tea.ceo

How to brew tea

Every kind of tea, and the better-known teas within each: how hot the water, how long the steep, how much leaf. Where the growers disagree with one another, the page says so rather than picking a winner.

A painting of a brown teapot, a cup of tea and a milk jug on a round mahogany table, between a fire burning in the grate and an oxblood leather chesterfield

Guide

How to make a proper cup of tea

The British cup of tea, made properly: freshly drawn water at a full boil, three to five minutes for a strong black blend, and the milk question settled — or at least explained. With the Royal Society of Chemistry's method and the ISO standard for comparison.

A painting of a firelit country-house table laid with two tiered stands of small cakes, a large round bake, a silver teapot and china cups, a clock and candles on the chimneypiece behind

Guide

Afternoon tea or high tea?

Afternoon tea is sandwiches, scones and cake at about four, invented by a duchess with time on her hands. High tea is a working family's evening meal at six. Hotels have spent decades muddling the two; here is which is which, and when each one is taken.

A painting of a cup of black tea, a silver teapot and a little dish of dark tea leaves on a mahogany table, an oxblood leather wing chair and a fire behind

Guide

How to brew black tea

Black tea wants water at or near a full boil and three to five minutes. How much leaf, how long for which tea, and when to reach for the milk — from Assam and Ceylon to Darjeeling and Earl Grey.

A painting of a cup of golden tea and a small lidded pot on a long mahogany desk under a brass lamp, a tall window with the sun coming up behind

Guide

How to brew Darjeeling

Darjeeling is the black tea that rewards a little care: about 80°C and three minutes for the spring first flush, boiling water for the summer second. What the flushes are, how the gardens themselves brew them, and why the name is protected.

A painting of a white cup of tea beside a halved orange and two glossy leaves on a silver tray, with potted orange trees, candles and a fire in the room behind

Guide

How to make Earl Grey

Earl Grey is black tea scented with bergamot: freshly boiled water, three to four minutes, and not a second more. Milk or lemon, how to make a London Fog, and what is known — and what is merely told — about the Earl.

A painting of a white teapot and a cup of pale golden tea on a wooden tray with a sprig of tea leaves, on a green baize table beside an oxblood leather wing chair

Guide

How to brew green tea

Green tea goes bitter for one reason above all: water that is too hot. Sixty-five to eighty degrees, a minute or three, and more leaf than you think — with the difference between Japanese and Chinese green teas.

A painting of a pale green teapot and three small cups on a black lacquer tray, a folding screen painted with cranes and a fire behind

Guide

How to brew sencha

Ippodo's method for sencha, Japan's everyday green tea: 10 grams of leaf, 210 ml of water at 80°C, one minute, and every last drop poured out. How to cool the water without a thermometer, and what shincha is.

A painting of a black bowl of bright green matcha with a bamboo whisk standing in it, on a dark table before a fire and two leather chesterfields

Guide

How to make matcha

Matcha is green tea that is whisked rather than steeped. Ippodo's method for a bowl of usucha: 2 grams sifted, 60 ml of water at 80°C, fifteen seconds' brisk whisking. Thick koicha, a matcha latte, and the mistakes that make it lumpy or bitter.

A painting of a tall glass of pale tea with a sprig of tea leaves in it and a cup beside it on a small mahogany table, candles and a fireplace behind, birds and branches painted on the walls

Guide

How to brew Dragon Well

China's most celebrated green tea, from the hills around West Lake in Hangzhou, brewed the way the grower Mrs Li brews it at home: 4 to 5 grams in an open glass at 85 to 90°C, sipped and topped up all day. And why the tea picked before Qingming costs so much more.

A painting of a blue-and-white teapot and four small cups on a carved wooden tray, rolled tea leaves on the table, before a stone fireplace with porcelain vases and a gilt-framed landscape

Guide

How to brew oolong tea

Oolong wants hotter water than green tea — 85 to 95°C — and rewards being brewed again and again. A mugful the Western way, or the gongfu way: a lot of leaf, a small pot and steeps measured in seconds.

A painting of a cup of pale tea and a small glass teapot on a white tablecloth, a jug of white flowers and a tall window in daylight behind

Guide

How to brew white tea

White tea is the least handled tea there is, and among the most forgiving to brew: 75 to 85°C, twice the usual leaf, and two or three minutes. Silver Needle, White Peony, and why aged white tea is a thing.

A painting of a round dark cake of pressed tea half out of its paper wrapper, a metal pick and a cup of dark red tea on a desk, a green-shaded lamp and antlers behind

Guide

How to brew pu-erh

Pu-erh is Yunnan's aged and fermented tea, usually pressed into cakes. Lever off a piece, rinse it, and brew it in just-boiled water in short, repeated steeps — or in a mug, topped up all day. Raw (sheng) and ripe (shou), and how to tell them apart.

A painting of a dark ball of pressed tea, its white wrapper opened like petals and twisted at the top with a gold tie, beside a white lidded cup and a glass cup of amber tea on a round mahogany table, a fire and an oxblood leather chair behind

Guide

How to brew a pu-erh ball

A pu-erh tea ball is a single serving of raw tea pressed hard into a sphere — xiao qiu, a "small ball", in Chinese. Rinse it, give it a long first steep while it opens, then shorter ones: the water, ratios and times from the shops that sell them.

A painting of a copper tea urn with a brass tap on a small mahogany table, white cups and saucers set out on another, an oxblood leather wing chair, and late-afternoon sun from a tall window across green panelling and a gilt-framed mountain landscape

Story

The story of 4:20 High Tea

Every tea time has its story, and this is the story of 4:20 High Tea: five gentlemen, three country estates, a map to a lost row of tea bushes and a code that would not go away. Then how to keep it — a second pot of tea at twenty past four.