How much tea per cup - ratios that actually work
The most common reason tea at home comes out weak one day and bitter the next is mundane: the wrong ratio of leaf to water. We spoon by eye, pour whatever amount and then wonder why one cup is like water and the next like tannin. Yet this is one of the easiest parameters to master - you only need to remember a few numbers and pick up a scale once. Here is how to dose tea so you hit the mark every time, whether you brew European-style in a big mug or Chinese-style in a small gaiwan.
Why ratio matters more than you think
The flavour of a brew is the product of three things: the amount of leaf, the water temperature and the steeping time. Of that trio, ratio is the most underrated, and often the most important and the easiest to control. Too little leaf gives a flat, watery brew, without body, depth or clear aroma - you then add more leaf or steep longer, which rarely saves it. Too much leaf pulls out excess tannin and caffeine, so it turns astringent and bitter, even if the time and temperature were theoretically perfect. A well-chosen dose is the foundation on which the other parameters stand - without it, adjusting time is groping in the dark.
The golden starting point - 2 grams per 200 ml
If you remember one number from this whole text, let it be this: about 2 grams of loose-leaf tea per 200 ml of water. It is a safe, repeatedly proven starting point for most teas brewed European-style - black, green, oolong, white. In practice 2 grams is roughly a heaped teaspoon, but that is where the trouble begins, as we will see in a moment. From this ratio you nudge up or down depending on the specific tea and your own taste, but as a default it rarely lets you down and almost always gives a drinkable brew. Many producers print similar guidance on the packet, so this is not a whim but a settled standard.
The teaspoon lies - why a scale is worth buying
Measuring by teaspoon has one serious, often unnoticed flaw: different teas have different density and volume. A light, fluffy green sencha or white Bai Mu Dan takes up a completely different volume by the spoon than an oolong tightly rolled into balls or a finely broken, dense bagged tea. The same heaped teaspoon can in practice mean 1.5 grams or even 4 grams of the same leaf. That is why a small kitchen scale accurate to 0.1 gram is the cheapest investment that instantly and lastingly improves the consistency of your brew. Weigh once, see with your own eyes what your 2 grams of a given, specific tea looks like, and after that you will estimate by eye, but sensibly.
Western brewing - lots of water, once or twice
The method most of us know from home is western brewing: relatively much water, little leaf, a long steep of several minutes. Here you stay around 2 grams per 200 ml, that is roughly 0.5-1 gram per 100 ml of water, and brew once, perhaps a second time slightly longer, to draw out the rest of the flavour. It is a convenient, quick and time-saving approach for the everyday mug or a big pot for several people. It is ideal for the morning black with milk or the afternoon green at work. If, however, you want to squeeze far more, and far more nuanced, brews out of a good leaf, reach for a different philosophy - and here gongfu enters. We covered multiple steepings separately in our piece on brewing tea multiple times.
Gongfu brewing - lots of leaf, little water, many steeps
The Chinese gongfu method turns the ratio literally upside down: lots of leaf, very little water, and short steeps of a dozen-odd seconds repeated many times in a row. Here the dose jumps to 3-6 grams per 100 ml of water, and for oolong, dark tea or pu-erh you often pile 5-7 grams into a small 100-150 ml gaiwan. Each steep lasts literally seconds, and the same leaf yields five, ten, sometimes more successive infusions, each tasting a little different - the first one way, the fifth another. It is a completely different ritual and a different economy: the leaf works far harder, and you watch the tea change from steep to steep, which is half the pleasure of the method.
How ratio plays with time and temperature
The three parameters are like connected vessels and cannot be considered separately. When you use a lot of leaf (as in gongfu), you must cut the steeping time drastically, or the brew turns bitter and astringent in a flash. When the leaf is scarce (western brewing), you must lengthen the time just to draw its full flavour and colour out at all. That is why no single universal number of seconds can be given apart from the dose - it is always a pair. If your brew stubbornly comes out bitter, you have two simple routes: shorten the time or reduce the dose of leaf - both lead to the same gentler result. You will find more practical tips in our guide to brewing tea.
Each tea type likes it a little differently
The 2 grams per 200 ml point is a practical average, but individual types of tea have their distinct preferences. Delicate greens and whites prefer rather less leaf and a lower water temperature, so no rough bitterness emerges and the tannins do not dominate. Strong, full black teas and aged shou pu-erh comfortably take more leaf and a higher temperature. Oolongs, especially those tightly rolled into balls, open slowly and reluctantly, so in gongfu in particular they like a solid, generous dose. Do not memorise all of this from tables - start from the 2 g per 200 ml standard and simply note what tastes best to you with each tea. After a few conscious trials, every one of them will find its own favourite ratio in your hands.
Tune it to yourself and write it down
At the very end comes the most important rule, more important than all the numbers: these ratios are a starting point, not a verdict or a sacred law. One person likes a stronger, meatier brew, another a gentler, more floral one; one water pulls more from the leaf, another less; one mug holds 200 ml, another 350. Change the dose half a gram at a time and watch carefully how the flavour of the brew shifts - that is absolutely the best school of tea, better than any guide. The key is repeatability: if you know exactly how much you put in, you can improve the next brew consciously and deliberately, instead of starting from a guess every time. Tea stops being a household lottery only when you start to actually measure it.
Note your ratios in GustoNote - the dose in grams, the water volume, the temperature, the time and the final flavour impression. After a dozen entries you will have your own fully proven and personal table: for every tea of yours, exactly the dose that reliably hits your taste every single time.