At the front of the shelf sits a half-used bag of hojicha. Under the clip that closes it is a slip of paper written some time ago. Spoonfuls of leaf, how much water, how long it waited. Keep those three, and last week's cup comes back.

What follows is how to brew a cup on purpose: strength, then heat, then the second infusion, then how infusions add up.

Strength comes first

Scoop leaf with a tea spoon and the dry leaves rustle. The thing to settle first, and leave alone, is the strength.

Make the pairing of leaf and water a figure of one's own. Only then move the heat and the time, one at a time. Do it the other way round and there is no telling which change altered the taste.

No source decides which strength is best. The record supports only the order of the decisions. After the order comes the reason strength leads.

The backs of many packets

Line up the backs of many packets and the amount-of-leaf line drifts the furthest. Strength leads because the guides differ more on strength than on waiting time.

In a table of the published brewing guides, the leaf for a given amount of water varied several times over. Where in that range to set a baseline is for whoever drinks the tea.

How that range of strength affects the taste has not been measured. The record supports only how wide the drift is. After strength come the vessels that set the water's heat.

Each time the water is poured across

From kettle to pot, from pot to teacup. Each pour leaves the rising steam a little thinner. Heat can be made without a thermometer, from the number of vessels and the time spent waiting.

A guide on a government ministry's site says one transfer cools the water by 5–10°C. Boiling water moved into a pot comes to about 90°C, and moved on into a teacup about 80°C. Guides that recommend the 80s add a wait to this ladder. One tea shop says to pour into another vessel and leave it for about 1 minute.

What the record gives is a rough ladder, and no more. After the first infusion comes the water for the second.

At the second infusion, guides turn around

Once the first cup is poured off, the leaves lie open and plump in the pot. From the second infusion on, the guides face opposite ways.

Those that shorten it say to cut the wait below the first, or to pour at once without waiting. Those that raise it say to make the water hotter than the first time. Only the shorteners give a reason: the leaves are already open. None of the guides that cover a second infusion gives a third.

The record supports only that the advice splits. After the guides comes a cup from the measured side.

Brew short, then brew again

Second infusion, third: each pour leaves the cup a shade paler. Brewing short and repeating draws out more in total than stretching the wait.

An old report brewed several teas including hojicha in boiling water at different times, three infusions from the same leaf. Brewing short and repeating came out ahead of one long steep in total. The same leaf in a tea bag is usually meant to be brewed longer and hotter. No seller explains the difference, and no source has measured it.

The record supports only that this is said but not measured. What gets measured first is the roast, in Chapter 4. Keeping notes on each cup is the subject of Chapter 12. The basic method, tool by tool, is set out in How to brew hojicha: teapot, kettle, tea bags and cold brew. The figures are gathered below.

The numbers in detail

Range of strength
set the published brewing guides side by side and the leaf-to-water ratio spreads widely from one to the next. The table is in Hojicha brewing temperature: where 90°C for 30 seconds began.
Cooling ladder
from a PDF on the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries website, “How to Brew Delicious Tea”. One transfer cools by 5–10°C; boiling water moved into a pot is about 90°C, into a teacup about 80°C.
The one-minute wait
Minokamo Chaho says to pour into another vessel and leave it about 1 minute.
Shorter second infusion
the Shizuoka Prefectural Tea Industry Council gives about a third of the first; Nakamura Tokichi Honten pours without waiting. Fukujuen gives two-thirds as a general rule for any tea.
Hotter second infusion
Minokamo Chaho gives about 80°C for the first infusion and about 90°C for the second.
Reason, and the third
the Shizuoka Prefectural Tea Industry Council writes that at the second infusion the leaves are open. None of the five guides covering a second infusion gives conditions for a third.
Research on repeating
Yoneda and Katō's 1994 report. 3 g of leaf in each case; for hojicha and bancha, 100 mL of boiling water, 0.5–4 minutes, three infusions from the same leaf.
Tea bags
Maruhachi Seichajo's Kenjō Kaga Bōcha is 25 seconds as loose leaf and 45 seconds in a bag. Minokamo Chaho gives about 80°C for loose leaf and 90°C for the bag.