There is a teapot on the kitchen shelf and a mug on the desk at work. Even for one person, the convenient form changes with the place the tea is made. A first packet is easier to choose by where and how it will be brewed than by brand.

What follows looks in turn at the equipment used, how much is made at once, and what to try next.

A cup to begin with

Pour hot water into a cup on the desk and the steam rises straight up. Without a teapot, a cup is enough to begin.

One stem tea's tea bags come with instructions to put them in a cup and pour on boiling water. For loose leaf measured into a teapot, the amounts to look at are the tea and the water. Whether the maker's method can be followed with the equipment at hand is the first thing to check.

The sources cover one product's instructions, no more. Checked in advance, there is less chance of discovering after buying that something is missing. Next, how tea bags are counted.

One bag is not always one serving

Tea bags come wrapped one by one. That does not make each bag one serving.

The hot-brewing method for that stem tea uses two bags in boiling water for a short steep. Take the single wrapping to mean one serving and the tea is used differently from the maker's instructions. For cold brewing, the same number of bags goes into a generous amount of cold water and is left for a long time.

With the same number of bags, the method and the water change what is made. The sources speak for this one product. How much to make depends on the method as well as the bag count. Last, what comes after the cup is empty.

A few words after the last sip

At the bottom of an empty cup, a pale brown remains. A first packet is a starting point for choosing the next.

Worth keeping are the product name, the method used and a word about how it fitted the day. Phrases like "this format I could keep up" or "I'd like to make a little less" are enough. No specialist aroma vocabulary is needed for a note that helps the next choice.

This is one example of a useful note, and no more than that. The figures and where they come from are gathered at the end.

The numbers in detail

The product
The example is Maruhachi Seichajo's Kenjō Kaga Bōcha tea bags.
Cup method
Putting the bags in a cup and pouring on boiling water is one of the methods given.
Hot brewing
2 bags with 260 mL of boiling water.
Steeping time
45 seconds for the hot method.
Cold brewing
The same 2 bags with 600 mL of cold water.
Cold-brew time
3 hours.