Flick the kettle on, let it boil, and pour over the tea in the cup, right? Wrong! Depending on what tea you're brewing you may want to prepare the water to be in a certain temperature range to get the best flavour.
The reason is, when we add water to the leaves they release tannins, amino acids, polyphenols, minerals and flavour compounds. Water that is too hot can burn the leaves giving the tea a bitter unpleasant taste as too many tannins are released while other desirable compounds are destroyed. In other teas, water that is not hot enough will not allow enough of these compounds to be released giving less flavour than we would like.
But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you need to have any kind of fancy kettle or thermometer just to enjoy a cup of tea. You can adjust the temperature by simply adding a portion of cool water first. Next, add boiling water then be sure to add the leaves last. Here’s what we recommend for different teas:
Tannins are the last thing the leaves release. The longer you leave the leaves in the more bitterness you’ll get. Herbal and fruit teas, which include rooibos and honeybush, are much hardier, so boil away! Longer steeping will bring out more sweetness and flavour. Herbal teas have no tannins so will not get bitter the longer it is left.