Q) Does the temperature of the water you pour your steeped tea into make a difference in the flavor of the tea?
A) No. While it does make a difference for dissolving the sugar, the flavor or bitterness of the tea itself will not be affected if you pour it over hot, cold water or even ice. Tea pedants will disagree with me but I have empirical evidence on my side (keep reading).
Background:
Why does anyone care? Firstly, you must understand that to make Southern Sweet Tea you must first steep your tea in one part boiling water for five minutes. You then pour your steeped tea into three parts water of some specified temperature. The temperature of the water your pour your steeped tea into is a point of contention and sometimes bloodshed between hard core Southern Sweet Tea aficionados. One camp says that steeped tea should be poured into hot water to avoid “shocking” the tea, others say that it should be poured into cold water to halt the steeping process and avoid bitterness.
In this experiment, to find out which is right, I do a side by side test of pouring steeped tea into hot water, cool water and ice water.
Experimental Setup:
- 3.2 cups of boiling water.
- 3 clean, glass measuring cups.
- One small, clean, stainless steel bowl containing three family-size bags of Luzianne tea. (this would normally contain sugar but we’re leaving the sugar out entirely for control purposes)
- One clean stainless steel bowl containing 3 cups of hot (steaming) water
- One clean stainless steel bowl containing 3 cups cool water.
- One clean stainless steel bowl containing 709.7 grams of ice, the melted volume of which is exactly 3 cups.
- 3 clean shot glasses
Experiment:
- Washed containers of any contaminants prior to beginning the experiment.
- Boil just over 3 cups of water.
- Begin 5 minute steeping timer.
- Pour boiling water over tea bags.
- Steep 5 minutes exactly without agitation.
- Remove tea bags without draining or squeezing.
- Measure 1 cup steeped tea into each of 3 glass measuring cups.
- Simultaneously pour respective steeped tea cups into hot, cool and iced water respectively.
- Remove 1 cup samples from each tea mixture for refrigeration.
- Allow remaining tea to cool at room temperature.
- Sample periodically using separate shot glasses to avoid cross-contamination.
Results:
As someone with highly discriminating taste in Sweet Tea, I was unable to discern any noteworthy difference between the three besides temperature. The tea that was hotter was minusculely more flavorful while the tea that was colder was almost imperceptibly less bitter. I attribute this to variances in perception due to temperature rather than any actually difference in the tea.
Does it make a difference? Not as far as the tea itself is concerned. Pouring into hot water will help to dissolve the sugar, however, which will improve the taste of the beverage.
Discussion:
A noteworthy question to come out of this is: if mixing temperature has no effect on bitterness, what does cause bitterness in the tea? The sole culprit appears to be agitation of the tea bags. If the tea bags are stirred, pressed or, heaven forbid, drained and squeezed the tea will become very bitter. The most critically important thing to do while steeping tea is to do nothing at all.
Future Work:
Compare 1:3 steep/mix vs. steep all at once vs. mechanical steeping.
When and how is it best to add the sugar?
How sensitive is Luzianne tea to steep time?
How sensitive is Lipton tea to steep time?
Luzianne vs. Lipton showdown.
