When we first start making tea, we always have a problem: how many grams of this tea should be just right?
In this case, we usually take the tea master's suggestion as the standard. For example, there is a popular and easy rule to remember "three, four, seven, eight". With normal size Gaiwan and about 110 ml water for brewing, the amount of tea is 3 grams for green tea, 4 grams for black tea, 7 to 8 grams for all oolong tea such as rock tea, and 8 grams for black tea such as ripe tea.
The suggestion of the amount of tea given by tea master, in fact, is from the point of view of the tea concentration, with this amount of tea, most people can get the appropriate taste, not too strong or too weak. In the early stage of brewing tea, we basically follow the popular way to brew, in order to get the accurate amount of tea , often we will use electronic scales to accurately measure.
In the practice of making tea, the feedback is exactly the same, such amount of tea almost always can cater to pubic taste and the taste is relatively stable, novice also can get the way quickly.
In the context of "positive feedback" , it is easy for us to standardize it, especially now many new tea styles appear, like portable dragon-ball, "chocolate bars", small sachets, etc., which all use the default amount of tea.
However, often the occasions for making tea in daily life are not same, but diverse, which means that the original amount of tea may be not appropriate, but need flexibly to adjust the amount of tea due to the specific situation.
Therefore, the fact is the right amount of tea leaves to be added is not always same.
- Different occasion, different amount.
When several friends get together to take tea, if the number of people is larger then usual, then need to use a larger main infuser, and the amount of tea should be increased appropriately; if only one or two people drink tea with a small pot, there is no need for a regular amount.
- Different people, different amount.
Adding loose tea is the premise of making tea, the right amount is related to the concentration of tea soup, but in fact, everyone's taste is not the same. Just like people in Jiangsu or Zhejiang say "slightly spicy" and Sichuan people say"slightly spicy", there is big difference, obviously, for Jiangsu and Zhejiang people who get used of light taste Sichuan "slightlyspicy" can be regarded as the level of heavy spicy.
When tasting tea together, the main tea maker should make tea according to the others’ taste preference, light or heavy? If the other party is young, female, child or such people with light taste, tea maker may reduce the amount of tea appropriately, especially when brewing Raw Pu’er tea and oolong tea which have strong taste.
- Different tea, different amount.
The rule of "3, 4, 7, 8" mentioned before is just a popular reference value, easy to remember and convenient to use, but different teas’ nature also need to be considered specially.
Recently, I have such an experience when I made one smokey Lapsang souchong. Conventional amount of 4g is appropriate, but it is not suitable for making this one, the tea soup brewed is always a little bit light. However, when the amount of tea is adjusted to be 7g, its floral and longan characteristics can be performed wonderfully.
Take white tea for example, pekoe silver needle, white peony, shou mei and gong mei, the right amount for brewing is not the same; While for the new oolong, 8g is suitable, for the old oolong, 4g is enough. Similarly, the tea with even and neat shaped leaf is not the same as the broken tea. The solubles of the broken tea leaves can be released quickly, and the amount of tea can be slightly reduced during brewing.
From above, we can see that there is a reference value for the right amount of tea, but it is not fixed. When making tea, what is important is not how much tea to be added, but how much tea to be brewed can present the best taste.
