泡
pào · HSK 6
steep
🍵 氵water + 包 wrap: water wraps around tea leaves to steep them
pào sounds like pow — pow, the tea bag drops into hot water and starts soaking. 泡茶 (pào chá) means to brew tea by steeping the leaves.
泡 — water radical 氵 + wrap 包
泡 is a phono-semantic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning (related to liquid), while 包 (bāo, 'wrap/enclose') supplies the sound and hints at something enclosed. Originally it described bubbles—pockets of air wrapped by water—and later extended to soaking or steeping.