Tea Culture
Water temperature: the variable that matters most
Why water temperature is the single biggest variable in tea brewing — the right temperature for each style, and how to hit it without a thermometer.
If you brew every tea you own with boiling water and leave it for five minutes, you are extracting the wrong things from most of them. Green tea brewed boiling tastes like grass clippings; oolongs go flat. Water temperature is the single biggest improvement most home tea drinkers can make.
By tea type
Green tea: 70–80°C. White tea: 75–85°C. Oolong: 85–95°C. Black tea: 95–100°C. Pu-erh: 95–100°C with a quick rinse first.
You do not need a thermometer. Boil, wait — thirty seconds drops to 95°C, ninety seconds to 85°C, two minutes to 75°C. Time it once with a thermometer to calibrate, then never bother again.