Tea brewing rules

Why green is not recommended to be brewed with boiling water, but the black one can be.

Why is green tea not brewed with boiling water? At first glance, everything is obvious: hot water destroys its beneficial properties. Yet that's only one side of the question. The second one is the flavor, which changes perceptibly with the water temperature. Use the advice of RICHARD^® tea masters to bring out the flavor nuances of each type of tea and preserve its benefits.

What determines the speed of tea brewing?

When water is poured over the tea, it begins to consistently give away its soluble substances. Scientists call this process “extraction”. Its speed depends on the tea leaves' size. The smaller they are, the higher the brewing speed. This is why teabags and sachets brew faster than loose-leaf tea. 

Besides the size of the leaf, the liquid temperature affects the brewing speed. However, it is possible to brew the tea with cold water. This method is called cold brew. It allows preserving not only the flavor of tea leaves, but also the utmost of useful substances. The main disadvantage of the method is the slow brewing speed.

Classic tea brewing uses water with a temperature between 60 and 100 °C. The higher the temperature, the faster the substances responsible for the tea's strongness and richness are released. At temperatures up to 75-80 °C, sugars and acids come out first, and the flavor opens up with sweetness, freshness or fruit notes (depending on the drink type). 

How brewing temperature and the degree of oxidation of tea are related 

The choice of brewing water temperature depends on how much the tea leaves have oxidized or fermented during the production process.

Black tea and pu'erh undergo the most oxidation, so their flavor is stronger, fuller and less aromatic. To release it, a needed temperature is about 100 °C. On the contrary, boiling water is disastrous for weakly fermented tea: it will destroy not only the delicate flavor, but also the useful antioxidants. Green tea belongs to this category. Below, we'll go into more detail about the temperature requirements for each variety of tea.

What temperature is needed to brew different types of tea?

Green tea

The green tea oxidation in the production process is stopped as early as the steaming stage of the tea leaves. Therefore, it has the most amino acids and catechins - antioxidants that prevent the production of hazardous free radicals in the body. A concentration of tannins, responsible for the drink's bitterness, in green tea, on the contrary, is significantly lower than in black tea. Learn more about the tea's chemical composition in this article.

In order to preserve all the benefits of green tea and reveal the flavor, it should be brewed with water no higher than 80 °C. It is possible to use a cooler water temperature, but the brewing time will have to be increased. In boiling water the tender leaves will cook and lose half of their flavor and beneficial characteristics.

Black tea

Its composition differs from green, although it is made of the same raw materials. In the process of black tea production, the catechins that green tea is rich in are turned into theaflavins and thearubigins. These compounds are responsible for the drink's dark color, astringent properties, strong taste and antioxidant properties. 

Black tea should be brewed with water heated to 100 °C. This allows the maximum release of theaflavins and thearubigins, revealing its tartness and flavor. While the boiling water is disastrous for the green tea, the high temperature makes the black tea more wholesome and delicious. Brewing with lower temperature water will not provide a rich, deep color, and the taste of the drink will seem hollow. 

Pu'erh

Pu'er is the only tea that cannot be brewed with the cold brew method. And the only one that can be boiled. Some pu'er even need to be boiled: only at the highest possible temperature, the flavor of the aged leaves will unfold. Pu'er has just as many beneficial substances as black and green teas, and needs boiling water to release them. 

Herbal tea

It is a drink prepared by brewing different parts of various plants: linden flowers, mint leaves, ginger root and so on. In stores tisane is more commonly found under the names “herbal tea”, “fruit tea” or “phyto tea”. There's no caffeine in Herbal teas. The optimal water temperature for their brewing is about 95°C, that is hot, but not boiling water.

RICHARD^® Royal Raspberry Herbal tea in sachets can be brewed with either hot or cold water (Cold Brew method). In the first case, simply pour the tea with water and allows brewing for two to four minutes. In the second, place two to three sachets in a decanter, add a liter of cool water and insist the drink in the refrigerator for two to twelve hours.

What happens if you change the brewing temperature?

You can always change the brewing temperature by increasing or decreasing it by 3-5 °C. For example, brewing with cooler water may result in green tea tasting sweeter and black tea losing its normal tartness. Remembering to increase or decrease the brewing time proportionally to the temperature change.