Making a mug of tea is easy. Making the tea you actually want, without bitterness or a weak watery taste, becomes easier when you pay attention to the leaf, the amount of water and the brewing time.
Different teas need different treatment. British breakfast tea usually responds well to very hot water and several minutes of steeping. Many delicate green teas taste better at a lower temperature. The point is not to turn tea-making into a laboratory procedure; it is to stop assuming one method suits every bag and leaf.
Start with the type of tea
Black tea is fully oxidised and commonly used for strong everyday mugs. Green tea is processed to limit oxidation and often has a more delicate flavour. Oolong falls somewhere between these processing styles, with a wide range of tastes.
White tea and pu-erh add further variety, and herbal infusions such as peppermint or rooibos are not technically made from the same tea plant in the same way.
Read the packet. A finely cut black tea bag designed for milk behaves differently from long whole green leaves. The supplier's own temperature and brewing instructions are useful starting points.
Use fresh drinking water
Fill the kettle with the amount you need using clean cold drinking water. The UK Tea & Infusions Association recommends freshly drawn water and notes that regional water hardness can influence taste.
Avoid leaving an uncovered kettle collecting kitchen dust or repeatedly reheating far more water than you use. Besides the energy waste, you may notice differences in the final cup.
If your local tap water has a strong mineral or chlorine taste, a suitable drinking-water filter might improve the flavour. You don't need expensive bottled water by default.
Measure the tea
For an ordinary mug, one tea bag is a practical starting point. For loose-leaf tea, the UK Tea & Infusions Association suggests about one rounded teaspoon per cup, although leaf size and type affect how much fits on the spoon.
A larger teapot needs proportionally more tea. If you make two large mugs using only one small bag and twice the water, a weak brew is hardly surprising.
Use a roomy infuser or teapot if brewing loose leaves. Tightly packed leaves cannot expand or circulate as freely, making extraction less even.
Get the temperature right
For many black teas, the UK Tea & Infusions Association recommends water around 90–98°C. Freshly boiled kettle water is usually appropriate for normal breakfast tea.
Green teas often benefit from cooler water, around 80°C as a broad starting point, though some Japanese and Chinese varieties call for different temperatures. Follow the producer's advice.
You don't have to own a variable-temperature kettle. Allow freshly boiled water to cool in a suitable vessel, taking care around steam and hot surfaces, or use a thermometer if consistency matters.
Steep black tea without rushing it
Add the water to the bag or loose leaves and allow time for the flavour to develop. Many ordinary black teas taste good after roughly three to four minutes, while some robust varieties may be brewed longer.
Stirring or moving the bag gently can help water reach it, but squeezing the bag fiercely at the end may increase harsh, astringent notes.
Taste at different times to learn your preference. A strong mug does not require you to leave the same bag sitting in the tea until it becomes cold.
Treat green tea gently
Many green teas become unpleasantly bitter when steeped too hot or for too long. Sencha, for example, is often prepared with cooler water and a relatively short infusion.
UKTIA's brewing table lists sencha at roughly two to two-and-a-half minutes, with differences among other green teas. These are guides, not strict rules for every product.
Remove or strain the leaves at the end of the chosen steeping time. Leaving them in the mug indefinitely can change the flavour substantially.
Brewing oolong and speciality teas
Oolongs range from lightly oxidised floral leaves to dark roasted styles. Water temperature and steeping time depend on the particular tea and whether you use a Western teapot or short repeated infusions.
Some whole-leaf teas can be brewed several times. Later infusions may need adjusted timing, and the flavours often change as the leaf opens.
Keep the equipment clean and the used leaves from sitting wet at room temperature for long periods. Tea is a food product and should be handled sensibly.
Milk: before or after?
For a tea bag brewed in a mug, adding milk after the tea has brewed gives the water access to the leaf at the intended temperature. UKTIA suggests milk last for this method.
In a teapot serving several people, milk-first customs exist and largely come down to taste. The important part is that the tea itself has been brewed properly before dilution.
If using plant-based milk, try adding a little to a warm cup first; some products split when they meet particularly acidic or very hot tea.
Sugar, lemon and other additions
Sugar and honey can sweeten tea, while lemon brings acidity and brightness. These additions change the balance, so try the tea plain occasionally to judge the brewing itself.
Lemon may affect the appearance of milk tea or cause curdling, so it is generally more suited to black tea served without milk.
For chai-style drinks, spices may be simmered with milk or water, then tea added according to the recipe. This is a different method from simply steeping a plain tea bag.
Iced tea requires planning
For iced tea, prepare a suitably strong infusion so melting ice doesn't leave a watery drink. Strain out the leaves and cool it promptly before refrigerating.
Sweeten while the tea is warm if you want sugar to dissolve easily, then handle cleanly during cooling. Add citrus, mint or fruit to the chilled tea.
Keep perishable additions refrigerated and use the prepared drink promptly. Do not leave a jug with fruit and milk products outside in hot weather.
Why a cup tastes weak
Too much water for the amount of leaf, very short steeping or poor storage can produce a thin brew. Start by changing one of those before choosing a completely different tea.
Old tea stored beside strong-smelling spices can absorb odours and lose its own delicate aroma. Keep it in a cool dry cupboard in a closed container.
If a brand you once enjoyed now tastes different, consider water quality and brewing conditions as well as the leaf itself.
Why tea tastes harsh or bitter
Over-steeping and overly hot water are common causes, especially for delicate green tea. Fine broken leaves generally extract faster than large whole leaves.
If your green tea tastes unpleasant, try cooler water or a shorter steep. If black tea is too astringent, remove the bag earlier before adding extra sugar.
Strong bitterness may be part of a tea's profile, but harshness should not be an unavoidable price of a decent cup.
The simplest routine
For ordinary black tea, use one good bag per mug, fresh hot water and a three-to-four-minute brew, then remove the bag and add milk if desired. For green tea, start cooler and follow its specific instructions.
From there, adjust to taste. A good brew is the one you can reproduce reliably, not the one that follows someone else's tea ceremony word for word.