READY
READY
Three minutes is a strong but not bitter black tea, which is the steep most people want and almost nobody measures. The others are worth knowing: green wants one to two minutes in water around 80°C, white two to three, oolong three, and herbal infusions five or more because there is no tannin to turn harsh.
Bitterness in over-steeped tea is not a matter of taste but of chemistry: tannins keep dissolving after the pleasant compounds have finished, so the difference between three minutes and six is not strength, it is astringency.
The tip: take the leaves out rather than the cup off the tray. A bag left in the cup keeps steeping the whole time you drink it, which is why the last mouthful of a mug is so often worse than the first. Set the timer, and when it rings remove the bag or the infuser.
Start it as you pour, not as you fill the kettle. And if you like your tea stronger, use more leaves rather than more minutes, because that is the lever that adds strength without adding bitterness.
One to two minutes, in water off the boil, around 80°C. Boiling water and three minutes is the usual cause of bitter green tea.
Five minutes or more, and it is hard to over-steep: there are no tannins to turn it astringent. Add ?t=5m to this page.
A short chiptune blip. You can mute it with the sound button beside the controls, and the choice is remembered on this device.