Water
Brewing good tea starts with good water, as it can dramatically affect the quality of the resulting tea. We recommend using spring (or purified water) to make tea. Tap water may contain many undesirable elements like chlorine and lead that can affect the taste of your tea. If you do decide to use tap water, filter it first; if not, make sure to let the cold water run for a few seconds before use, to flush out any particulate matter that may have settled in the pipes. Never use hot water from the tap as it may have leached lead from the pipes, possible even with newer copper plumbing.
Amount
The general guideline is one teaspoon of tea leaves per cup of tea (6-8 fluid ounces). However, different teas have different densities, and more tea leaves are needed for each cup when the tea less dense. Sometimes two teaspoons are required per cup. A more precise way of measuring the quantity is by weight. For most teas, a good rule of thumb is 3 grams of tea leaves for every 6-8 ounce cup. This amounts to approximately 10 cups of tea per ounce of tea leaves.
Temperature
For maximum flavor, heat cold, fresh water (which contains more oxygen than water that has been previously boiled) on a stovetop to the recommended temperature listed below. It is hard to discount the convenience of a hot water kettle or the hot water tap from a water cooler, and these can be used without much effect to the overall taste of the tea.
Green Teas - 140°F to 180°F (when small bubbles start to appear)
White Teas - 165°F to 180°F (when small bubbles start to appear)
Oolong Teas - 195°F to 205°F (when medium bubbles start to appear)
Black Teas - 200°F to 210°F (when medium bubbles start to appear)
Herbal Teas - 200°F to 210°F (when medium bubbles start to appear)
Steep Time
As with other factors that go into the preparation of tea, the steep time varies with each type of tea. Steep times can vary from 1 to 7 minutes. More delicate teas like greens and whites require very little time to bring out the subtle nuances, while bolder and more robust oolongs, blacks, and even herbals benefit from longer steeping to extract maximum flavor.
Steepings
Most of our loose leaf teas can be steeped multiple times (up to 4 times with some varieties) without loosing much flavor or complexity. This can make enjoying tea more economical than you might have imagined. Just remember to keep the leaves out of contact of water between steepings (in teapots with metal baskets/strainers, remove the strainer full of leaves from the pot until ready for re-steeping).
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* photograph courtesy of Chi Le
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