Making a nice cup of tea is not complicated – it is a question of knowing your own taste and a few key facts about tea. If in doubt, you can use the below table as a starting point, adjusting to personal taste and the particular tea you are using. If you are infusing a tea from the Piacha range you can also consult the individual brewing instructions on the packaging.

Brewing guidelines

Black teas

Fundamentally, all black teas are brewed with boiling water. The lighter the tea, the shorter the recommended brewing time: a nice Darjeeling should be infused for a maximum of 3 minutes, whereas Assam can take up to 5 minutes to brew. Personal tastes differ a lot when it comes to the strength of black tea and it makes sense to experiment with the quantity and different types of tea to achieve the desired strength. For those liking a strong builder’s brew with a dash of milk, we recommend using at least 2 teaspoons of tea for a big mug of hot water and brewing for minimum 3 minutes.

The infusion time can depend also on the quality of tea. The more broken down the tissue structure of the tea leaf, the quicker the infusion time. That means that broken, lower grades of tea deliver a stronger brew in a shorter period of time, whereas to achieve the optimal flavour with the better quality whole leaf teas, a slightly longer infusion time is necessary. Overall, black teas generally brew rather fast and infusions of 3 minutes tend to be sufficient. Longer infusion times release more tannins, overpowering the fine balance of flavours in your tea and making it too astringent.

Green teas

The key factor in brewing green tea is the water temperature. For most green teas, temperatures over 90°C will almost certainly kill any good taste of your green tea. With a few exceptions, water temperatures at 70-85°C are recommended. In the absence of thermometers or temperature controlled water boilers, you can achieve the right temperature simply by mixing a bit of cold water with boiling water. Make sure that you don’t pour boiling water onto the tea leaves first since even a fast contact with boiling water can scald the leaves and make your tea bitter.

The tannin in green tea is released faster than in black tea, and infusion times of 2 minutes are often enough for finer or broken green tea leaves. 3 minutes infusion times are suitable for teas with bigger leaves as well as for green tea blends where other ingredients come in bigger particles (e.g. dried fruit, herbs, roots) that infuse slower. Be careful when extending the infusion times of your green tea – long infusion leads to over-concentration of tannins in the liquor and results in predominantly bitter flavours. Some green teas can be re-infused, but then the infusion method should be adjusted to a greater proportion of tea in a smaller proportion of water, brewed for shorter periods of time.

Normally green tea is enjoyed without milk, with the exception of Matcha, the powdered green tea from Japan. Traditionally it is enjoyed without milk but these days you can commonly see it served in the west in the form of a latte or mixed in a smoothie.

White teas

White teas are delicate and the least processed of all types of tea. These teas are very lightly oxidised during a long drying process in which the structure of the leaf cell is kept intact. Infuse your white teas in 70-80°C for an average of 3 minutes, in order for the aroma, sweetness and depth to fully infuse into the liquor.

Oolong teas

Oolong teas vary a lot in aroma, body and colour. These teas are semi-oxidised, best categorised as a type of tea in between green and black. Those oolong teas that undergo a longer oxidisation process are darker with fuller body, whereas shorter oxidisation time produces teas that resemble green teas in their colour and texture.

The best temperature to infuse oolong teas is slightly below boiling, at around 85-95°C, with infusion times of 2-3 minutes. Oolongs can also be infused faster, using bigger quantity of tea leaves – to experiment, start with recommended infusion times with recommended tea quantity, and compare the results with shorter times and proportional increases in tea. Oolongs can typically be re-infused multiple times, which works especially well for the faster infusions with bigger quantities of tea, and results in a slightly different taste in each infusion.

Mate

Mate is a South American beverage made by steeping the dried leaves of the yerba mate plant, as against the tea plant Camellia Sinensis. As such, although caffeinated, mate is technically speaking not ‘tea’. Mate is best infused in 80-90°C for 3-5 minutes.

Herbal, rooibos, hibiscus, fruit and berry infusions

These non-caffeinated infusions are prepared from plants other than Camellia Sinensis. Therefore, although often referred to as ‘rooibos tea’ or ‘herbal tea’, they are not tea. These infusions contain no caffeine and are a good alternative drink to caffeinated tea and coffee, and suitable for all ages.

3-5 minute in boiling water is suitable for many infusions, with longer brewing times intensifying the taste. Especially blends with ingredients in big particles may benefit a longer infusion. Hibiscus has a slightly tart flavour and when that is not desired hibiscus based drinks should not be left to infuse much longer than 2 minutes.

While most of the non-tea infusions are usually drunk without milk, it is worth trying rooibos with milk – a common way of drinking it in South Africa, and particularly suitable to the rooibos flavour and texture.