archived from: http://witches.gwendoline.at/tea.html
The Basics:
(1) For some very basic tea etiquette, particularly if you're brewing in a popular locale such as Granny's please first check to make sure no other witch is using the premises for brewing as well. Otherwise things can be come quite confusing and messy. This is particularly important if you use an alias to brew.
(2) Generically brewing basically revolves around a few items: a bottle, a heat source, water, an herb or a combination of herbs and extras, and your magic.methods.physical.brewing bonus.
(3) Making tea, in all cases, does not specifically need the brew command. Only three teas mandatory need brewed. Healing tea doesn't need to be brewed but is much more potent once it has been.
(4) Multiple bottles of tea can be brewed at once.
(5) Brewing is based on dexterity and intelligence. 3/5 dex and 2/5 int.
(6) Tea is a very popular commodity on the Disc and is easily sold though most people aren't interested in buying until you have at least a 200 bonus. At this point you can sell from person to person or in player shops.
(7) Secondly when it comes to selling tea you need a price. Don't cheat yourself out of the money your tea is worth but don't sell at such a high price there's no demand for it. Here is a guideline calculator for tea prices that I recommend checking out.
(8) Tea left on the fire too long will eventually begin to evaporate and/or burn.
The Precautions:
(1) Rumor has it that brewing larger quantities of bottles together makes the tea weaker. I have not noticed this to any great degree myself but I have only done limited testing. You have been warned. I personally tend to brew three bottles at a time. It's also important to keep in mind that bottles full of water are heavy which may burden you and in return affect your brewing bonus.
(2) Brewing can be dangerous, remember, you're dealing with a heat source that's boiling a liquid. When getting the bottles from the fire you can easily burn yourself and your tea. To a more serious degree the bottle can explode causing even greater damage. If necessary you can get a pair of oven mitts from Granny's kitchen to prevent burnt fingers.
(3) You cannot drink tea in combat. On occasion, though an extreme rarity, you may be able to take a quick nip which is possibly determined with a high enough dexterity. If you try chances are the bottle will be knocked out of your hands and then is split on the ground.
(4) It has also been suggested that stat items have no affect on overall health point recovery gained from tea or that stat items only affect lower bonus tea.
The Brewing Process:
After deciding on which tea you're making you'll need to head to a local Witches herb garden. Here you can "gather" the herbs you need. The next step is to "grind" the herbs using a grinder. These are in most of the cottages and you need to "put {herb} in grinder", "grind {herb} in grinder", "empty grinder" and then ground herb will then be in your inventory. At this point you'll begin putting "pinches" or even "handfuls" (one handful is the same as 50 pinches) of the herb into a bottle, fill the bottle from a water source, and brew your concoction. In these latter stages you may get "floaters" which are random herbs floating in your tea. This may mean you need more of another kind of herb or you just have too many herbs in this general. However, if things go seriously wrong or you just need an empty bottle try "empty bottle". No fear, it's easy to fish them out too, use "get {herbs} from bottle" and that should take care of the problem. Finally we get to the brewing bit: "brew bottle over {heat source}" followed by "get bottles(s)".
Occasionally at this point, more often when you have a lower brewing bonus, you may have realized that you've burnt your tea. This is from one of two things really. One, you simply left the tea on the fire too long or two, your brewing bonus is just too low. If it's the latter of the two try brewing in smaller containers. Half a bottle, a tea cup, a jar, etc. This will still allow you to brew (and likely TM) while avoiding the issue of burning tea.
Now that you'v made tea you need to use it! In almost every case there is no reason to ever drink the entirety of a bottle and more than anything it's just a waste. Instead try "drink 1/100 of bottle", "taste bottle" (or 1/20 of bottle) or "sip bottle" (or 1/50 of bottle). The better your brewing bonus the less tea will need to be drunk.
At this point though you may want to check just how good your tea is, at least with healing tea. This is certainly the most widely used tea and certainly the most profitable. How you check it is basically along these lines. Take note of how many health points (HP) you have, when you're entirely full on HP and are sure to be unburdened the self mutilation starts. You need to find a way to hurt yourself the most common is to "sift through the ashes" in a fire place. As you burn yourself your HP will go down, be careful not to kill yourself at this point. Proceed to "drink 1/100 of bottle" and once you get the message "You feel the healing tea wear off" take note of your HP once again. Do some basic subtraction and you'll find out how much 1/100 of you tea heals. You may want to do this a couple of times and find an average to be more accurate. Sometimes this can vary quite a bit.
Tea Recipes
Antidote - Ground arachnid, basil, and fennel seeds. With added water it becomes an "octarine elixir" or a "strangely coloured tea" for the nonmagic. A quick brew over the fire and it becomes a "brewed elixir".
Breath Freshener - Parsley and with water it becomes a nice "dark green tea".
Cold Cure - Garlic and honey with no water is a "golden brew" but after being brewed becomes a pleasant "thick golden syrup". ma.me.ph.healing determines the strength of your cold cure
Energy - A few pinches of borage, ginger, and coffee or coffee beans. Add water and brew for a nice "glistening yellow potion".
Healing - A few pinches of yarrow (not too much or you can poison your customers) and comfrey here and there. Add water for a nice "green tea" and proceed to brew your tea for a nice rich "brewed tea".
Make lots of bottles at once: at Granny's Cottage, put 10 handfuls each of ground yarrow and ground comfrey in the sink. Fill the sink with water. Fill the bottles you want to brew. My witch does 5 bottles at a time. Brew the bottles over the fire. Don't forget to put the leftover yarrow and comfrey back into the chest.
Intelligence - Mostly sage with some more sage mixed with water creates a "greyish green" tea. Followed by a quick stirring with an owl feather it becomes "teal green". By brewing you'll achieve a nice thick "syrupy, green potion".
Mushroom / Focus - Floppy Madman, a variety of mushroom. Add water to make a "pale brownish green water". No brewing is necessary.