The recipe is a place to begin
We invite you to find your own way of brewing, guided by your water and your intention. A recipe gives you something repeatable. The useful question after each cup is whether you want the next one lighter, fuller, or much the same.
Keep the water and leaf quantity consistent while you learn a tea. Notice what changes when you adjust the time. With experience, the numbers become a reference you can return to, and your attention moves towards the cup itself.
Each tea page distinguishes a suggested starting recipe from one tried with our recorded water. A water profile belongs to the session it describes; it does not make every recipe on the page a tested result.
A short-infusion trial for Rou Gui
For Rou Gui, begin with 6–7 g per 100 ml of water at 95°C in a warmed, fast-draining vessel. Explore a 2–10-second pause during each of the first three infusions. These figures belong to this short-infusion approach; they are not a maximum steeping time for every tea.
Here, the pause begins when you finish filling and ends when you start pouring out. Filling and draining add contact time. A two-second pause does not mean the leaves touch water for only two seconds. Use a consistent pouring pace and drain the vessel completely.
Taste before automatically adding time. A recipe that works with one batch and water may need a different pace with yours.
An everyday cup: grandpa style or a gentle simmer
For the grandpa-style recipes, use the smaller leaf dose shown on the tea page, leave the leaves in the cup and top up as you drink. The first-sip time is a starting point: extraction continues while the leaves remain in water. If the cup becomes stronger than you enjoy, add water or use fewer leaves next time.
A simmer is a separate method. Follow it only where the tea page offers a simmering recipe: use a pot on the stove, keep the heat gentle, and strain the tea when it reaches the strength you like. The timer begins when the water returns to a gentle simmer after adding the tea.
Pu-erh resin is already a tea extract. Its two recipes are dilution options, with no leaves to re-steep. Dissolve the measured portion, then adjust with water to taste.
Let the first three cups answer different questions
Use the first infusion to find a baseline. Notice the aroma, the weight of the liquor and what remains after swallowing. Allow the cup to cool enough to taste clearly before deciding what it needs.
Use the second to test one adjustment. If the first was stronger or more drying than you enjoy, shorten the pause. If you wanted more body, allow a little longer. Keep the other variables steady.
Use the third to check the direction. The leaves have become wetter and may have opened, so an identical pause can produce a different cup. Repeat, shorten or lengthen according to the result. Three infusions provide an initial impression, not complete knowledge of the tea.
- Aroma: are the qualities you enjoy distinct, or difficult to find?
- Body: does the liquor feel too light, satisfying, or heavier than you want?
- Finish: what remains—sweetness, bitterness, dryness—and do you enjoy it?
Change one thing, then taste again
Start with timing because it is easy to adjust between infusions. If immediate pouring still gives more intensity than you want, try less leaf in the next session. A slow-draining pot also needs a different approach from a fast gaiwan.
Do not assume every disappointing cup needs more time. Compare water if flavour stays muted or the finish feels persistently unpleasant. If you change water, temperature, leaf quantity and timing together, you will have less idea which change helped.
Build judgement, keep your preference
The feeling for when to pour develops through these small comparisons. You learn how a familiar tea responds, and when its changing strength asks for a different pause. A timer can still help with an unfamiliar batch or vessel.
Keep a brief note of what you liked, alongside the water and leaf ratio. Return to it when you want a reliable starting point. If your favourite cup takes longer, uses less leaf, or tastes stronger than the recipe suggests, that preference is the result you were looking for.