[coffexx]

> 9. Steeping minutes: Green at 3, black at 4, herbal at 5. Good tea is that simple!

That just sounds incredibly bitter. I highly recommend using more tea to less water, and much, much, much lower steep times. Especially for greens as they're more delicate.

If your tea is bitter or astringent, its a combination of water that might be too hot, and long steep times.

80-90C for most green teas. The hotter you go the lower your steep times should be. 90C+ for blacks.

At the extreme you could try gong fu brewing if you're really into your tea :) steep times as short as ~10 seconds are not uncommon.

[tdeck]

As a concrete guideline I steep black tea for a little over 2 minutes. That's enough to get the flavor of the tea without it becoming bitter. If you want strong tea, use multiple tea bags or more leaves, but don't increase the steeping time.