Sometimes you’ll find yourself having to make tea for more guests that what your teapot allows, or perhaps you need to make a large amount of tea for an event.
What can you do?
I’ve done tea events for several years.
These are the options that have worked for me.
Multiple infusions
Let’s say that your teapot can make tea for six, but you need to make tea for twelve people at once.
One option is to make the first infusion, serve it into the twelve tea cups, and then serve the next infusion (using the same tea leaves) so that all the tea cups are full and evenly distributed.
This is easier with teas that have shorter infusion times. That way the tea won’t cool too much.
If you haven’t read it yet, here’s my post on re-steeping Japanese tea.
Concentrated infusion
The second option is to use double the amount of tea leaves but use the same time, temperature, and volume of water.
Now you have a concentrated tea. All you need to do is to add an equal amount of hot water and you’ll have double the amount of tea.
You can mix it in a larger container, or just add the hot water to the concentrate in each tea cup.
Thermal beverage dispenser
With this method, I once served tea for more than a hundred people at once.
I have bought many of these thermal beverage dispensers. Each one can serve 3 liters (100 oz) of tea or more, there are different sizes available.
Since it retains heat, you can prepare the tea beforehand and it will still be hot at the event.
It’s very simple to use and clean.
Also, you can use the method of the concentrated infusion with the dispenser
