How to Brew Tea - A Guide on Brewing Your Favourite Teas Using 2 Different Methods
You may notice some unfamiliar brewing vessels on our website. These are not typically used to brew in North America. Many North American tea drinkers use large teapots, brew tea for 3-5 minutes, and pour their brewed tea into a teacup or mug. This is called western brewing, and is a great and convenient method of brewing and enjoying your favourite cup of tea. But there are other methods, including the complex and traditional world of gong fu cha.
Gong Fu Cha is the art, ritual, and practice of brewing tea with skill. It is a practice that originated in China, with an influence broadening across the globe, catching the attention of tea enthusiasts and practitioners. Gong fu cha uses many tools to create a beautiful and meticulous ceremony. Compared to western brewing, gong fu cha uses less water, more tea, far less brewing time and steeps multiple infusions, changing the flavour, texture, and aroma with each steep. If you have purchased an excellent quality tea, this is a great way to learn more about all the tea has to offer and creates an enriching experience for you and your guests.
If you’re interested in learning how to brew using these two methods of brewing, read on, and check out the ratios, temperatures, and times on how to brew each tea in our brewing guide infographic below.
Western Brewing
What equipment will you need?
Kettle - To bring your water to temperature. If you don’t have a kettle, a small pot can work as an alternative
Teaspoon - Used to scoop and transfer your tea from a tea jar to your teapot.
Teapot - Used to brew your tea. For our brewing guide, we use a 250ml teapot to prepare tea. When using our brewing guide, adjust ratios if your teapot is bigger or smaller.
Teacup - Used to pour your brewed tea and to serve. Teacups can range from 4-8oz, but are not limited to those sizes.
Tea Strainer - A small filter that strains any fine particles of tea leaves when the tea liquor is poured from your brewing vessel to your teacup(s).
Tea Towel - Used to wipe up any spills from your tea service.
Steps to Brewing Western Style
Boil - Bring water to a boil using your kettle.
Measure - Add 1 teaspoon of your desired tea to your teapot.
Brewing - Using the temperature guide below for western brewing, pour hot water into your brewing vessel, and brew for 3-5 minutes, depending on the type of tea you intend to drink.
Serve - Serve brewed tea to you and your guests by pouring tea from your teapot to your teacups. It is recommended to have a strainer over your cups to ensure no fine particles transfer from the teapot to your guests’ teacups.
Gong Fu Cha
What equipment will you need?
Though there are many tools used in the gong fu cha ceremony, you only need a few pieces of teawares to get you started on your journey to practicing the art of brewing tea with skill.
Essential
Kettle - To bring your water to temperature. If you don’t have a kettle, a small pot can work as an alternative
Small Teapot or Gaiwan - 150ml is the standard size for gong fu cha. But there are many sizes of tea pots and gaiwan for serving your tea. Gaiwan, or in English, lidded bowls, generally come in three pieces: bowl, lid, and saucer.
Tea cups - Small cups used to taste tea for you and your guests. Tea cups can hold between 1-4 oz of tea.
Fairness Pitcher/Gong Dao Bei, or Fair Cup - these spouted pitchers are to separate the brewed tea from the tea leaves in your teapot or gaiwan. These are the vessels with which you’ll pour tea into your tea cups.
Tea Spoon - Used to scoop your tea from its jar to your brewing vessel. If a teaspoon isn’t available, you may carefully use your hand.
Optional Equipment
Tea Tray - A tray that serves a few functions: adds aesthetics to your ceremony, catches water that’s been discarded or spilt, and holds your other teawares, including, but not limited to your essential teawares (cups, teapot, fairness pitcher).
Tea Holder/Presenter - A curved vessel, generally made from either porcelain or bamboo, to give you and your guests the chance to look and admire the tea you’re about to drink.
Tea Pet - An ornamental feature to place on your tea tray. The person serving tea will pour the rinse as well as the first infusion over the tea pet. This ensures that water doesn’t splash. Some tea pets act as thermometers by changing colour or eject water. See peepee boy here, one of the first known thermometers.
Tea Strainer - A small filter that strains any fine particles of tea leaves when the tea liquor is poured from your brewing vessel to your fair cup.
Tea Jar - For long-term storage of tea leaves. Generally, tea jars are airtight to ensure leaves are introduced to as little oxidation as possible.
Pu’erh Pick/Knife - When a compressed tea cake is involved, using a knife or pick can help break and loosen some of the tea. Please take care when using a knife/pick, as they can be quite sharp.
Tongs - Used to grasp hot teawares. This ensures minimal damage to your hands.
Aroma Cup - a tall, deep cup used for experiencing and analyzing the fragrance of the brewed liquor.
Tea Towel - Used to wipe up any spills from your tea ceremony.
Bamboo Brush - To clean your clay teapots.
Funnel - Assists with guiding the flow of your tea leaves into your teapot.
Tea Pin - A wooden dowel with a pointed end that helps clean the filter holes in clay teapots.
Tea Vase - A storage container to hold all of your tea utensils
Steps to Brewing Gong Fu Cha
Boil - Boil water using your kettle. Warm up your teapot or gaiwan (tea bowl) and tea cups by pouring water from your kettle into the vessels. Discard the water.
Rinsing - Add 5g of tea leaves to a 150ml teapot or gaiwan. If your vessel is smaller or larger, adjust using these ratios. Pour water over tea leaves according to the recommended temperature on the brewing guide below to rinse the leaves. Discard the water. This is to remove and rinse off any dusty particles for a cleaner steep in your first infusion, as well as allow the tea leaves to open up.
Brewing - Using the temperature guide below for gong fu cha, pour hot water into your brewing vessel, and brew for 10-20 seconds on your first steep.
Serving - Pour your steeped tea into a tea pitcher, fairness cup, or gong dao bei. This ensures that the tea leaves do not steep longer than it needs to in your teapot, subjecting it to scorching, or a bitter and unpleasant taste. Serve tea equally into small tea cups.
Repeat - To get the most of the tea you served, it is recommended you steep your tea 3-10 times, depending on the type of tea you’re consuming. With each additional steep, add 5-10 seconds to your brewing time. Your tea is well spent when it loses strength and flavour.