How to brew tea balls to bring out their best flavor?

Compared to other compressed teas, the biggest advantage of tea balls is that there’s no need to pry the tea apart—just use one at a time, which is very convenient. Tea balls are typically in a mini form weighing 7–8 grams, making them easy to carry and an ideal choice for enjoying tea at home or while traveling.

How can you brew tea balls to bring out their best flavor?

Tea balls are suitable for all kinds of brewing vessels. Here, we’ll take brewing with a gaiwan as an example:

Place the tea ball into the gaiwan, pour in water at a temperature above 95°C, cover with the lid, rotate the gaiwan, and rinse the tea for about 5 seconds, then discard the rinse.
For the second brew, use hot water at the same temperature (above 95°C) and steep for around 10 seconds before pouring out the tea for drinking.

At this point, the tea ball will gradually begin to unfurl. For subsequent brews, you can adjust the steeping time according to your preference for different types of tea.
For example, for pu-erh tea balls or black tea balls, steeping for 3–5 seconds in the initial infusions is sufficient. After 5 brews, you can gradually extend the steeping time.
For white tea, it can be steeped for a longer period, with each infusion lasting between 10 to 30 seconds, depending on your personal taste.