If you want to enjoy loose leaf tea without measuring the weight, our Dragon balls are ideal for you. Each ball weighs about 7 grams, which is enough for one tea session. However, these balls take time to unfurl, so you need to pay attention to the steeping time. In this guide, we will discuss the best temperature and steeping time for Western and Traditional brewing. Use the information below as a starting guide, but feel free to adjust it to your own taste.
Recommend Temperature
Depending on the age and type of tea, you may apply the following brewing temperatures:
- Raw pu erh tea (0-5 years aged): 90ºC
- Raw pu erh tea (5 years and older): 100ºC
- Ripe pu erh tea: 100ºC
- Aged white tea: (0-3 years aged): 95ºC
- Aged white tea: (3 years and older): 100ºC
If you don’t have a water cooker / kettle with temperature control, you simply let the water cool down after it reaches boiling point. Under normal room temperature, the cool down time is as follow:
- 95ºC: 45 seconds
- 90ºC: 2 minutes
- 85ºC: 4 minutes
- 80ºC: 6 minutes
Brewing Utensils & Methods
Below we will reveal the suggested steeping times for both western brewing and traditional brewing. For the Western method, steep 1 ball with 500ml hot water in teapot or mug.
For traditional brewing, you can steep the tea with 100ml of hot water in a gaiwan or an Yixing teapot.
Steeping Time
Once you’ve decided on the type of tea you’re brewing and the method, you may apply the below steeping times.
Note that some tea balls may release flavours faster than others. The below steeping times are based on medium size leaves with buds. For some tea balls made from small leaves of (broken) leaves, the steeping time may be shortened.
Western Method: Raw Pu Erh Dragon Ball / White Tea Ball
Steep 1-4: 2 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 4 min
Western Method: Ripe Pu Erh Tea
Steep 1-4: 1.5 min, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min.
Traditional Method: Raw Pu Erh Dragon Ball / White Tea Ball
Steep 1-7: 40 sec, 25 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 30 sec.
Steep 8 and more: gradually increase the steeping time as according to taste
Traditional Method: Ripe Pu Erh Tea
Steep 1-7: 25 sec,10 sec, 5 sec, 5 sec, 5 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec.
Steep 8 and more: gradually increase the steeping time as according to taste
You may have noticed that the first steep requires a longer steeping time. This is because dragon ball teas need time to unfurl. This is totally fine. You may regard this as a preparation for a more optimal second steep.