Tea and infusion brewing
Applies to: black, green, oolong, and herbal tea service.
Target: varies by tea type — see table.
- Have separate kettle setpoints or a variable-temperature kettle ready, since tea types need different water temperatures.
- Warm the teapot or cup with a rinse of hot water before brewing.
- Have a timer visible — oversteeping is the most common tea-service fault.
- Match water temperature to the tea type: roughly 95–100°C for black, 70–85°C for green and white, 85–95°C for oolong, near-boiling for herbal infusions.
- Add the leaf or bag and pour water over it, starting the timer immediately.
- Steep for the time matched to the tea type: roughly 3–5 minutes for black, 2–3 minutes for green, a short steep for oolong (often re-steeped), 5+ minutes for herbal.
- Remove the leaf or bag promptly at the end of the steep time.
- Leaving the leaf in past the target time is the single most common cause of bitterness.
- Color and aroma match the tea type — cloudy or dull often signals over-steeped or stale leaf.
- No excess bitterness from mismatched temperature or oversteeping.
For Turkish tea concentrate specifically, refresh the concentrate on a fixed schedule (commonly every 60–90 minutes) rather than letting it sit indefinitely, since a stewed concentrate can't be fixed by dilution alone.