Tea Steeping Calculator

How it is calculated

Enter the water volume in millilitres and pick a tea type. Each type has a fixed profile of grams of leaf per 100 mL, steep time and water temperature: green 1.5 g, 2.5 min, 80 °C; white 1.5 g, 4 min, 80 °C; oolong 2 g, 3 min, 90 °C; black 2 g, 4 min, 95 °C; puerh 2.5 g, 4 min, 95 °C; herbal 2 g, 6 min, 100 °C. The leaf amount is grams = g per 100 mL × volume / 100, and teaspoons are grams / 2, assuming about 2 g of loose tea per teaspoon. The Fahrenheit value is °C × 9/5 + 32. Volume must be above zero, and an unrecognised type falls back to black tea. Dense or fluffy leaves, rolled or broken, weigh differently per spoon, so the teaspoon figure is only a rough guide.

Common mistakes

• Entering the volume in cups, ounces or litres. The field is millilitres, so a 1 L pot must be typed as 1000 and a 250 mL mug as 250.
• Scaling the steep time with the pot size. Only the leaf amount grows with volume; the time and temperature stay the same for a given tea type, so a big pot does not need a longer steep.
• Pouring boiling water on green or white tea because the black tea setting was left selected. The tool defaults to black tea (95 °C) whenever no other type is chosen.
• Taking the teaspoon figure literally for every tea. It assumes roughly 2 g per teaspoon, which suits compact leaf; light, fluffy herbal or white tea needs more volume per gram, so weigh it if you can.