No. 006 Tea temperature and brewing time: how to get them right?
TSURU COLLECTION • ARTICLE 006
Temperature and steeping time
Level: discovery & deepening • Cap sur le Thé
Why do water temperature and steeping time change the taste of tea so much?
A few degrees. A few seconds.
Two cups. The same tea. The same water. The same amount of leaves.
In the first, the leaves meet relatively soft water for a short moment.
In the second, the water is a little hotter and the steeping lasts longer.
At first glance, almost nothing has changed.
And yet, when you bring both cups to your lips, they can tell two different stories.
One seems soft, bright, sometimes almost sweet.
The other can become more intense, more structured, but also more bitter or more astringent.
A few degrees.
A few seconds.
It seems like very little.
But during this short moment, the water does not just "take the taste" of the leaves.
It gradually extracts some of the compounds from them.
And that is precisely where steeping begins. In the previous Tsuru, we saw how the quality and composition of water influence the taste of tea.
Steeping is extracting
A tea leaf contains a multitude of substances capable of passing, more or less easily, into the water.
Among them are notably amino acids, caffeine, polyphenols, as well as a large number of molecules that contribute to the aromas.
When the water meets the leaves, some of these substances gradually dissolve in the infusion.
But they are not all extracted in exactly the same way.
The water temperature and contact time play a major role, to which are added the amount of leaves, their size, their processing, or even their shape.
Studies carried out on different teas show that changing the temperature or steeping time changes the amounts of caffeine, catechins, and other compounds found in the cup.
In other words:
Steeping is an extraction that we choose to stop at a certain point.
And that is the moment we are going to learn to understand.
1. Temperature: accelerating the encounter
Imagine the leaves as a landscape that the water must travel through.
When the temperature increases, the extraction of many constituents of tea generally becomes faster or greater.
This does not mean that very hot water is systematically better.
It simply means that it changes the way the leaf gives itself to the water.
On green tea, for example, experiments show that increasing the temperature can favor the extraction of caffeine and several catechins. But the different compounds do not all react in exactly the same way, and some concentrations can even decrease after a prolonged time at high temperature.
This is an important nuance.
Because we sometimes encounter a much too attractive explanation:
"Soft water extracts the good things, very hot water extracts the bad things."
The reality is more interesting.
There are no two perfectly separate compartments in the leaf.
Several substances pass into the water simultaneously, but their proportions change.
The cup changes because its balance changes.
Bitterness and astringency are not the same thing
These two sensations are often confused.
Bitterness is a flavor.
It is a sensation comparable, in principle, to that which can be found in coffee or certain plants.
Astringency is different.
It is this sensation of dryness or tightening that you can feel on the tongue, the gums, or the inside of the cheeks.
In tea, catechins and other phenolic compounds contribute greatly to bitterness and astringency, while caffeine notably contributes to bitterness. Amino acids, including theanine, contribute on their part to softer or umami sensations in certain teas.
But again, let's beware of shortcuts.
It would be wrong to imagine that tea first releases sweetness, then an invisible timer suddenly triggers bitterness.
All of this overlaps.
The proportions change gradually.
And that is precisely the balance you taste.
2. Time: how long do you let the steeping go?
Temperature influences the speed of extraction.
Time determines how long you let it continue.
At the beginning of steeping, the water quickly begins to fill with the soluble substances present in the leaves.
Then the extraction continues.
Experiments carried out with different teas show that the contents of caffeine, catechins, and other constituents can continue to increase as the steeping time lengthens, even if the evolution is not identical for all compounds or at all temperatures.
And that is why:
Longer does not necessarily mean better.
A prolonged steeping can bring more power and body.
It can also accentuate bitterness or astringency.
Conversely, a steeping that is too short can leave certain teas light, closed, or unexpressive.
Time is therefore not just waiting.
It is an adjustment.
3. The famous tea "forgotten in the teapot"
You may know the scene.
You prepare your tea.
The phone rings.
Someone calls you.
You do something else.
Then you come back to your teapot a few minutes later.
You taste.
And suddenly...
the tea brutally reminds you that it was there.
It is then said that it has "over-steeped".
The expression is practical.
But no mysterious catastrophe occurred at four minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
The extraction simply continued.
The concentration of the liquor changed.
Its balance as well.
Sensations that were previously discreet can then become much more present.
And depending on the tea used, the difference can be spectacular.
4. Why are not all teas prepared in the same way?
We saw in Tsuru No. 002 that the same species, Camellia sinensis, can give birth to the great families of tea thanks to different transformations after harvest.
These transformations profoundly change the leaves: their composition, structure, degree of oxidation, rolling, or drying differ depending on the teas.
Some leaves arrive in your teapot almost whole.
Others are tightly rolled.
Some are fine.
Others thick.
Some have undergone little transformation.
Others much more.
It would therefore be surprising if they all reacted exactly the same way to water.
This is why a delicate Japanese Sencha, a rolled Oolong, or a black tea with broken leaves does not necessarily require the same approach.
And yet...
5. There is no magic temperature
You have certainly seen these charts:
Green tea: such temperature.
White tea: such temperature.
Black tea: such temperature.
They are useful.
We ourselves use them as starting points.
But they are not universal laws.
Even within a single family, two teas can react differently.
A study carried out on several Fuding white teas, for example, observed that the effect of temperature on extraction varied depending on the tea studied, notably depending on characteristics such as the raw material or the shape of the leaves.
This is why a steeping recommendation should rather be understood as:
Start here, then taste.
And not as:
Follow these numbers exactly or you will ruin your tea.
Learning to adjust your cup
Here is something much more useful than a long list of temperatures.
Prepare your tea.
Taste it.
Then listen to what the cup tells you.
Is your tea too intense, bitter, or astringent?
On your next try, simply start by:
slightly reducing the temperature
or
shortening the steeping time.
One change at a time.
Otherwise, you will never know which one actually changed your cup.
Does your tea seem too light or almost absent?
Try instead:
a little more time,
a slightly higher temperature,
or possibly
a slightly larger amount of leaves.
But always according to the same rule:
One variable at a time.
This is how a recipe gradually stops being an instruction...
and starts becoming an understanding.
The Tsuru experience
Take a tea you know well.
Prepare two small cups.
Same water.
Same amount of leaves.
Same steeping time.
But change one thing.
For example:
Cup A: water at 75°C
Cup B: water at 85°C
Then taste them side by side.
Do not immediately look for which one is best.
Rather, look for what has changed.
The aroma?
The texture?
The sweetness?
The bitterness?
The astringency?
The length on the palate?
Perhaps you will prefer the first.
Perhaps the second.
Perhaps you will simply discover something you had never noticed in this tea.
And at that moment, you are no longer just following a recipe.
You are beginning to understand the leaf.
What the timer cannot decide for you
A timer can count seconds.
A thermometer can measure degrees.
Neither can decide which cup you like.
Recommendations are valuable.
They offer a starting point when discovering a tea.
But then something more personal begins.
You taste.
You shorten.
You slightly increase the temperature.
You add a few seconds.
You start over.
And gradually, you find that point where the tea seems to find its balance.
There may not be a perfect steeping.
But there is the one that, today, with this tea and this water...
suits you.
What we will remember
Temperature and time work together.
Hotter water generally tends to accelerate or increase the extraction of many tea constituents.
A longer steeping allows these exchanges to continue.
But none of these parameters acts alone.
The type of tea, the shape of the leaves, their processing, their quantity, and other preparation conditions also influence the result. Studies on steeping clearly show that the effects of temperature and time vary depending on the compounds and teas observed.
So, the next time a tea seems too bitter or, conversely, almost silent, do not immediately condemn the leaves.
Look at your kettle. Look at your timer. And start over.
A few degrees. A few seconds. Sometimes, that is all that separates a decent cup from the one that will make you understand why you love tea.
IN THE NEXT TSURU
We now know that temperature and time can profoundly transform a steeping. But even before the leaves meet the water, their story has already begun.
Two teas from the same family can nevertheless offer very different profiles. Why? Because a tea is not just the result of a processing method. It also carries the imprint of a place: its climate, its altitude, its soil, its exposure, its harvest season, and the choices of those who grow it.
Why can two teas of the same type have such different tastes? We will set out to discover what is cautiously called the terroir of tea.
© 2026 Cap sur le Thé — Tsuru Collection No. 006.
Text and illustrations protected. Any reproduction, even partial, without prior authorization is prohibited.
Article written by the crew of Cap sur le Thé — discover our story.
