> On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:59:24 -0700, Square Peg
> wrote:
>

>>[...]
>>How useful would it be to draw 3-4 cups from the same pot every
>>minute?
>>
>>Let say I put 8 g of tea in a 4-cup pot and bring 32 oz of water to a
>>boil. I pour the water over the tea and start a timer. When it gets to
>>1 minute, I pour off 8 oz through a strainer into cup #1. At 2
>>minutes, I pour off another 8 oz into cup #2. At 3 minutes I pour off
>>another 8 oz into cup #3, and at 4 minutes the last 8 oz into cup #4.
>>
>>Now I have 4 cups to compare side by side.
>>
>>Cup 1 is 2.0g/cup for 1 minute
>>Cup 2 is 2.7g/cup for 2 minutes
>>Cup 3 is 4.0g/cup for 3 minutes
>>Cup 4 is 8.0g/cup for 4 minutes
>>
>>I am varying both time and strength. Is this data worth anything?

>
> After watching the SteapTV video and doing a little more thinking, I
> realized that my strength numbers above are off.
>
> In my example above, the first cup, drawn at 1 minute, is at 2g/cup
> strength. However, the second cup is NOT at 2.7g/cup. That cup was
> brewed for 1 minute at 2g/cup and for 1 minute at 2.67g/cup. The
> average is 2.33 g/cup. Cup #3 is the average of three 1-minute brews
> at different strengths and cup #4 is the average of 4. The following
> table shows the calculations.
>
> Water = water remaining. Subtract 1 cup each iteration.
> Min = Total minutes of brewing time.
> g/cup = grams/cup during that interval.
> = grams-of-tea / water-remaining
> Tea-Min = Total tea-minutes.
> = (grams/cup) * (additional-minutes)
> Cum = Cumulative sum of tea-minutes.
> Ave = Average strength
> = Cum / Min
>
> Cup# Water Min g/cup Tea-Min Cum Ave
> 1 4 cups 1 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
> 2 3 cups 2 2.67 2.67 4.67 2.33
> 3 2 cups 3 4.00 4.00 8.67 2.89
> 4 1 cup 4 8.00 8.00 16.67 4.17
>
> Cup #4 is actually at 4.17 g/cup and not 8g/cup as I said above.
>
> If the cups are not drawn at 1-minute intervals, as in the SteapTV
> video, then the table is as follows:
>
> Cup# Water Min g/cup Tea-Min Cum Ave
> 1 3 cups 3 2.00 6.00 6.00 2.00
> 2 2 cups 5 3.00 6.00 12.00 2.40
> 3 1 cup 7 6.00 12.00 24.00 3.43
>
> Note that the tea-minutes are not equal to the g/cup.
>
> If my calculations are correct, this method is a better way to compare
> steep times than I thought.