Loose leaf tea is not just a trendy thing. It is not just for tea lovers or for fancy people who like fancy things. Loose leaf tea is actually the healthiest and most healing way to drink tea. When you brew tea with the whole leaf of a plant you are receiving all of its nutritional value, all of its healing strength.
So we are very grateful that loose leaf tea got popular again. Bless all the hipsters out there!
Whole leaf, loose tea offers us the plants power. Brewing it correctly not only changes the taste, but also health benefits. Bioavailability is the amount of nutrition that can be extracted from a plant for our body to use. A tea’s bioavailability is affected by the brewing method - temperature of water and time steeped. For example, if you brew a delicate white or green tea with boiling hot water, the high temperature of the water shocks the tea “killing” the tea’s nutritional content.
So it is totally worth spending a little bit of energy to get a whole lot more out of your tea. Below, we share different methods to make tea based on the tea making utensils you have available to you.
Method 1: things we find in the kitchen
You don’t have to purchase any fancy equipment to make a beautiful cup of tea, though you can, and you probably have everything you need in your kitchen!
Here is what you need:
- small strainer or spoon/fork, something to prevent tea leaves from sliding into your tea cup
- measuring cup, or something with a spout that easily pours water
- tea cup, or any vessel to drink from
- kettle or pot
- a small bowl
- tea of choice
- water, of course
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Select your tea.
Step 2: Heat the water to the correct temperature your tea requires (water temperature guide is below).
Step 3: Place your tea leaves into your measuring cup (loose leaf measurement guide is below).
Step 4: Pour a little bit of hot water onto the tea leaves.
Step 5: Using your strainer, to prevent tea leaves from escaping, pour the water out into the bowl. You can discard this water. We are waking up the leaves (link), washing them, allowing them to bloom better.
Step 6: Pour hot water into your measuring cup.
Step 7: Allow the tea to steep. If you are drinking tea from Tides of Tea, average steep time is 10-20 seconds.
Step 8: Serve your tea using your strainer.
Step 9: Enjoy your delicious liquid from the earth.
Step 10: Steep and repeat!
For high quality teas, like teas we sell at Tides of Tea, you can steep the tea 4-8 times. Each time extending the steep by 10-20 seconds. Exact steep times can be found in each tea description.
Method 2: Tea cup or teapot with an infuser
Having a teapot or tea cup with an infuser has become a super popular way to brew loose leaf tea. Yes this method could be easier, but we find that the infuser limits our tea's ability to expand and blossom. The infuser is convenient for us, but it’s like a mini prison for our tea. We need to let it free! Let it blossom!
So this method may be a bit different than what you are used to making tea!
Here is what you need:
- teapot or teacup with an infuser
- measuring cup
- tea cup, or any vessel to drink from
- kettle or pot
- a small bowl
- a small plate
- tea of choice
- water
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Select your tea.
Step 2: Heat the water to the correct temperature your tea requires (water temperature guide is below).
Step 3: Take out your infuser and put your tea leaves directly into your teapot (loose leaf measurement guide is below).
Step 4: Pour a little bit of hot water onto the tea leaves.
Step 5: Using your infuser as a strainer to prevent tea leaves from escaping your pot, pour the water into the bowl. You can discard this water. We are waking up the leaves (link), washing them, allowing them to bloom better.
Step 6: Put your infuser aside on the small plate. Pour hot water onto your tea leaves, using your measuring cup to put the correct amount of hot water.
Step 7: Allow the tea to steep. If you are drinking tea from Tides of Tea, average steep time is 10-20 seconds.
Step 8: Serve your tea using your infuser.
Step 9: Enjoy your delicious liquid from the earth.
Step 10: Steep and repeat!
Enjoy watching your tea leaves unravel and dance in your pot as you free them to expand all their wisdom and deliciousness into your cup!
Method 3: Chinese style teapot or gaiwan
Some teaware has been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Overtime traditional Chinese teaware has been perfected to enable you to brew tea easily and optimally. The size, shape and material all matter. The small shape of the teapots and cups not only brew beautiful tea, they also require mindfulness and can help you get into a focused state.
If you have one of the many styles of Chinese teapots or a gaiwan, here is what you need:
- teapot or gaiwan
- measuring cup
- tea cup, or any vessel to drink from
- kettle or pot
- a small bowl
- tea of choice
- water
Here are the steps you need to brew loose leaf tea:
Step 1: Select your tea.
Step 2: Heat the water to the correct temperature your tea requires (water temperature guide is below).
Step 3: Put your tea leaves into your gaiwan (loose leaf measurement guide is below).
Step 4: Pour a little bit of hot water onto the tea leaves.
Step 5: Pour the water out into the bowl. You can discard this water. We are waking up the leaves (link), washing them, allowing them to bloom better.
Step 6: Pour hot water into your gaiwan.
Step 7: Allow the tea to steep. If you are drinking tea from Tides of Tea, average steep time is 10-20 seconds.
Step 8: Serve your tea.
Step 9: Sip slow and enjoy.
Step 10: Steep and repeat!
Note if you are pouring tea for many people: Tea is strongest at the bottom of your teapot. You want to evenly distribute the tea by pouring a little bit into each cup, going back and forth all the cups adding little bits of tea at a time. Alternatively you can pour your tea into a cha hai and pour it into cups from there to ensure all the tea strengths are mixed together. It is not complicated. We get into basic tea pouring in this article.
Water temperature guide
It is pretty cool to know (more or less) the temperature of the water with your eyes. As you can see each tea type has a preferred heat.
- Raging bubbles = 100C for puers
- Big bubble = 90-95C for black, dark oolong teas
- Tiny bubbles = 70-80C for delicate green, white, oolong teas
We get into the details a bit more here if you wanted to get really precise. But also it is kind of cool.
Loose leaf tea measurement
Depending on the tea and how many people are drinking tea with you, the amount of tea you use will change. Here is a little chart to help you decipher how much loose leaf tea and water you need to make a delicious cup(s). Of course, more or less tea leaves or water will change the strength of the taste, so do you! Use our guide as support, but not a prescription.
1 teaspoon of balled leaves or 2 tablespoons of loose leaf oolong for every 6 ounces (0.17 kg) of water. Four our metric readers, use 2 grams of tea for every 6 to 8 (.17-.23 kg) ounces of water.
Unless you are weighing your daily protein intake or baking pies on the regular, you likely don’t have a scale. Check out this article to help you eyeball how much tea you need. We call it the “auntie method”.
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There you have it. Many different ways to brew tea with items from your kitchen cupboard or your tea set.
Maybe the first time you make tea in this way it will feel clunky or unnatural. Give it a chance! We promise you will be rewarded with a delicious cup of tea. This process will also bring more mindfulness and attention to your daily tea ritual, which is a beautiful way to make something ordinary extraordinary.