Tea brewing chart: temperature and time by type
FindMeTea Editorial Team · Published 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-09-13
Most cups of tea go wrong for one of three reasons: the water was too hot, the leaves sat too long, or there simply were not enough of them. Across the 141 teas we map the pattern is consistent — black, herbal and pu-erh want water at or near the boil, green and white want it clearly cooler, and almost everything finishes between two and five minutes. And if you just want to know how much loose tea per cup to spoon in, start from 2 to 3 grams — about one heaped teaspoon — and let the temperature chart below tune it by family.
The tea temperature chart, by type
Read this tea chart as the tea brewing instructions for a standard 200 to 250 ml cup: water temperature first, then steep time, then leaf per cup. When a cup goes wrong, the chart tells you which of the three to change.
Black tea: 95°C, 3 to 4 minutes, about 2.5 to 3 g per cup. The most forgiving family on the list. The one thing it punishes is a long steep, which turns brisk into harsh.
Green tea: 80°C, around 2 minutes, about 3 g. This is where most mistakes happen. Our greens run from 60°C for a shaded gyokuro up to 95°C for a roasted hojicha, so check what you actually have before defaulting to 80.
White tea: 85°C, 3 to 4 minutes, about 3 to 3.5 g. Delicate in flavour but not in dosage — white tea is fluffy, so a cup takes more leaf by volume than it looks like it should.
Oolong: 90°C, 2 to 3 minutes, about 3 g. The widest family in the cup. A green, floral oolong and a dark, roasted one behave almost like different drinks, and both reward several short infusions over one long one.
Pu-erh and dark tea: 95 to 100°C, 3 to 4 minutes, about 3 to 4 g. Boiling water is correct here. A quick rinse — pour, swirl, discard within a few seconds — wakes up a compressed cake before the first real infusion.
Yellow tea: 80°C, 2 to 3 minutes, about 3 g. Rare, gently sweet, and handled like a green tea with a little more patience.
Herbal infusions: 95°C, 5 minutes or more, about 2 g. The opposite of green tea. Chamomile, ginger, hibiscus and rooibos need real heat and real time to give anything up, and they do not turn bitter when you forget them.
Chai blends: 95 to 100°C, 5 to 7 minutes, about 3 g. Here the spices, not the tea, set the clock.
Two that break the chart
Matcha is not steeped at all. You whisk about 2 g of powder into 75°C water for roughly thirty seconds and drink the leaf itself rather than an infusion of it. That is also why it sits so high on the caffeine scale — the honest caffeine ladder puts it against everything else.
Yerba mate has no steeping time, and no grams-per-cup that means anything. You fill the gourd to taste, pour water around 75°C over the leaves, and refill the same yerba through many rounds. Any chart that hands mate five minutes and six grams is quietly inventing a number to fill a column.
A tea temperature guide without a thermometer
Water loses roughly 5 to 10°C every time you pour it between vessels. Boil, pour into a cold jug, then into the pot, and you land near 80°C — close enough for green tea. Leaving an open kettle to stand for two minutes gets you to a similar place.
Add leaf, not minutes
If a cup tastes weak, the fix is more leaf, not more time. Extra minutes mostly extract tannins, which read as bitterness and astringency rather than body. Extra leaf gives you strength while keeping the balance the tea was built around.
Two habits decide whether any of this works. Use freshly drawn water, because repeatedly boiled water tastes flat, and keep the cup covered while it steeps so the heat stays in and the aromatics do not leave with the steam. None of it survives badly kept leaf, though: the five enemies of fresh tea will undo a perfect brew. To work through the catalogue family by family, every tea we map carries its own temperature and time.
FAQ
How much loose leaf tea per cup?
For a 200–250 ml cup: black 2.5 to 3 g, green about 3 g, white 3 to 3.5 g, oolong about 3 g, pu-erh 3 to 4 g, yellow about 3 g, herbal infusions about 2 g and chai blends about 3 g. Across the whole catalog, one heaped teaspoon is the honest baseline — fluffy leaf like white tea takes more by volume, dense rolled oolong less. Matcha is whisked at 2 g, and mate has no per-cup number at all.
Is there a tea steeping guide by type?
Yes — the chart above is it. Read it as a tea steep time and water temperature chart: black 95°C for 3 to 4 minutes, green 80°C for about 2, white 85°C for 3 to 4, oolong 90°C for 2 to 3, pu-erh 95 to 100°C for 3 to 4, yellow 80°C for 2 to 3, herbal infusions 95°C for 5 or more, chai blends 95 to 100°C for 5 to 7. Every tea in the catalogue carries the same brewing instructions on its own page, tuned to that particular leaf.
What is a tea chart?
A tea chart is a one-page set of brewing instructions by type: water temperature, steep time and leaf per cup for each family. Ours covers eight families plus the two that break it, matcha and mate. Used as a tea steep time chart it answers the two mistakes that ruin most cups — too hot and too long both read as bitterness — and used as a tea water temperature chart it tells you how far below the boil each family wants to be.
What temperature should green tea be?
Around 80°C for most greens. Below that a sencha tastes thin; above about 85°C the same leaf turns bitter fast. Shaded Japanese greens like gyokuro go lower still, down to 60°C, while roasted styles like hojicha take near-boiling water without complaint.
How long should I steep tea?
Two to five minutes covers almost everything. Green and yellow around two, oolong two to three, black and white three to four, herbal five or more. Herbal infusions are the only family that genuinely does not mind being forgotten.
Does reboiled water really matter?
It is not a safety issue, it is a flavour one. Water that has been boiled repeatedly has lost dissolved oxygen and tastes flat, which is most noticeable in delicate greens and whites where there is little else to hide behind.