Outdoor Brewing Methods

by Stuart Roland | Steepful

Over many years, in different settings and seasons, I have tried different methods of brewing and enjoying tea outdoors. I have settled on a few methods that work best for me and choose between them based on what kind of tea I would like, where I am going, how much time I have available, and so on. For anyone curious why I enjoy taking my tea outdoors, consider reading my article Leaves and Water: Tea as a Guide to Connect with Nature.

Thermos and Cup

The simplest, easiest, and fastest method of enjoying tea outdoors is to simply brew your tea at home, most likely in a teapot, and transfer it to a thermos that you can bring with you. The only other thing you will need is a nice cup. So again, for my easiest and most portable setup I will bring my hot or iced tea in a thermos, along with a cup wrapped in a cloth to protect it in a bag or backpack, head out, and enjoy.

Thermos, Gaiwan, and Cup

The most flexible option for brewing tea on the go is to pack a thermos of hot water, a gaiwan, a cup, and some tea leaves. I greatly prefer brewing my tea outdoors instead of brewing it all beforehand. Brewing it outside with you makes your tea session a more involved - and in my opinion, more rewarding - experience. With a gaiwan, generally only big enough to hold just one or two cupfuls at a time, each cup of tea is different. As the tea leaves gradually unfurl and release their ensemble of nutrients and flavors into each cup, one after the other, you will have much more of a chance to observe and appreciate their nature, their subtleties. You are also able to control how long each cupful steeps in the gaiwan before pouring it, meaning you can steep each cup a bit longer than the last to get more out of the leaves and allowing you to appreciate their full spectrum of flavors as they unfold into each cup.

To prepare for an outdoor gaiwan tea session, I wrap my gaiwan up in a cloth or two, making sure to wrap the lid separately from the chamber so they do not clink together and chip in transit, as well as my cup. I then pick out a selection of tea to brew and heat my water according to how that tea is best brewed. Since I heat my water at home and take it in a thermos, I heat my water more than if I were to use it immediately, since there is no perfect thermos and the water will almost surely cool slightly by the time I pour it. In my experience, I try to heat my water about 2 - 5°F or 1 - 3°C hotter than I intend to brew at and then try to use the water within about an hour or two at most. Then all you will need to do is bring your teaware and thermos out to a nice spot where you can set yourself up. Personally, I love finding a nice log I can set up on and have a nice outdoor gaiwan tea session.

Kettle, Gaiwan, and Cup

For an even more involved outdoor tea session, you can bring along a tea kettle and heat your water over a fire. My tool of choice for this the Kelly Kettle, but there are many other great options. With my kettle, I can build a little fire with dry sticks I find outside and heat up a liter of water in about 10 minutes. Ideally you could source your water from a safe and trusted water source in your local outdoor area and thus connect your tea session even more to your environment. Sadly in my case, living in a relatively urban area, many such water sources cannot be trusted, so I bring my own filtered water from home in a bottle, along with my kettle and teaware.

The main benefits of this longer, more involved method of enjoying tea outdoors are that it demands more of your attention, connects you more to your environment and, in my experience, makes you appreciate your tea even more in the end. Since the process of making and tending a fire is necessarily an involved one, heating your water for tea this way forces you to focus and work more on your tea session than simply using a stove-top or electric kettle. You must search around your area to find proper kindling and fuel, as well as find or clear a small area to safely set up your kettle, thus forcing you interact with and understand your environment in new ways. Since it can be fairly hard work starting and tending a fire long enough to boil water, it is very satisfying to drink in the fruits of your effort. You also have more direct control over the temperature of your water and can thus brew teas, such as puerh teas, which may be best brewed at higher temperatures that are hard to maintain in a thermos. So while boiling one's water outdoors is not the most convenient or practical method, as one that calls for safety and preparation, it is a brewing method that I like to practice every so often to deepen my connection to my local environment and my appreciation for tea.