I receive a number of email messages about the necessary equipment and tools to brew loose-leaf green tea from home, while traveling, and at work.
Assuming you are new to green tea or just loose-leaf tea in general, please don't get all hung up on all the exact specifications on brewing green tea. Many of the instructions on brewing green tea talk about exact temperatures of water and precise per oz servings of tea per cup. After 5 years of drinking green tea and owning an online green tea store, I have learned that you need to have fun with it just like a chef who uses a pinch of this and a sprinkle of that.
For example, I have a nice collection of Yixing Tea Pots, but I rarely use them. They are more decorative than anything and are not required to brew and drink quality green tea. I also have a lot of exotic tea cups from China and Japan, but my favorite tea cups are the ones that I pick up on vacation with my family. They have cool memories that make me smile and think back to those relaxing days of vacations. Many of them are also oversized tea cups, because my kids are often bumping into my desk or tables where I sit my tea, and the oversize tea cups provide that reassurance that the hot tea will not spill and burn them.
So you don't need any fancy equipment to brew quality green tea. Aside from my favorite tea cup, I mainly use a coffee press and any sauce pan I have hanging around the kitchen.
Doesn't get any simpler than that :) Place your loose-leaf green tea in the coffee press and then pour your water over it to steep. Press the tea leaves below the surface of the water, but not completely down so they can dance around in the water. After steeping, pour into your cup!
I recommend a coffee press that has a strainer up on the lid as well so that any leaves that happen to work themselved around the press will be caught by the strainer on the cofee press lid. This extra protection keeps the cup more clear and more inviting for guests.
It is really that simple and inexpensive and how I brew green tea daily and nightly. Note that this will work for black tea, oolong tea, white tea, etc.
You can learn more about China Green Tea and Japan Green Tea at my online green tea store. If you have any questions, please just send me an email.