I hear a lot about what’s the right temp to brew tea but I never hear anything about drinking it! After sipping on tea too hot and burning my tongue yesterday, I decided to finally set down and take the temp of the tea as I drank. My intentions were to determine at what point tea is safe to drink and at what point its lukewarm.
Here’s what I found:
135 F+ is burning I can drink it past this temp but doing so will burn the inside of my mouth ever so slightly.
130-134 F is ideal if I SLURP it.
125- F is a great temp for tea, its cool enough to drink without slurping but still feels hot and nice. At 120 F- the tea’s becomes lukewarm and I would prefer to have it iced at this point.
This was tested on my mouth only, what I’d like is to hear from others. Brew a cup of tea or hot water and take its temp as you drink it.
Try to find: The range that slurping/sipping is bearable Your favorite temp The temp at which point it becomes lukewarm
UPDATE:
I’ve surveyed a lot of people and I’m concluding that you should to be safe try to wait until the tea is 130 degrees before you start drinking it.
I’ve found people who drink a lot of hot tea build up a tolerance to it, if you need to drink tea at a dangerously hot temp in order to enjoy it that’s fine fine the temp that you’re comfortable at but don’t drink higher than that. There are serious health concerns linked with drinking tea at extremely hot temperatures.
Sources:
http://www.accuratebuilding.com/images/services/charts/hot_water_burn_scalding_lrg.gif
Tea Tips with Jonathan Daar
- If you want your tea cup to stay warm longer pour some hot water in the cup first and swirl it around, once the cup warms dump the water out and use the cup for tea. This is important if you want to brew the tea in cup
- Green and White tea will be burned and turn bitter if you cook them at a boiling temperature. I recommend soaking them in water at 175 F
- Slurping tea is a way to oxidize and cool the tea when its normally too hot to drink. Try it, professional tea tasters do it, and its fun.
- If your looking for a caffeine boost eat the tea leaves! Tea leaves have significantly more caffeine than coffee beans per ounce. The reason why tea has reportedly less caffeine is because the leafs are normally discarded, while in coffee the beans are ground up and consumed. Really you can eat tea, with high quality tea this is especially enjoyable.
- The Sky is the limit when you are making tea. Try making tea out of garlic! You’d be surprised what you can put in hot water that will still be edible!
Here’s my tea collection:
Above: Left top to right clockwise: Airtight and dark canister for keeping tea fresh longer, electric tea kettle with variable temp control, stainless steel teaspoon, and a lot of tea.
Tea is best kept in a cool dark airtight place. I keep mine in the freezer section of the unplugged minifridge I use for console gaming.
