Brewing · 9 October 2026
A better pot at home, in five small steps
Our new staff spend their first week learning to make one pot of tea properly. None of it needs special kit. Here is what they learn.
1. Weigh the leaf
Spoons lie. A teaspoon of rolled oolong weighs twice as much as a teaspoon of fluffy white tea. A small kitchen scale costs less than two tins of tea and changes everything.
As a guide: two and a half grams a cup for black tea, two for green, three for oolong and herbals. Our brew guide on the teas page works it out for you.
2. Mind the water
Boiling water scalds green and white tea, pulling out bitter flavours. Let the kettle stand for three minutes for green tea, two for white, one for oolong.
If your tap or borehole water is hard, use filtered water. Hard water leaves a film on the tea and dulls the flavour.
“Most bitter tea is not bad tea. It is tea made with water that was too hot.”
3. Warm the pot, then time it
Swirl a little hot water around the pot and pour it away before adding the leaf. A cold pot drops the temperature by ten degrees.
Then set a timer. Four minutes for black tea, two and a half for green. When it rings, pour everything out.
4. Pour it all, and 5. brew again
Leaving tea sitting on the leaves is how it stews. Pour every drop into cups or a second warmed pot.
Good loose leaf can be brewed more than once. White tea and oolong often taste better on the second and third infusions. Add thirty seconds each time.
In short
- Weigh the leaf, do not guess
- Let the kettle rest for green and white teas
- Warm the pot first, then time the steep
- Pour every drop out, then brew the leaves again
Marian Road, Calabar
Taste it at the counter
Every recipe in the journal is on the menu. Come and try it before you make it.