The short answer
Brew Tieguanyin the way its makers intend: a high leaf rate in a small vessel, water just off the boil, and infusions poured off in seconds rather than minutes. The working frame is about 7 grams of leaf in a 110 ml gaiwan, water at 95-100°C, and a first pour that empties the pot almost immediately, followed by rounds that stretch a little longer each time. That combination is not ceremony for its own sake. Tieguanyin is rolled into tight granules that need heat and concentration to open, and the quick decant gives you the aroma without the stew. Every figure here is a trade reference point: the exact numbers move with the style, the season and the lot, so treat the sheet below as the starting frame you tune by cupping, not a fixed law.
The parameter sheet
| Parameter | Clean-aroma style | Roasted style |
|---|---|---|
| Leaf per 110 ml vessel | 7 g | 7 g |
| Water temperature | 95-100°C | 95-100°C |
| First infusion | A fast decant, seconds on the clock | A fast decant; a brief wake-up pour is common house style |
| Later rounds | Add roughly 5-10 seconds per round | Similar, with more patience in the late rounds |
| Usable infusions | Typically six or more | Often more; the roast carries the late rounds |
| Vessel | Porcelain gaiwan shows the style best | Gaiwan or clay; tolerates thermos holding better |
Two style notes matter more than the decimals. Clean-aroma Tieguanyin is judged on its orchid fragrance and fresh, mineral finish, so everything in the recipe protects those top notes. Roasted Tieguanyin trades some of the lift for body and caramel depth, and forgives small mistakes in timing. Autumn Anxi lots usually lean aromatic, spring lots lean body. Confirm which style a lot belongs to before you write the recipe card, because the same leaf name covers both.
Why 7 grams in a small vessel
The ratio looks extreme until you see what it buys. Seven grams in 110 ml is several times the leaf concentration of a Western mug brew, and it changes what the tea can show. At that concentration, the volatile aromatics that make clean-aroma Tieguanyin famous arrive in the first seconds of the pour, and the half-opened granule keeps releasing for round after round. A mug brew of the same leaf gives one long, gentle extraction: pleasant and rounder, far less aromatic, effectively a different drink. Neither is wrong. The point for a buyer is that the two styles need different leaf rates, different timings and a different story on the menu, and the parameter sheet keeps them from being confused.
The small vessel also gives the operator a control a mug never can: pour the liquor off completely and extraction stops. Tea left standing on its leaf keeps brewing, and a gaiwan forgotten for ten minutes is a stewed drink no lot can rescue. Decanting fully, every round, is the single habit that separates controlled gongfu service from an inconsistent one.
Pour timing: short first, then longer
Round one is essentially a decant: water on, lid on, pour off. Aromatic Anxi lots open fast, and holding the first infusion only costs aroma. Rounds two to four are where the cup earns its keep - full fragrance, texture, the lingering finish the style is known for - and each later round stretches by roughly five to ten seconds as the leaf gives up what it has left. The practical cue for a new brewer is simple: lid on, a slow count, pour. Watch the liquor more than the clock. When the color thins and the aroma flattens, stretch the round again or retire the leaf; there is no virtue in serving an empty infusion. Most lots hold six or more usable rounds, which is why programs that brew this way account for leaf cost per session rather than per cup.
Scaling the method to a menu
Gongfu parameters scale by proportion, not by guesswork. Keep grams of leaf per 100 ml of water constant and the character travels from a 110 ml gaiwan to a 300 ml pot with only the timings adjusted. What does not scale is leaving tea standing on its leaf: batch brewing works only if the liquor is fully decanted at the right moment, which is why most venues brew oolong per order or in small controlled batches. Style choice does the rest of the work. Roasted Tieguanyin tolerates a thermos and a delivery lid far better than clean-aroma lots, whose top notes fade quickly in holding; put the roasted style on room service and takeaway, and the clean-aroma style where the cup is poured and drunk within minutes.
Equipment stays modest: a gaiwan, a pitcher, a scale reading to a tenth of a gram, and a timer - the same kit assembled in the tea set bundle the desk puts together for hospitality programs. Write the recipe on a card at the station, weigh rather than scoop, and calibrate new staff against a reference brew kept from the approved sample. The gongfu basics note covers the training routine in detail, and the line page for Tieguanyin carries the per-lot sheet behind these numbers.
Water rounds out the station. Oolong is easier here than green tea - the instruction is boiling water, not a variable - but chlorine and off-odors still land in the cup, so venues that take oolong seriously filter their water and keep the kettle descaled; the water quality note covers that side. Session counts follow from the format: at 7 grams a session and six or more rounds, a kilogram covers a long stretch of table service, one of the reasons tea houses build their programs on these leaves.
What to confirm before you order
Before comparing quotations, pin the style: clean-aroma or roasted, and the roast date if roasted. Then pin the season, and ask for the brew sheet that travels with the lot rather than a generic category description. Cup the sample in your own water at your own ratio before any volume decision, because a lot that shines in the cupping room can read differently at your bar. The desk coordinates samples from partner gardens and packing facilities, cup-checks against the agreed profile, and confirms the final parameters in writing with each program. Start from the Tieguanyin line page or send the profile you want to hit through the quote form. For how this style sits against a Wuyi roast, see the Tieguanyin and Da Hong Pao comparison, and for the arithmetic of strong sessions versus weak mugs, the strength and cup-cost note.