How to Infuse Tea

You’ll need a tea pot, a teaplate to collect runoff water; one bowl for the spent leaves, one teapot brush one tea leaf pick, six tea cups, six tea snifter cups, one ewer, one tea filter to sit inside the ewer, one towel. 

Boil the water its best if you use the most clean and pure water you can get because the better the water the better the tea will taste. 

Pick the type of Chinese tea you want.

Teas have two categories baked and raw. Baked leaves (Shou Cha) are darker in color and rich in flavor. When they are infused they produce red colors and have been oxidized or fermented excessively and on occasion are baked with fruit or flowers. Such as jasmine, plum, chamomile, or apricot which give them strong flavors that are unique. Baked teas can be infused multiple times without turning bitter or losing flavor. 

Raw tea’s (Sheng Cha are green and have light armoa’s. They produce a light green or yellowish green color when they are infused.  These teas’s have been lightly oxidized and fermented and produce a light flavor and aroma. Raw teas such as green tea are much more sensitive they can only be infused four to five times before losing their flavor and turning bitter.

Water temperature is very important in properly brewing loose leaf tea. Baked teas require boiled water to be cooled to eighty five to ninety degrees. Raw tea requires one hundred degree boiled water. 

You will need to use boiled water often so keep the pot nearby if possible. Open the package of tea and place the teapot in a large bowl or pan or on a tea plate and open it. Place the tea cups around the tea pot on the tea plate or in the bowl. The larger bowl will serve as a container for any excess water. Prepare an extra bowl or container for the spent leaves.

Measure the leaves from the tea bag into your hand just enough to fill the cup of your palm should be enough leaves. Pour the leaves into the teapot and fill the teapot with the boiling water. Fill it up and allow the water to overflow. Bubbles will begin to form at the top of the pot as the infused leaves start to activate. Scrape the teapot lid across the top of the teapot to remove bubbles and drop it into the teapot opening. 

Pour more hot water over the top of the teapot to stabilize the temperatures inside and outside of the teapot. In the winter you’ll want to preheat the tea wear to prevent it from cracking.

Preheat and wash the teacups by pouring the first infusion over them. It is usually recommended to pour out the first infusion to remove any grime or other impurities attached to the tea leaves.

Place a ewer closer by and put a tea strainer into the ewer. Using strainers is optional but it is more convenient to remove small leaf particles when pouring infusions into the ewer.

Return the teapot to the tea plate and refill it with hot water. 

Allow the hot water to infuse for another thirty seconds to one minute. The first drinkable infusion should be the best so be sure to monitor the infusion time carefully. If the infusion tastes bitter then you’ve infused for too long. Thirty to forty seconds is just about right.

Pour infusions into the ewer by inverting the teapot and sitting it into a strainer in the ewer.

Return the teapot to the tea plate or bow and repeat the infusion process to infuse the leaves again. 

Infusing tea properly takes practice it took me quite a few attempts to get the method down but now that I know how to do it properly it comes naturally.