https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/ Recent content in Guides on Tea Brewing Basics - Water, Leaf, Time, and Temperature Hugo en Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/the-six-types-of-tea/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/the-six-types-of-tea/ <h2 id="one-plant">One Plant</h2> <p>Every true tea - green, white, yellow, oolong, black, pu-erh - is made from the leaves of <strong>Camellia sinensis</strong>. Not different plants, not different species in any meaningful sense for a drinker. The same shrub.</p> <p>What differs is <strong>what is done to the leaf after picking</strong>, and the single most important variable in that processing is oxidation.</p> https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/the-four-variables/ Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/the-four-variables/ <h2 id="brewing-is-extraction">Brewing Is Extraction</h2> <p>Hot water pulls compounds out of the leaf, and they do not all come out at the same rate.</p> <p><strong>Aromatics and sweetness come out first.</strong> <strong>Caffeine, which is bitter, comes out fast.</strong> <strong>Tannins, which are astringent and drying, come out slowly and keep coming.</strong></p> https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/buying-storing-equipment/ Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://teabrewingbasics.click/guides/buying-storing-equipment/ <h2 id="loose-leaf-versus-bags">Loose Leaf Versus Bags</h2> <p>The difference is less about virtue than about <strong>leaf size and room to expand</strong>.</p> <p>Standard teabags contain dust and fannings - the smallest grades left after sorting. Small particles have enormous surface area, so they extract very fast and very completely, which produces a strong cup in ninety seconds and also extracts tannins quickly, so the window between strong and bitter is narrow. The aromatic compounds, which are volatile, have largely escaped from broken leaf long before it reaches you.</p>