Brewing Dark tea without a kitchen
Dark tea is surprisingly well suited to brewing away from a kitchen, because it wants boiling water and nothing else. Every office dispenser and hotel kettle delivers exactly what it needs.
The one extra step is the rinse. Pour boiling water over the leaf, wait five to ten seconds, discard it, and then brew. That wakes up compressed leaf and washes off the dust from a broken cake.
After that it is short steeps at a heavy ratio: 5 grams in a mug with a basket, 30 seconds, then add 15 seconds each time you top up.
One dose will last a whole morning. Dark tea gives eight to fifteen infusions, and the flavour shifts across them rather than fading, which makes it the most economical tea to keep at a desk.
Ripe pu-erh is the easiest form for an office, because it is forgiving of timing and tastes much the same whether you are attentive or not.
Raw pu-erh is worth the trouble if you like it, but it is harsh for the first two or three steeps and needs more attention than a busy morning usually allows.
The office setup
The office setup is a mug or small pot with a roomy basket, a thermos if you can, and a tin of leaf plus something to break a cake with.
A small cake and a pu-erh knife is a more practical desk kit than it sounds. A 100 gram cake lasts a fortnight and takes up less room than a bag of loose leaf.
The thermos is what makes dark tea work at a desk. One fill of boiling water in the morning gives you eight or more steeps without a single trip to the dispenser.
Use a basket with room. Dark tea leaf expands as it opens, and a cramped infuser gives you a weak first steep and a muddy second.
Keep the cake wrapped in its paper and in a tin or a box. Loose chunks in a drawer will pick up the smell of the office, and dark tea holds onto it.
And pre-portion if you can. Five gram packets of broken cake make the morning two steps instead of four.
On the road
Travelling with dark tea is easy and rewarding, because a small amount goes a very long way. A few chunks of cake will see you through a week.
The thermos method is the one to use. Five grams in a 500 millilitre flask, boiling water, and sip over hours. Top it up when it runs low rather than starting again.
Dark tea is one of the few categories that improves in a thermos. The sustained heat keeps pulling character out of the leaf, and a ripe pu-erh left in a flask for an hour is genuinely good.
Boiling it, in the traditional way, is also possible with a hotel kettle. Simmer a few grams for ten minutes for a thick, dark, earthy cup that is closer to how it is drunk in parts of China.
Cold brewing works, though it is the least interesting option for dark tea. The aged and roasted character needs heat to come out.
Pack cake in its wrapper and then in a tin. It is robust, but it will perfume whatever it travels with if it is loose.
What to skip
Skip the rinse at your peril. Dark tea that has not been rinsed tastes dusty and flat, and the first steep is wasted.
Skip using too little leaf. Dark tea needs a heavy ratio, and a green tea dose gives you coloured water, which is the most common reason people think they dislike the category.
Skip judging a raw pu-erh on the first steep. It is often harsh and bitter for the first two or three, and it opens afterwards.
Skip brewing it at less than a full boil. Dark tea is aged and compressed, and cooler water gives you almost nothing.
And skip the tiny infusers. Compressed leaf expands a lot, and a small basket will strangle it.
If you take one thing: a thermos and a cake will give you a week of good tea with no kitchen at all.