{"id":24102,"date":"2010-01-07T12:43:53","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T11:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/nl\/how-to-brew-that-perfect-cup-of-tea\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:34:37","slug":"how-to-brew-that-perfect-cup-of-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/how-to-brew-that-perfect-cup-of-tea\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Brew That Perfect Cup of Tea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We\u2019ve all heard the conventional wisdom before:\u00a0 to brew a pot of tea, throw in one teaspoon\u00a0 for each cup and then add one \u201cfor the pot.\u201d Others might say to use a level teaspoon for black tea, but use more (say 1.5 teaspoons) for green and white teas, because they\u2019re more delicate than black.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the problem with that way of thinking: a teaspoon is a measure of \u201cvolume.\u201d\u00a0 Tea comes in so many shapes and sizes that measuring it by volume may not be the best approach.\u00a0 Take Chinese gunpowder for example \u2013 this is a charred green tea that is tightly rolled into small pellets (that resemble musket shot). Chinese gunpowder is so densely packed that a teaspoon of it is going to weigh significantly more than a teaspoon of a large, full-leaf tea.\u00a0 By using the teaspoon as your yardstick, inconsistent tea brewing is pretty much \u201cbaked in the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n

To\u00a0determine how to measure out the perfect amount of tea for brewing, let me explain what the pros do.\u00a0 Representatives of the tea industry taste thousands of teas each year before they buy for their customers.\u00a0 They can\u2019t afford to get it wrong – crucial decisions are made based on these tastings, so they demand that a consistent approach be adopted.\u00a0 Do you think that they are throwing in one teaspoon for each cup and one for the pot?\u00a0 Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n

Before I get into the correct amount of tea to use, there are a few other things to consider when brewing that perfect cup. Proper temperature<\/strong> of the water and the length of brewing time<\/strong> are also very important, but those\u00a0will be\u00a0subjects\u00a0of \u00a0future articles. As for the correct amount of tea to use, I recommend you rely on a measure of weight, not volume.\u00a0 For every 8 ounces of water, use\u00a0.079 ounces or 2.2 grams of loose tea. This applies to all teas – black, green, white, etc.\u00a0 and is the industry standard for tasting tea.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ll be the first to admit that all of this can easily get in the way of enjoying a simple cup of tea.\u00a0 In 16th Century Japan, Sen Rikyu (the father of the Japanese \u201cWay of Tea\u201d or Tea Ceremony)\u00a0stated that \u201ctea is nothing more than boiling water, making tea and drinking it.\u201d If you stop and think about it, the simplicity of this statement can be quite profound.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m certainly not advocating that we all go out and buy an expensive laboratory scale to precisely measure out the correct amount of tea to use. Let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s no substitute for the experience you gain by brewing your own tea each day. You come to know fairly quickly how much tea to use and how long to brew it, so that it comes out just the way you like it \u2013 and, in the end, isn\u2019t that what counts the most?<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve all heard the conventional wisdom before:\u00a0 to brew a pot of tea, throw in one teaspoon\u00a0 for each cup and then add one \u201cfor the pot.\u201d Others might say to use a level teaspoon for black tea, but use more (say 1.5 teaspoons) for green and white teas, because they\u2019re more delicate than black. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2592],"tags":[2593,2594,2595,2596],"class_list":["post-24102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en-tea-articles","tag-en-amount-of-tea","tag-en-brew","tag-en-perfect-cup","tag-en-tea"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24105,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24102\/revisions\/24105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}