Torrefaction

In general, black teas should be steeped right around three minutes or so. Herbal teas steep longer at five to seven minutes. White teas, green teas and 'delicate' teas steep for teeny tiny amounts of time, with some steeping as shortly as one minute.

In a black tea, when you oversteep, you wind up extracting more of the tannins, which taste strongly bitter. Science in a cup! The steeping time matters because you're extracting volatile organic compounds, but you only want some of them; the first fraction is the bit you want to capture, not the later bits.

I'm a tea geek!

Also, link: http://www.artoftea.com/learn_about_tea/steeptime.html

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A-ha! When I did darjeeling for 3 min it tasted like water, so I have been doing 5 min for that and 4 min for English Breakfast. I'll try the EB at 3 min and see if that improves it. Thanks!

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lenora-rose.livejournal.com

Darjeeling is a weaker black tea and won't taste like much unless steeped long (or you put in a seriously large amount of leaves or extra tea bags). English Breakfast is a strong tea and can steep a much shorter time, and will get tanniny if left.

I have also found that cheap teas tend to end up with more tannin in general, or other oddities. (Except Red Rose, which is a straightforward inexpensive Orange Pekoe that almost never seems to get too tannin-y.)

That being said, I generally drink black tea with honey and milk (not sugar unless I have to, though pure maple syrup has a nice taste. And preferably not cream; cream can be good on occasion, but the taste is too rich for day to day). For honey, a half teaspoon or less in a large mug can still make a difference. Some flavoured black teas I drop the honey, but almost never the milk.(Though not with Chai, chai without milk and honey is just wrong)

I've been told, too, that caffeine saps calcium, so drinking tea and coffee with milk is actually good to counteract that effect.

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oh, and the amount of tea leaves used matters, too. commercial tea bags are measured to provide enough tea to make one 8oz cup; odds are good that whatever cup you're using to drink from is larger than 8oz, which can result in a watery tea, leading to longer steep times in order to get more flavor.

and if you really want to get geeky, loose leaf is better than bagged because the leaves have more room to unfurl, which means more of the surface area of the leaf is exposed to the hot water, therefore you get more flavor in the shorter steep time. you also get tea leaves stuck in your teeth. (but that can be cured by using either a ball tea infuser or one of these cool baskets: http://astore.amazon.com/gryphynshadow-20/detail/B000I68NCS they fit in your cup and allow you to make loose leaf teas without winding up with tea leaves everywhere.)

someone stop me, my geek is showing...

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Ah! I always thought a bag could make 2 cups (when you grow up with 10 people that's probably a default setting) so I should be putting in 2 bags and steeping it for less long. Yay! I plan to get some loose tea and a tea ball but that requires a trip to a proper tea shop, which has taken a back seat to finding a proper bakery :)

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haddayr.livejournal.com

This was gonna be my suggestion -- 2 bags, steep for ONE minute, taste, steep longer if it's too weak.

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ah, I forgot to mention the difference in steep time between loose leaf and bagged teas: in a commercial tea bag, the leaves have been a bit, shall we say, mangled. broken up into smaller bits, they have more surface area and therefore require a shorter steep time than the exact same type of tea from the same tea company in loose leaf. which means if you get used to one time for bagged teas, switching over to loose leaf teas can mean mucking about with your steep times again.

also, plus and... if you squeeze out the tea bag when you're done, you get more tannins. so you can control a bit of the tang by whether or not you wring out the leaves. :)

(and I'm so glad that I'm not the only tea geek on your friend's list.)

:)

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Just fyi -- I used to love the baskets, but discovered that the socks (http://www.shopwiki.com/_Cloth+Tea+Filter+Sock?s=3885&o=1081009974) are as convenient (though they're not free-standing, so for redips they have to be left in a wee cup) for less than half the price.

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ooohhh... I like the idea of a little cloth sock! reusable, simple, easy... :)

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aedifica

I'll add that standard tea balls don't leave enough room for the tea to unfurl, either. (Though I didn't know all of what

gryphynshadow wrote here--neat stuff!)

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I have to admit to being a tea ball snob as well... only the 2 inch diameter ones for me. (which means I only drink from really big cups, lol!)

Oh, goodness, my tea snobbery/geekery really does know no bounds. I'm a bit embarrassed.

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pameladean

Thank you! I generally have oversized cups, up to sixteen ounces, and use two teabags and feel guilty. Now I will be happily greedy.

P.

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When it comes to tea, there is no need to feel greedy at all! Tea is an essential part of life; having it on hand brewed in the manner you find most pleasing should be a right, not an indulgence.

:) I freely admit to sometimes using three tea bags for one cup, each one something slightly different. For instance, two English Breakfasts and one Peppermint, or, as I prepared for my roomate the other night, two chamomile and one Honey Peach black tea (sweetened with local honey from the farmer's market.)

I've been known to use family size tea bags two or three at a time to make a single pot of tea. I like my tea to be able to stand up and speak its name; a healthy wrestling match over the spoon is also a good sign in a cuppa.

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fledgist.livejournal.com

Commercial tea bags are a crime against humanity.

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I grew up on Lipton's! The horror, the horror.

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If you want stronger tea without the bitter, you need more tea, not more time. Also, with black tea you want the water to be pretty close to boiling, or it just doesn't steep.

More tea is easier, of course, with loose leaf rather than bags. Tea socks (http://www.shopwiki.com/_Cloth+Tea+Filter+Sock?s=3885&o=1081009974) make loose leaf pretty easy to deal with by the cup, btw, if it's the inconvenience that's an issue for you.

I'm a tea wuss and like mine pretty weak, but even so -- if I used a pinch of tea for 5+ minutes, I'd get the bitter. So I steep normal-amounts of tea for more like 30 seconds :)

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Excellent! I will try more tea + less time for my next attempt.

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oh and, if you ever want chai, 2 bags of Lipton black (Or some other really cheap black) per cup, minimum, cause that stuff has to be strong :)

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also also! If you just need the caffeine (as I do for the bronchodilation), yerba mate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mat%C3%A9) has a smoother (though grassier) flavor, and so does matcha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha) (though for matcha you'd probably want some sort of stirring gadget).

This is me trying to write a lj post right now, btw. disTRACtable!

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Hm, that's a dilemma--I'm thinking I may need to out caffeine because of its vasodilation effects, but if it's also a bronchodilator maybe that will cancel out the vasomotor asthma!

Of course after all these years of mega-sized diet cokes, going down to 2 cups of tea a day is almost like giving up caffeine anyway. I rely on it mainly as a sleep substitute *yawn*

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I believe it's more the theobromine than the caffeine that helps.

For stay-awake, I'd suggest Matcha over black tea -- but wow, it packs a punch :)

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sanguinity

Bag v. leaf affects steeping time (leaves take longer), but yeah, echoing everyone here: shorter times give better flavor, and if you want stronger tea, use more tea.

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prettymuchpeggy.livejournal.com

How old is this tea? Loose tea like herbs looses it's potency with age. Use more tea or less water.

Darjeeling or Oolongs do better with water a little cooler than boiling (180-200 F). Steep for anywhere between 3-5 minutes. Premium loose Oolong or Darjeeling steep more toward the 3 minute side.

Most black teas like EB should be steeped for around 5 minutes.

Steeping a tea for more than it's "time" can pull tannin which will lead to a bitter taste.

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fledgist.livejournal.com

I steep black teas for 5-7 minutes. I am British. I believe in strong teas with lots of tannin.

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This must be why I think 5 minutes is proper for tea, having somewhat of the British influence in my background. But I was raised to drink it with milk, which I think must cut the bitterness, or something.

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Yes, milk cuts the bitter. Actually, it's the fat in milk that does it. It's why creamer or cream in coffee is so ubiquitous: the fats interact with the acidic flavinoids (tannin and whatnot), basically taking them out of commission before your tongue can detect them.

However, butter doesn't do well in Western tea. You need the Tibetan tea, prepared properly to be able to put butter in. And no, I haven't had it, tho I did once put butter in a cup of tea. I do not recommend it.

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I have had Tibetan tea with butter in it! At a restaurant run by the Dalai Lama's nephew, actually, since the Dalai Lama's brother runs the Asian Studies program at my old U. It tasted weird, and the restaurant owner explained that it was weird because they're supposed to use yak butter instead of cow butter, but you can't get yak butter in the US. To which we Hoosiers were like, we're totally sure it's the lack of Yak butter that is to blame for the weird taste. My brother managed to develop a taste for the stuff but not I.

I love that you know all this obscure stuff about tea :)

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etumukutenyak.livejournal.com

Amen, brother!

(Another strong-tea drinker here..and loose leaf for real tea. Tea bags are only for colorizing the hot water.)

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fledgist.livejournal.com

That's the truth.

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redbird

I get good results steeping Assam and Ceylon teas for four minutes. (Yes, I checked "you're steeping it too long," but how long is too long depends in part on the kind of tea.)

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gailmom.livejournal.com

needs honey. also, needs to be something else. Black tea tastes like ick.

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LOL, you are so right! DIET COKE is what it needs to be, whimper whimper. I will try adding some honey.

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haddayr.livejournal.com

I do have to say if you don't like the results of two bags steeped for a shorter length, I agree that a touch of honey works MUCH better than sugar to drain out bitterness for some reason.

I drink my tea black but if I get distracted while it's steepping and oversteep, just a touch of honey really helps.

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mirrorshard.livejournal.com

Are you stirring it, or just letting it sit? Stirring can change the infusion profile a bit, and bring out more of the acidic fractions.

I discovered something pleasant when I had a cold recently, and had run out of both lemon and honey - black tea with raspberry jam. Old Russian cold medicine. (It apparently works even better with blackberry jam, but all I had on hand was raspberry or apricot. The apricot didn't work at all.)

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I'm stirring sugar into it after I pull out the teabag, but not stirring before that.

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mirrorshard.livejournal.com

Must just be the time, then.

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Hm. That actually sounds pretty good! I wonder how cherry jam would do...

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pameladean

I wish I could come drink your bitter tea. I like it that way, but I do put honey and almond or soy milk into it. I learned to drink tea in London in cheap cafes in 1974, and to this day a stewed cup of tea makes me think of the Green Cafe, where "ham salad" meant a heap of lettuce with some slices of cold ham, and you had to stop them fast if you didn't want your tea "white," and if you got an omelette it came with canned peas exuding a green liquor that meant you could, if you liked, have green eggs and ham.

P.

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I was in London for a summer around that same time (1972 in my case) but I wasn't quite old enough for cafes...but I did learn to drink tea around that time, too. Of course it had a lot of milk and sugar in it, and I would just drink the little bits Mom let me have...nobody likes an overcaffeinated 4-year-old!

Anyway one of these days I'll have you over for some hopefully-good tea--I figure by the time Worldcon 2012 rolls around I'll have learned to make it properly!

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capriuni.livejournal.com

Here's tea preparation advice (http://www.teasource.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TeaSource&Category_Code=Preparing) connected to a website from whence you can order fancy-shmancy teas online.

I've tried the cold-brew (refrigerator) technique he has there, and I lurve the results, even though I use evil cheap bag teas... When it steeps cold, without the heat, the tannins keep their evilness to themselves... I put it in the fridge before I go to bed, and wake up in the morning with my caffeine all ready to drink...

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I have never gotten the hang of cold tea--my brain just doesn't approve. I am working on it now, though. Hey, I could do the cold-steep technique and then microwave the results for hot tea without the tannins! (kidding)

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capriuni.livejournal.com

Why kid? That sounds like a workable plan, to me...

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tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com

You're probably steeping it too long, possibly as a result of not using an adequate volume of tea for the amount of water. If you're using tea bags (as you imply) you might want to try two per cup next time.

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vass

You didn't bring the water to a rolling boil?

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