Whole leaf teas are an increasingly popular gift to give to tea lovers, especially with the increase in online tea shops. However, as many people are used to bagged tea, what is the best way to brew loose leaf tea?

One of your friends, knowing you like tea, has visited an online tea shop and bought you a selection of beautiful whole leaf teas from China. You're delighted by this thoughtful and generous the gift but perhaps you're not really sure what you're suppose to do with these funny looking leaves?

If you're used to drinking and brewing tea bags this guide is here to give you some pointers when starting to brew loose leaf.

Brewing tea is deceptively simple and requires only three things: water; tea; and a vestal to hold the two. You need not even heat the water; certain teas, particularly of the high mountain Taiwanese variety are so sweet and delicate they can simply be left in cold water and allowed to infuse overnight. This lack of heat brings out the subtle sweet flavours of the leaves however generally you will require hot water.

Teapot

The first thing you will need to decide is what you're going to brew your tea in. The traditional Chinese methods of brewing involve using a Yixing, a small red clay teapot, or a Gaiwan, a small lidded bowl. Generally most westerners don't have such specialist items but, you may well already have a teapot and, whole leaves can actually be added directly into the teapot.

Following such a method you can immediately see that brewing whole leaf tea really isn't much more complicated, or different, to using regular bags.

Another method for brewing that is popular in China is to simply adding tea leaves into a glass or jar and filling that receptacle with water and drinking directly from it. Larger whole leave are generally heavy, and sink to the bottom, so you're able to drink without swallowing the leaves. Using this method it is traditional to keep adding more water to the jar before you've finished it and often people will sit and drink from the same container, using the same leaves, all day long!

Quantity

A general rule for brewing tea with a teapot is to use 1 bag per personal and add an extra 1 for the pot. Surprisingly the rule remains remarkably similar for whole leaf teas - 1 teaspoon of tea per person with an spoonful for the pot. However, there are exceptions. Certain teas, where the leaf is long and twisted rather than the style where it has been tightly rolled into a ball, a tablespoon worth of loose leaf is used per person, again with another spoonful being added for the pot.

Temperature

Water temperature is probably the area in which most people make mistakes. Most black tea from bags requires freshly boiled water. Using water that is even only slightly cooler than that may result in a badly brewed pot. When using whole leaf teas more care must be taken when deciding upon temperature. Adding freshly boiled water onto tender green tea leaves will result in a brew that is bitter and unpleasant to drink. This is one reason why many people claim that they don't like drinking green tea!

Our second general rule that pertains to temperature is that the lighter the colour of the tea, the cooler the water needs to be to brew it. White & green teas only require water between 65-75 degrees C (149-167 degrees F). For moderately coloured oolongs you should be using water around 80-95 degrees C (176-203 degrees F). Black teas and Pu'ers require freshly boiled water 100degrees C (212 degrees F). How can you tell how hot if the water is the right temperature? A half filled kettle, freshly boiled kettle, will drop roughly 10ºC every minute it is left to stand. If you are preparing green tea, boil the kettle and leave it to stand for around 3 minutes, and you should have the perfect temperature of water.

By following these simple rules you'll find that you'll be able to brew any teas you may receive as easily as if it came in a bag!