By Caryn Murray

If you’re looking to mix things up by using loose leaf tea instead of a tea bag, you might feel slightly confused. If it’s your first time making loose leaf tea, you’ll of course need to know how to make it! This simple step-by-step guide will walk you through the process.

Step One: Heat the Water

This step may sound like common sense, but it’s also important to consider the desired water temperature for your loose leaf tea. For green tea and white tea, you don’t want to bring the water to a boil. Black tea, on the other hand, should be boiling.

Step Two: Insert Loose Leaf Tea into a Filter

While the water’s heating up, you can insert the tea into a tea ball, tea bag, or a tea infuser. A gram or two of loose leaf tea is all you need for an 8 ounce cup of, and you can re-steep the tea again for a second (or maybe even third) cup.

Step Three: Pour Water onto Tea and Steep

The proper way to steep tea is to pour the heated water into your cup, then dip the tea into the hot water a few times before leaving it submerged. Allow the tea to sit in the water (or steep) for:

• 2 to 3 minutes for green tea
• 3 to 5 minutes for black tea
• 3 to 9 minutes for white tea

Step Four: Your Tea is Finally Ready to Enjoy!

Remove the tea filter and discard the tea leaves (unless you plan on reusing them, of course). Go cuddle up with a good book, or serve to friends, and enjoy your perfect cup of loose leaf tea!