Tea MasterTea timer: how to time your tea right
Start the tea timer the moment the water covers the leaf, and stop it when the leaves are out of the water. In a mug or teapot, black tea needs 4 minutes, green tea 2–3, oolong and white tea 3, rooibos 6 and sencha only 30–60 seconds. Gongfu brewing changes the time on every steep, so it needs a timer that can follow a schedule.
When to start and stop the timer
The clock runs while leaf and water are together. Everything else is noise.
- Start: when the water has covered the leaves, not when the kettle clicks off and not when you start looking for a cup.
- Stop: when the leaves leave the water. Lift the infuser out, or pour the whole pot through a strainer. A pot left on the leaves keeps brewing, and the second cup ends up bitter.
- Gongfu: the pour-out counts too. Pouring a gaiwan takes a few seconds, and the leaf is still brewing while it drains. For a 10 second steep, start pouring out a little before the timer ends, and drain to the last drop so no water sits on the leaf until the next round.
A timer is more reliable than colour. Broken black tea goes dark in seconds; Silver Needle stays pale when it is done.
Cheat sheet: western steep times
| Tea | Timer | Water | Leaf per 100 ml |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black tea | 4 min | 96 °C (205 °F) | 2 g |
| Earl Grey style (bergamot) | 2 min | 95 °C (203 °F) | 1 g |
| Chinese green tea | 2–3 min | 82 °C (180 °F) | 1 g |
| Sencha | 30–60 s | 75 °C (167 °F) | 2.5 g |
| Gyokuro | 2 min | 55 °C (131 °F) | 3.3 g |
| White tea | 3 min | 70 °C (158 °F) | 0.5 g |
| Silver Needle | 3–5 min | 82 °C (180 °F) | 1.6 g |
| Oolong (Tie Guan Yin, Da Hong Pao) | 3 min | 90 °C (194 °F) | 1.5 g |
| Shu pu-erh | 3.5–4 min | 96 °C (205 °F) | 2 g |
| Rooibos | 6 min | 98 °C (208 °F) | 2 g |
| Chamomile | 5 min | 100 °C (212 °F) | 1 g |
| Peppermint, hibiscus | 5–7 min | 100 °C (212 °F) | 1 g |
100 ml is about 3.4 fl oz. The full chart with more teas is in how long to steep tea.
Gongfu: why a plain timer gets awkward
In gongfu you use a lot of leaf (5–8 g per 100 ml) in a small gaiwan or teapot and steep for seconds, many times over. Each steep gets its own time. The usual rule: start short, add 5–10 seconds per steep for the first few, then stretch the later ones more as the leaf tires.
A typical schedule for shu pu-erh at 95 °C with 7 g per 100 ml:
- 10 s
- 15 s
- 20 s
- 30 s
- 45 s
- 60 s
- 80 s
With a kitchen or phone timer you retype the time before every steep, with wet hands, while also pouring and serving. By the fifth round it is easy to forget whether you are on 30 or 45. That is where people lose the session: two steeps at the same time, or a jump that is too big. Writing the schedule on paper helps; a timer that stores the list and moves to the next step helps more. The method itself is in gongfu tea brewing.
Matcha and cold brew: seconds and hours
- Matcha: no steeping at all. Sift 2 g into a bowl, add water at 75 °C (167 °F) and whisk in a fast M or W motion for about 15–20 seconds until a fine froth forms. A short timer keeps you from whisking too little. Details in how to make matcha.
- Cold brew: the timer counts hours. Leaf goes into cold water in the fridge: about 4 hours for sencha and gyokuro, 5 for Longjing, 6 for most white teas, 8 for Shou Mei and herbal teas. Set it and do something else; see cold brew tea.
Kinds of tea timers compared
| Timer | Good for | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|
| Sand hourglass | One western cup with a fixed time, usually 3 or 4 min. No batteries, nice on the table. | One time only. Cannot do 30 s or a gongfu schedule. Cheap ones drift, and it makes no sound if you walk away. |
| Kitchen or phone timer | Any single time, loud alarm. | You set it by hand every time and remember the schedule yourself. |
| Online timer in a browser tab | Quick, free, on a computer at your desk. | Stops if the tab sleeps or the laptop closes. Not useful in the kitchen. |
| Tea timer app | Stores times per tea and full gongfu schedules, alerts on a locked phone. | Needs a phone nearby. Pick one that works offline. |
For one mug of black tea a day, an hourglass is fine. For several teas, short Japanese steeps or gongfu sessions, a timer that remembers schedules saves real effort.
How Tea Master does it
Tea Master is a tea timer for iPhone and iPad built around this problem. The gongfu timer counts every steep and moves to the next time on its own; you can pause, skip or repeat a steep. There are four styles: gongfu, western, a matcha whisking timer and cold brew that counts hours. The countdown shows as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with a notification and one of 12 sounds when time is up. It also has Home Screen widgets and Siri and Shortcuts support. The free version includes the full timer with all four styles.
Small habits that make timing work
- Get the water ready first. Heat it to the right temperature before you start, so the timer measures brewing, not waiting.
- Change one thing at a time. If a cup is too strong, cut 30 seconds next time and keep leaf and water the same.
- Weak tea needs more leaf, not only more time. Stretching the timer mostly adds bitterness.
- Write down what worked. A time that suits your water and your taste is worth keeping.
