Re: Steep water losing heat to brew vessel

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For what it's worth:

It makes sense that a cold vessel with greater mass will absorb more heat from a cup of water poured into it than would either a cold vessel with less mass, or a preheated vessel of any mass. The ratio of "calories needed to heat the vessel" to "calories available in the tea steep water" is also probably less favorable when the water quantity is a cup as compared to a potful. Comparatively speaking, there'd not be as much heat available in the newly-added water proportionate to the mass of the heat-hungry vessel. That is, hotting a pot might draw off, say, 6% of the calories in the water, hotting a cup might draw off 13 or 14% of the calories in the water. (These are entirely made-up numbers for illustration only.)

Anyway, you already know the temperature currently ends up lower than you want with a cup of water added to a cold cup. So, logically, the next thing to try is to add a preliminary cup of water for the express purpose of pre-heating the cup, toss it out, and add a fresh cup for steeping. The steep water will lose less heat during steeping because the cup won't be so eager to draw it away. Once the cup has been pre-heated, the steep water in a more massive cup or mug may maintain heat better than that in a pre-heated thin cup, which would be a more effective radiator to the surrounding air.

It remains to be seen whether that will be enough of an improvement to serve your brewing goals. I also tend to put a saucer over the cup while steeping to delay heat loss, to retain heat for the steep.. If you're still a few degrees shy of what you want, you can try pre-heating a small vacuum bottle as your steep vessel.

Hope this helps some ... Good luck, good leaf.

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