How to brew tea?
If you start with a packaged tea bag you simply add hot water with a temperature suggested in the tea chart on the website.
It is very important that the city water must be boiled for a few minutes to dechlorinate. I would prefer high quality spring water or purified water.
The preferred tea ware are china, ceramic, clay and glass. paper and plastic ware are less desirable.
A tea pot with a built-in strainer or a fine mesh brewing basket are good choice. Tea balls are usually too small and restrictive for whole leaf teas but it is workable with fine cut teas.
It is always a good idea to rinse the leaves before brewing to clean the leaves and to let the dry leaves be hydrated a little for the subsequent brewing.
Use the suggested water temperature makes sense if you preheat your tea set or brewing ware. Otherwise use a higher temperature is more practical to compensate the temperature loss to the cold pot and glass.
To brew multiple time with the same leaves: Always drain the tea pot at each brewing. Don't let the leaves to be soaked in the pot. The time for the second brew should be shorter than the first and the third brew should be longer than the first to yield more consistent brews.
Even so, the first brew tends to be lighter taste but more flagrant, the second brew has more taste but less flagrant than the first. The third brew in general is lighter overall. For some very high quality teas, you could brew up to five times with consistent middle brews.
