Fix a weak or bitter cup
Mark a cup weak or bitter, or say it dried your mouth, and Steepbook suggests the one lever most likely to help: more leaf, a shorter steep, cooler water. Pip points you shorter or longer.
Coming soon to iPhone and Android
Dial in once. Remember every steep.
Your tea logbook
Remembers the steep that tasted right for every tea, teaware, brew style and water, and times every steep of the next session.
No phone to hand? Open Steepbook in your browser, and sync it with your phone through Google Drive.
20
Free to use, with every feature included and nothing to unlock. Offline-first and private: no account, no ads, no tracking.
Brew it your way
- Gongfu
- Western
- Grandpa
- Kyusu
- Matcha
- Cold brew
- Iced
- Milk tea
Dial in once
Stop guessing every new pouch.
The steep that suits a tea depends on the leaf, the pot, the way you brew it and even the water. Steepbook keeps every combination apart and puts the answer front and centre: the first steep, big.
Pin what tastes right
One pinned session per tea, teaware, style and water
Open the app, find your tea, and the steep is there in big, clear numbers. Pin the session that nailed it and Steepbook shows it first, next time and every time.
- Leaf, water, temperature, rinse and the whole steep schedule with every session
- Rate each cup, mark it weak, balanced or bitter, and note how drying it felt
- Harvest season at a glance, and a nudge when a green tea is past its best
The steep timer
A timer that knows the next steep
Start a session and the timer counts down each steep of the schedule: tap to pour, hear the chime, tap for the next one. Steep a little longer or shorter as you go and save the session with the steeps you actually used.
- A chime and a buzz at the end of every steep, and a steep counter
- Make the next steep 5 s shorter or longer without leaving the timer
- The screen stays awake while it runs; one long countdown for Western cups
Steep schedules
The first steep, then the increment
A gongfu session is a run of steeps, so Steepbook keeps the whole schedule: the first steep, how much longer each one gets, and how many the leaf gave. Or list every steep yourself, like a kyusu's long, short, longer.
20 s +5 s10 s +5 s60 · 10 · 30 s4:00 min6 hours
- The dial steps 5 s for gongfu, 15 s for a Western pot and half an hour for cold brew
- Time reads like the style: seconds for gongfu, minutes for Western, hours for cold brew
- After a weak, bitter or drying cup, Pip suggests the one thing to change next
Teaware and water
Leaf works itself out. Water counts.
Tell Steepbook your gaiwan holds 100 ml and it does the sums: a new tea starts with the right leaf for that pot and that type, rounded to the half gram. Water is part of the combination too, because the same leaf tastes different in soft spring water and hard tap.
- Gaiwans, clay pots, kyusu, teapots, glasses and bowls, each with its volume and a photo
- Waters by kind (tap, filtered, bottled, spring, remineralised, distilled) and TDS
- Each water keeps its own pinned session for the same tea and pot
Your tea, in numbers
Stats that show you're getting better
The Stats tab turns your log into the bigger picture: how often you steep, how quickly you dial in a new tea, and whether more of your cups are landing balanced than last month. It's all worked out on your phone, like everything else.
- Streaks, this week against last, and a 12-week calendar
- How many sessions it takes to dial a tea in, and your weak, balanced and bitter split
- Most-steeped teas, types, origins and vendors
- Leaf, temperature and rating for each brew style
Also in the app
Everything else that gets you to a better cup
Harvest, not best-before
Cards show "harvested Spring 2026". Greens, yellows and matcha warn when they're past a year; pu-erh and aged whites count their years instead.
Scan the pouch
Take a photo of the label and Steepbook fills in the vendor, tea name, type, origin, cultivar and harvest. The label is read on your phone, never uploaded.
Better session? Make it the one
When a new session rates higher than the pinned one, Steepbook offers to make it the dialed-in steep, so the best cup is always the one you see first.
Time the way you think of it
Seconds for a gongfu steep, minutes for a Western pot, hours for a jar of cold brew in the fridge. Type it like a timer.
Make it yours
Two colour themes in light and dark, an alternate app icon on iPhone, your wallpaper's colours on Android, and Pip, a small gaiwan who cheers you on.
Learn, built in
A tea guide in your pocket
Plain, short starting points in our own words, there when you open a tea you've never brewed. It works without signal.
Brew guide by tea type
Leaf, water temperature and a steep schedule for green, white, yellow, oolong, black, pu-erh, dark and herbal, gongfu or Western, kyusu, grandpa, cold brew or iced.
Short articles
Leaf, heat and time; water temperature by tea; gongfu steeping; rinsing; water; freshness and storage; the families of tea; dialing in a new one.
A glossary
Gaiwan, gong dao bei, kill-green, flush, hui gan: the words on vendor pages and forums, in plain language.
Recipes
Gongfu rolled oolong, sencha in a kyusu, usucha, cold brew green, masala chai and more. "Brew this" opens a session ready to go.
Private by design
Your tea log stays yours.
Steepbook collects nothing. There's no account and no Steepbook server: your log lives on your phone, and optional sync keeps a private copy in a hidden folder in your own iCloud or Google Drive.
No account, no tracking
No sign-up, no ads, no analytics.
Works offline
Everything happens on your phone, at the tea table.
Your own cloud
Sync through your iCloud or Google Drive, never ours.
Zero lock-in
Export JSON or CSV any time, and restore backups.
How it works
Three steps to your dialed-in log
Add your teaware
Gaiwan, clay pot, kyusu or mug, with how much water it holds.
Add a tea
Vendor, type, origin, cultivar, harvest and a photo of the pouch. Or scan the label and let Steepbook fill it in.
Steep, taste, pin
Start from the brew guide, time each steep, note how it tasted, and pin the session that's dialed in.
Brewing guides
Get to a great cup faster
How to brew gongfu styleA small pot, plenty of leaf and a run of short steeps.
Tea water temperature chartHow hot the water should be for every type of tea.
Gongfu ratio and steep timesLeaf for your pot and a schedule for every tea type.
Why is my tea bitter?Bitter and drying cups, and what to change first.
Why is my tea weak?Thin, watery cups, and why more leaf beats longer steeps.
LearnShort articles on leaf, heat and time, water, freshness and more, and a glossary.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Is Steepbook free?
Yes. Steepbook is free to download and free to use, with every feature included. There's no subscription, no ads and nothing to unlock.
When can I get Steepbook?
Steepbook is coming soon to iPhone and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play will appear here as soon as the store pages are live. Until then you can try it in your browser.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no sign-up and no Steepbook account. Everything works offline on your phone. Sync is optional.
What does "dialed in" mean for tea?
It's the session that tasted right for one tea in one teaware, brewed one way, with one water: its leaf, water temperature and steep schedule. Pin it and Steepbook shows it first whenever you pick that combination again.
Which brew styles does it support?
Gongfu, Western, grandpa style, kyusu, matcha, cold brew, iced and milk tea are built in, and you can add your own. Each style keeps its own sessions, so your gongfu and Western steeps for the same tea never get mixed up.
Why does a different water get its own session?
What's dissolved in water changes how a tea tastes: very hard water dulls it and very soft water can taste flat. The same oolong in the same gaiwan with filtered tap water and with spring water keeps separate pinned sessions and history.
How does the steep timer work?
Start a session and the timer counts down each steep from the schedule, with a chime and a buzz at the end. Make the next steep 5 seconds shorter or longer as you go, then save the session with the steeps you actually used. The screen stays awake while it runs.
Can Steepbook help fix a weak or bitter cup?
Yes. Mark a session weak or bitter, or note that it was drying, and Steepbook suggests what to change next. For a weak gongfu session that's usually more leaf; for a bitter one, a shorter steep, and cooler water for greens, whites and young sheng. The guides on this site go through it.
Can it fill in a tea from a photo of the pouch?
Yes. Scan the pouch reads the label and fills in the vendor, name, type, origin, cultivar and harvest year or season for you to check. On iPhone it uses Apple's on-device text recognition and nothing leaves your phone. On Android it uses Google's ML Kit on the device; because ML Kit sends Google anonymous usage data, scanning stays off until you turn it on.
How does sync work?
Each device keeps its own copy and shares changes through a hidden folder in your own iCloud or Google Drive. On iPhone you can choose iCloud or Google Drive; on Android, Google Drive. Use Google Drive everywhere to share one log between iPhone and Android. Your log is never stored on a Steepbook server.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. Export a full JSON backup or a CSV of every session at any time, and restore a backup on another device.
Coming soon to iPhone and Android
Store links will appear here as soon as the App Store and Google Play pages are live. Free, with no account and no ads.
No phone to hand? Open Steepbook in your browser, and sync it with your phone through Google Drive.