We recommend steeping tea somewhere between one and ten minutes, but it all depends on the type of tea. Steep time is one of the most important things to nail when it comes to brewing up a tasty, balanced cup of tea. Steep the tea for too long, and you’ll end up with an unpleasantly strong, bitter cup. Steep the tea for too short a time, and you’ll have a weak, flavorless cup of tea. Making matters even more complicated, different teas require different steep times in order to bring out their best flavor.
Luckily, all of our teas come with preparation instructions that tell you just how long to steep your tea to ensure a delicious brew. If you’re curious about the steep times for different teas (or just need a quick refresher), here are our recommendations for preparing the perfect cup of tea.
Tea steep time breakdown
- Black tea: 3 to 5 minutes
- Green tea: 1 to 2 minutes
- White tea: 2 to 3 minutes
- Oolong tea: 2 to 3 minutes
- Pu-erh tea: 5 minutes
- Purple tea: 3 minutes
- Herbal tea: 5+ minutes
- Rooibos tea: 5+ minutes
Luckily, all of our teas come with preparation instructions that tell you just how long to steep your tea to ensure a delicious brew. If you’re curious about the steep times for different teas (or just need a quick refresher), here are our recommendations for preparing the perfect cup of tea.
Why steep time matters
The longer you steep your tea, the stronger it will be. While this can sometimes be a good thing, as in the case of hearty, robust black teas or some herbal teas, infusing your tea for too long can also result in an unpleasantly bitter, over-strong taste. This is especially the case with more delicate teas like green tea, which can quickly become bitter if you steep them for too long.
Steeping teas for too little time will result in a mellower, weaker cup of tea. While some people prefer their teas on the mild side, infusing your tea for too short a time can prevent you from experiencing the full depth of flavor of your tea. Instead, you’ll end up with a weak, watered-down tea that’s just not as good as it could be.
Different teas respond well to different steep times, which is why there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to how long to infuse your tea. A hearty black tea that you plan to take with milk and sugar might do well with a steep time of five minutes, while a delicate green tea might do best with a steep time of only one or two minutes.
Why steep times have a range
When we give our customers instructions for how long to infuse their tea, we generally provide a small range. This is because infusing tea is not an exact science, and personal preference plays a big role in how long you should infuse your tea. Some people prefer teas on the milder side, while others prefer them to be very strong.
Our recommendations for how long to steep your tea are suggestions, not hard and fast rules. Feel free to experiment with different steep times in order to achieve the tea of your dreams!
