Brewing
- Gongfu cha Making tea with skill
- Brewing with a lot of leaf in a small pot and many short steeps. Gongfu steeping
- Western style
- A little leaf in a big pot or mug and one long steep of a few minutes.
- Grandpa style
- Leaf straight in a glass, no strainer, topped up with hot water as you drink.
- Steep
- One round of water on the leaf, from pouring in to pouring out. Also called an infusion.
- Increment
- How much longer each gongfu steep is than the one before. Gongfu steeping
- Flash steep
- Pouring the water in and straight back out, a steep of only a few seconds.
- Rinse
- A quick steep poured away to warm and wake the leaf. Rinsing the leaf
- Leaf ratio
- Grams of leaf for the water, usually written per 100 ml: 5 g/100 ml in a 100 ml gaiwan is 5 g. Leaf, heat and time
- TDS Total dissolved solids
- How much is dissolved in your water, in parts per million. A rough measure of hardness. Water matters
Teaware
- Gaiwan
- A lidded bowl on a saucer, the everyday vessel for gongfu brewing. Porcelain doesn't hold flavours, so one gaiwan suits every tea.
- Yixing
- Unglazed clay teapots from Yixing in China. The porous clay seasons over time, so people keep one pot for one kind of tea.
- Kyusu
- A Japanese side-handled teapot with a built-in strainer, made for greens.
- Gong dao bei Fairness cup
- A fairness pitcher: you pour each steep into it first so every cup gets the same strength.
- Chawan
- A wide bowl for whisking matcha.
- Chasen
- A bamboo whisk for matcha.
Tea & processing
- Oxidation
- Leaf browning after picking, like a cut apple. It's what separates green (barely any) from oolong (some) and black (full). The families of tea
- Kill-green Sha qing
- Heating fresh leaf to stop oxidation, by pan-firing or steaming. Steamed greens are typically Japanese.
- Roast
- Baking finished leaf, usually oolong, for a toasty, darker cup that keeps longer.
- Sheng pu-erh
- "Raw" pu-erh, pressed into cakes and left to age slowly. Bitter and bright when young, mellow with years.
- Shou pu-erh
- "Ripe" pu-erh, fermented in piles to imitate decades of ageing in months. Dark, smooth and earthy.
- Flush
- A harvest season. First flush is the spring picking, usually lighter and more prized.
- Cultivar
- A named variety of the tea plant, such as Jin Xuan or Yabukita.
Taste
- Astringency
- A drying, puckering feel on the tongue and gums. A feel, not a taste; mostly from tannins drawn out by heat and time.
- Hui gan Returning sweetness
- A sweetness that comes back in the throat after you swallow, prized in pu-erh and oolong.
- Umami
- A savoury, brothy taste, strongest in shaded Japanese greens such as gyokuro.
Steepbook is a free app that remembers the steep that worked for each tea, teaware and brew style. Have a look if that sounds useful.