Using tempered glass is a classic way to brew your green teas. Uncovered glasses allow you to watch the beautiful leaves as they unfold, and also helps keep the water temperature from staying too warm and harming the more delicate teas leaves.

You will need:
– 2 tempered glass pitchers or cups
– your favorite  loose leaf green tea
– water at 175°
– (optional) strainer
– (optional) small gongfu tea cups

IMPORTANT: Remember to always use tempered glass.  If you use untempered glass, your pitcher or glasses can crack and shatter with such hot water.  In the photos below, we are using the pitcher portion of our Glass Test Tube Steepers.  This method works equally well with our tempered Glass Pitchers and a Tea Strainer.

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Step One: Boil Your Water to 175°

First, boil fresh filtered water to 175°.  We recommend using spring water or filtered tap water, as overly hard water or distilled water can make your teas taste flat.  If you do not have a temperature controlled water boiler or a handy thermometer, you can always bring your water to a full boil, and then let it cool.  You can speed up this cooling process by pouring you water from a height and then tossing the water back and forth between your glass pitchers.

Step Two: Measure Your Loose Leaf Tea

Next, add your loose leaf to your empty tempered glass pitcher.
We recommend using 4g of tea per 6oz of water.

Step Three: Steep Uncovered

Avoid pouring your water directly onto the tea leaves.  Instead, try to first pour along the sides of your glass pitcher.  Once your leaves are covered, you can pour normally.  In fact, pouring in a dipping / nodding motion can help agitate the leaves and swirl in your brewing glass.

 

Steep uncovered for just a few seconds.  Covering your green tea as it steeps can trap steam, raising the water temperature and scalding the leaves to create a more bitter taste.

Step Four: Strain and Enjoy

After just a few seconds, pour out into your second glass through a strainer.  This second glass acts like a sharing pitcher.  If you’re enjoying tea alone, you can drink directly from the glass.  Otherwise, you can pour into smaller gongfu cups to share with guests and appreciate the tea’s nuanced flavor and aftertaste.


Step Five: Resteep

Resteep many times, increasing the steep time by a few seconds or to taste.  Usually, you should expect three steepings out of your green tea, though many like Laoshan Green tea can have much longer brewing arcs.

QUICK TIP: Try using your nose to brew your green tea.  Just like green vegetables are finished cooking when they look most vibrant and delicious, green teas are usually ready to drink when they smell delicious!