How to brew Sheng / raw pu-erh (aged)
Raw pu-erh with years of storage.
Age softens sheng, so it can take boiling water. Rinse to wake the leaf and clear any storage dust.
Starting recipe
| Setting | Western (mug or teapot) | Gongfu (small pot or gaiwan) |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 203–212°F (95–100°C) | 203–212°F (95–100°C) |
| Leaf | 1–2 g per 100 ml | 5–8 g per 100 ml |
| Steepdial starts at | 208°F (98°C) · 3 g · 250 ml | 212°F (100°C) · 7 g · 100 ml |
| First steep | 0:45–3:00 | 0:05–0:25 |
| A whole session | 1:30 · 2:00 · 3:00 | 0:10 · 0:08 · 0:10 · 0:12 · 0:15 · 0:20 · 0:25 · 0:30 · 0:40 · 0:55 · 1:15 |
The details
Rinse
Often worth it: a 8-second rinse, poured away, wakes up the leaf.
Drinking window
Suitable for aging. Made for long keeping; how it changes depends on storage, not just time.
Caffeine
Contains caffeine. How much depends on the leaf, the water temperature and the steep time; the style alone is a poor guide.
Iced and cold brew
Cold brew: 1 g per 100 ml of cold water, in the fridge for about 10 hours. Keep it cold and drink it within a day or two. Give pressed leaf a quick hot rinse first. For iced tea now, brew a concentrated hot cup (the same leaf in half the water) and pour it over an equal weight of ice; Steepdial accounts for the ice in the total water.
How Steepdial adjusts
After a session you tap what you'd change: more flavor, less bitter, less drying. Steepdial changes one thing at a time, staying near the ranges above, and remembers what worked for that tea.
Short steeps and pour time
The first gongfu steep is 0:10. If your pot takes several seconds to empty, start pouring a little early, or turn on the pour cue in Steepdial.
More dark / post-fermented
The whole guide →Sheng / raw pu-erh (young)
Raw pu-erh under about 10 years
185–212°F (85–100°C) · 1–2 g per 100 ml→Dark / post-fermentedShou / ripe pu-erh
Ripe pu-erh, cakes, bricks and tuos
203–212°F (95–100°C) · 1–2.5 g per 100 ml→Dark / post-fermentedLiu Bao
Guangxi dark tea, often basket-aged
203–212°F (95–100°C) · 1–2.5 g per 100 ml→Dark / post-fermentedFu brick and Anhua dark tea
Fu Zhuan (with 'golden flowers'), Hunan hei cha
203–212°F (95–100°C) · 1–2 g per 100 ml→Dark / post-fermentedOther dark tea
Tibetan brick, Liu An and other hei cha
203–212°F (95–100°C) · 1–2.5 g per 100 ml→