Ambassador Tea Tips – For the best tea drinking experience, the right prep can go a long way. Most teas will include steeping instructions on the packaging, but when in doubt, try out the following:

Black tea / 3–4 minutes / 91°C
Black teas are the perfect pick-me-up for those disinclined to coffee (or folks who enjoy both!) – from breakfast tea to chai, caffeine can be found among these leaves. Another great thing about black teas is you can usually get more than one cup out of the same leaves. When you are finished steeping your first cup, simply strain the water from your tea and set aside for later that day.

Green tea / 3–4 minutes / 79°C
If you are finding your green tea to be bitter, your water may be too hot (green tea burns very easily!). Green teas also benefit from a quick rinse before steeping (just fill up your cup with prepared water to submerge the tea, discard, then fill the cup and steep!)

Herbal tea / Up to 15 minutes (really, it’s up to you!) / 100°C
Herbal teas aren’t truly tea in the traditional sense. Teas are produced from a specific plant (the Camellia sinensis, or “tea plant”) which is then processed in a variety of different ways to produce various types of tea. One of the primary methods of processing tea leaves is oxidization. This is also the process that defines what kind of tea you end up with; more oxidization time will yield darker tea – which is how black teas are made, while white and green teas are oxidized the least. Herbal “teas” are made up of different blends of flowers, spices, fruit, and other ingredients, excluding any actual tea leaves (which is why herbal teas do not have any caffeine).