The science behind the brew

Every tea book gives instructions about how to brew tea. The instructions describe getting the pot warm, using boiling water and a brewing time of three to five minutes.

In our research, we've discovered other factors which are more important.

  1. The temperature of the water.  In our experiments, the extraction of the tea was reduced by 50% for every 10°C of temperature reduction. If the temperature in a teapot of poured water is 84°C after five minutes, then the flavour extraction is around 70% less than at boiling point.
  2. The astringency (bitterness) largely comes out after the first thirty seconds. Before then, tea is smooth and leaves the palate fresh.
  3. The brewing time should be related to the leaf size – the smaller the leaf size, the shorter the brewing time.
The Tea-Cha process is based in leaching the flavor from the tea and not steeping.This is why the Tea-cha process uses boiling water, takes less than 30 seconds and uses very fine (small) tea leaves.