Pick a tea, hit start, and pour when it chimes. The useful part is not the beep; it is the preset curve. Green tea does not follow the same timing as shu puerh, and the timer keeps those schedules separate.

It runs entirely in your browser: nothing to install, no account, and the steep times come from this site's own first-party brewing data, not a paid lookup.

How gongfu timing works

Gongfu brewing uses a small vessel (gaiwan or Yixing pot) with more leaf per millilitre than a western mug, then pours off very quickly — 8 to 30 seconds per steep depending on the tea. The short pour is what keeps the flavour clean and lets you taste how each steep develops.

The timer tracks which steep you're on and follows each tea's guide. These are the current curves it uses:

Preset	Rinse	Water	Steep curve
Black	No	95 °C	8s → 12s → 20s → 30s
Green	No	80 °C	15s → 25s → 40s
White	No	80 °C	20s → 30s → 45s → 70s
Oolong	Yes	90 °C	15s → 20s → 30s → 45s → 60s
Sheng puerh	Yes	90 °C	10s → 15s → 20s → 30s
Shu puerh	Yes	95 °C	10s → 15s → 20s → 30s → 45s
Herbal	No	100 °C	6 min

That is the edge case a plain phone timer misses: the next steep is not always "add 5 seconds." Rolled oolong opens slowly; green tea needs cooler water and fewer rounds; compressed puerh often wants a rinse before the first drinkable cup; herbal tea is the opposite edge case, a single longer infusion.

Which teas to use it with

The timer has presets for black, green, white, oolong, sheng puerh, shu puerh, and herbal tea. Most presets are repeat-steep schedules; herbal tea is included as a single long steep because the longer wait is exactly where people drift away from the cup.

Not sure how much leaf to use? The grams calculator pairs directly with this timer.

New to short-steep brewing? Start with the shu puerh tablet guide or read how long to steep each tea. If a cup already tastes bitter, weak, flat, or too strong, use the bad-tea troubleshooting guide before changing everything at once.