回甘 Hui Gan · /hwāy gän/ — A Brewing Guide
One portion of loose-leaf tea. Five short pours. The same leaf carries you from the first email to the late-afternoon stretch — energy that arrives in steps across the day. No grinder. No machine. Just leaf, water, and a timer. Here’s how to brew it.
Most tea works like coffee — brew it once, drink it, done. The 5-Steep Protocol works differently, and the difference is the point.
Loose-leaf Chinese tea, brewed gongfu-style, gives up its flavor and its caffeine slowly, across several short steeps from one portion of leaf. A single mug pulls out only a fraction of what the leaf holds; gongfu brewing takes the rest in stages. One portion gives you five small cups in sequence, each a little lighter than the last. The first steep wakes you up. The middle steeps hold a steady line. The last one eases you into the afternoon.
Energy unfolds across the morning instead of arriving all at once.
It reads like a ritual. In practice it’s about ninety seconds of pouring, spread across time you’re already at your desk — answering mail, reading, on a call. The kettle does the waiting. You do the ninety seconds. No grinder, no machine, no learning curve you’ll resent by Thursday.
That’s the whole method. One portion, five cups, getting lighter as the day goes. Set up your gear, then follow the timings.
02 · Pick your setup
Pick the setup that fits your morning — one’s one-handed, one uses nothing but your own kitchen. Both make the same five cups today; the hands-on gaiwan method is coming soon.
No scale? 5g is about a rounded tablespoon of rolled leaf (Da Hong Pao), or two of fluffy leaf (Sheng, Shou Mei). Lean heavier, not lighter.
No 100 mL line? Pour 100 mL into your mug once — a little under half a measuring cup — and note where it sits. Brew to that spot every time.
No thermometer? Boil, then wait about 30 seconds. That’s roughly 90°C.
Gear: the Five-Steep Glass or a gravity steeper, and a mug.
Gear: two mugs (a jug or bowl works as the second) and any fine strainer you already own — a tea strainer and a small kitchen sieve. No link, nothing to buy.
Full control — the part of the morning worth slowing down for. The classic gongfu method, with its own five-step pour, is on its way.
Drain it completely between steeps. Leaf left sitting in water keeps brewing, and that’s what turns the third cup bitter. Pour every steep all the way off, every time.
·90°Cwater·5gleaf·100 mLper steep· a timer
