Black Tea boasts a bright red infusion and a mellow, sweet taste that is delightful. However, many friends find that brewing Black Tea can be quite finicky; if the temperature isn't right, the flavor of the tea suffers. So, how do you Brew a perfect Cup of black tea? What is the ideal temperature? Should you use low temperature water, 85 degrees Celsius, or simply boiling water?
Various Black Tea Brewing Temperatures:
1. High-grade Black Tea
It is best brewed with water at 100 degrees Celsius. For coarsely processed black teas, use boiling water between 95-100 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the inherent compounds within the tea leaves will not easily release.
2. Golden Downy Yunnan Black Tea (Dian Hong)
This type is ideally brewed with water at 100 degrees Celsius. Sun-dried black tea can generally be divided into two categories: one made from tender buds of small to medium-sized leaves, which can be brewed with water around 95 degrees Celsius; the other, made from large leaves, requires boiling water for brewing.
3. Golden Eyebrow from Wuyi Mountain
This variety is best brewed with water at 100 degrees Celsius. Repeated brewing with boiling water is also a good method to test its authenticity; fake teas are often not very resilient to multiple steepings and will reveal their true nature after several infusions.
4. Premium Yingde Black Tea
This can be brewed with water between 95-100 degrees Celsius, but the pouring of boiling water should be quick and not prolonged. Otherwise, too many compounds will be extracted from the tea leaves, resulting in an overly concentrated infusion, which would not yield the desired smooth, slippery, sweet, fragrant, and glutinous black tea.
Black tea is processed through a refined technique. It is named so because both the dried tea leaves and the brewed tea have a predominantly red hue.
Black tea has a warming nature and is greatly beneficial to health. Many people enjoy drinking black tea, but to truly savor a good cup, especially high-quality black tea, the brewing method is crucial.