Multi-Cup Tea Timer

When you need to brew multiple teas at once

A single tea timer works for one cup of green tea. But three common situations need parallel brewing — and trying to track multiple steeps mentally (or with one timer reset between cups) leaves at least one tea over-steeped:

• Tea parties. Different guests want different teas. Without parallel brewing, the first cup goes cold while the second steeps. With parallel brewing, every cup is ready at the same time.
• Side-by-side tastings. Comparing two oolongs, three pu-erhs, or a vintage-to-vintage comparison requires the cups to brew at the same time so taste-memory comparisons are fair. A 30-second gap between brews ruins the comparison.
• Mixed-household needs.One strong black tea for the morning, one chamomile for the kids, one decaffeinated for a partner — all steeping at the same time so the kitchen doesn't become a tea bottleneck.

How to use this multi-cup timer

1. Three cups load by default — green, oolong, black. Each shows its tea-type name and its default steep time.
2. Change a tea typeusing the dropdown at the top of each cup card. The duration resets automatically to that tea's default (green 2 min, black 4 min, herbal 6 min, matcha 30s, etc.).
3. Add or remove cups with the Add Cup button or the × on each card. Maximum six cups.
4. Tap Start Allwhen everyone is pouring simultaneously, or use each cup's Start button to stagger.
5. Enable audio using the speaker icon — each cup chimes individually when it finishes.
6. Share your setup by tapping the link icon. The URL encodes the full cup set with names and durations; opening the link recreates the same configuration.

How to time a multi-tea tasting

The technique is the same as cooking a multi-dish meal — work backwards from when you want everything ready. For a 4-cup tasting where you want every cup poured at the same moment:

1. Boil enough water for all four cups — typically 700-900ml depending on cup size. Use one large kettle, not four small ones.
2. Pre-warm all four vessels. Pour a splash of boiling water into each, swirl, discard. This step matters more than most home tea drinkers realise — cold porcelain robs heat from the brew and changes the result.
3. Measure leaf into all four vessels before pouring water into any of them. Trying to measure and pour at the same time means at least one cup over-steeps.
4. Pour water into each vessel as fast as possible, then tap Start All. The 5-10 second gap between the first and last pour is well within tolerance for everything except Sencha and Silver Needle.
5. Strain into tasting cups when the chime sounds. Each cup has its own chime — you don't need to watch the page.

Cup card colors

Each cup card uses two visual states. Brewing cards show the countdown in foreground text with a progress bar at the bottom. Finished cardsturn green-tinted and display "Done!" — this is the cue to strain. Other cups continue independently; finishing one doesn't pause the others.

Related

For a single tea with auto-progressing multi-infusion steps, see the gongfu cha timer instead — that's the right tool for one oolong or one pu-erh session with 8+ infusions. For a generic multi-timer without tea presets (handy for cooking + tea + bread proofing simultaneously), see the kitchen multi-timer.