Safe Tea & Coffee Temps

Temps below 140 Deg F ( 60 deg C ) are Safer 

Hot beverages are enjoyed by the billions every day all around the world! For the safety of the cells in your mouth, tongue, gums, cheeks, throat, esophagus, upper GI, etc make sure to drink fluids no hotter than 140 deg F & take note that 125 deg F is the upper cutoff for enhance flavor perception & absolute cell thermal denaturing safety. 


125 Deg F : Absolutely Safe ( 51.5 deg C ) 

140 Deg F : Upper Cutoff ( 60 deg C ) 



Tea & Coffee are often brewed using boiling or near boiling water 180-210 deg F ( 82 - 99 deg C ) temperatures that can cause scalding burns. Use a simple inexpensive kitchen thermometer like the one depicted in my images

($6) Taylor Thermometer 5989 <- Amazon Link.

While heating room temp filtered water in our microwave oven inside a glass measuring cup, I remove the heated water & study the temperature dynamics with my thermometer : I prefer heating water in the microwaves because of the precise timing control.

I heat 16oz (473ml) of water for 5min 55 seconds to brew about 2 grams (~0.01 oz) of organic green tea brewing at a 188 deg F temperature peak equilibrium state achieved when I put the stainless tea brewing apparatus into a mug, add 2 grams of tea and pour the heated water from the microwave into the setup to create a tea infusion. The thermal mass of the glass cup is able to heat the second addition of water for a double brew to 80 deg F from a resting water addition temperature of 63 deg F, the morning counter temp near a large window that achieves minor cooling effects of water filtering apparatus on our kitchen counter.

The entire assembly (stainless brewer basket with hot wet tea & thermometer) is removed and placed into a different cup for a re-brewing (round 2) when the temperature declines to around 160 deg F. I start a new microwave heating session with 5:43 which because of the latent processing heat from round 1, achieves a 2nd round brewing temp peak around 200 deg F.

All the "spent" (0ften double or triple & occasionally quad brewed) are collected in a dish for composting in our yard debris container.

Note the high temperatures utilized to produce the tea infusion!
These brewing temperatures can causing scaling!
Let your tea or coffee cool off before consuming !

($8) Tevana Stainless Tea Diffuser <- Amazon Link.

Extension & Commentary 

180 deg for 3 min produces a more delicate flavor profile (bread like) & less astringent :)

Single 3min steeping caffeine extraction only 40-70% efficiently recovered

Total caffeine content of 2.5 grams of dry green tea ranges from 20-90 mg

Multiple steepings required for high caffeine recovery efficiency (yield)

Drinking tea is not about maximizing caffeine intake

Higher steeping (brewing) temperatures are more effective at extracting caffeine, while also pulling out more tannins & the bitter flavors of the alkaloids, including caffeine. 

Longer steeping (brewing) intervals produce more flavor in the resulting infusion (tea)

Lower temperature infusion water improves tea flavor down to about 160 deg F : Flavor quality highly subjective, your results may be significantly different depending on the quality of the water you use, the vessel in which the infusion takes place, the brewing apparatus utilized, the kind of tea & its form and the amount which you brew, your steeping time interval, the room temperature and many other variables excluded from this description. YMMV etc!   

Have fun brewing (steeping) tea : try different kinds and focus in on one that you really like so that  you can start performing analytics on your de-facto standard real world reference! Life is really an experiment! Perspective makes all the difference! Keep on thinking about it!