Hi folks, I just wanted to let you all know how we brew cups of tea at J-TEA and why we do it the way we do. Maybe you will find your new favorite way to make tea, or maybe we can add a component to your tea game. That is our hope.

On our recent video, we talk about our two steep method. J-Tea trick number one: Each cup is brewed with two infusions combined. Suppose we say brew method number one is: weigh 2 to 3 g of tea, steep right off the boil in a twelve ounce mug with an infuser insert for three to five minutes. This time range, combined with the other ratios are “in the range” and would generally yield results that the tea will show us what it's got, in a good way. It's within the realm of what the tea can handle. This may be a good method to get great returns on most black teas.

To get the most out of your tea, we recommend a second brew method: use a smallish pot, 150 ml or less and use 10 g (+/-) of tea. It all sounds very technical and this is not how it actually is. I'm just trying to give an idea. We actually don't weigh the tea in the measuring step. I use my eye. And I train my people to use their eye.* Then we do several infusions of about 30 second to one minute infusions again and again, for about six rounds, but really as many as you like (usually 10 is the upper limits, but if you can't let that flame go, I understand). At the end, discard the leaves and start again.

J-TEA trick number one is that we are using a combination of the two methods, because we are, in a sense trying to make “the perfect cup of tea” every time.

*This is a difficult subject as it requires our combined powers of observation, supervised measuring until all conditions and considerations are accounted for, and the knowledge can be recalled in the moment of the guest ordering tea. For instance, this guest has ordered Ah Li Winter 2019, a fine choice! And you are just about to make this tea, when in walks a friend Number 2 and this friend would like Midnight Beauty. You are measuring a high mountain Taiwan oolong like Ah Li Winter 2019 vs. an Eastern Beauty such as the Midnight Beauty. In this case we are going for roughly 6 g of each tea, but the first one is tightly rolled and dense. The second is fluffy and voluminous. So the trick is to learn what 6 g of this tea looks like. Variables to consider: how tiny the leaves were when the leaf was plucked, wholeness or brokenness of leaf. More broken the leaf means less tea used. Exciting, right? But wait, there is more...Our system is as follows: take tin of tea, open the tin, pre-measure the amount of tea you will use in the lid.