Water Temperature Guide: Why 100°C Ruins Your Green Tea

If you only learn one thing about brewing tea properly, learn this: water temperature is the single most important variable, and most home drinkers get it badly wrong.

**Why temperature matters.** Different tea families contain different ratios of compounds — catechins (bitter), amino acids (sweet/savoury), aromatic oils (floral). These compounds extract at different temperatures. Pour 100°C water on a delicate green tea and you'll release a flood of bitter catechins before any of the sweet amino acids have a chance to dissolve. The result: bitter, harsh, dishwater green tea.

**The complete temperature guide:**

• **White tea (Silver Needle):** 75–80°C, 4 minutes

• **White tea (White Peony):** 85°C, 4 minutes

• **Japanese green (sencha):** 70°C, 1 minute

• **Japanese green (gyokuro):** 50–60°C, 2 minutes

• **Chinese green (Longjing, Bi Luo Chun):** 75–80°C, 1.5 minutes

• **Yellow tea:** 80°C, 3 minutes

• **Light oolong (Tieguanyin, Taiwan high mountain):** 85–90°C, gongfu-style 15-second infusions

• **Heavy roasted oolong (Wuyi rock teas):** 95°C, gongfu-style 10-second infusions

• **Black tea (Darjeeling):** 90°C, 3–4 minutes

• **Black tea (Assam, Ceylon, Keemun):** 95–100°C, 3–5 minutes

• **Pu-erh and dark teas:** 95–100°C, gongfu-style 10–20 second infusions

• **Tisanes (chamomile, rooibos, herbal):** 95–100°C, 5+ minutes

**How to hit the temperature without a thermometer.** Bring water to a full boil, then let it rest in an open kettle. After 30 seconds it will be approximately 95°C. After 1 minute, ~90°C. After 2 minutes, ~80°C. After 3 minutes, ~70°C. The math isn't perfect, but it's close enough.

**The single biggest improvement** you can make to your home tea? Buy a kettle with adjustable temperature settings. Decent variable-temperature kettles cost $40–60 and will save you years of mediocre cups.