like a tea even just five degrees less or more, a minute more or less. The tea is in your hands to be made how you enjoy it most. If you’re new to loose leaf tea, this is will get you started, but play with your leaves. Experiment. Enjoy the tea journey learning curve!
We have listed temperature and steeping times under specific teas within our site that differ from the general rules here. Please keep a look out for them!

Typically, the amount of tea to use is about 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of tea to every 4 oz of water. This is a standard tea cup size. I start the day with a mug of tea. Those are typically 12-16 oz size so that requires more tea.
if doing a pot, it’s a teaspoon of tea for every four ounces and iPhone extra “for the pot”. Be sure to warm your teapot first then pour out and fill/ steep your tea.

For steeping gongfu cha or other styles from Japan, Thailand and more, please check this link: https://tea-side.com/blog/how-to-brew-tea/

We will share videos and more on these steeping styles as we go.

Black Tea : 205 degrees

Traditional or longer leaf tea - 4 minutes

CTC / fine cut/ small grain-like tea - 2 minute

Oolong Tea : Between 175-205 depending on whether your tea is light, medium, or heavy bake. Look to the recommended temp when purchasing. If it looks more green, use the lower temp. Darker color, typically higher temp. We prefer steeping oolong gongfu Cha style, however, you can steep it British style at 4 minutes.

Green Tea : 175 3 minutes

This is for teapot style steeping Chinese greens. Japanese teas do not steep as long, typically. The finer the cut of tea, the more reduced your steep time. This has to do with surface area.

White Tea : 165-170 2-3 minutes

White tea is delicate, the tips are loaded with caffeine. Caffeine is bitter. If you were to steep white tea at black tea temperatures, it would be bitter and frankly, pretty nasty. There is a beauty to many quality white teas. Treat it well.

Blended White/Green or Green/Black

Occasionally, two types of tea are found blended together. Usually, it’s best to steep at the temperature of the lesser oxidized tea temperature. Black tea being the most oxidized and white is not oxidized.