Minimum safe brewing temperature?
I was wondering if there was a minimum recommended steeping temperature for green tea? I’m looking at a water boiler that has a 155f setting but not 160f. I recall once seeing secondhand info online that the US government recommended a minimum steeping temperature of 160f for green tea, but I can find no such information online. I am aware that some Japanese teas come with recommended brew temps as low as 140f.
Also, if you had a Japanese green with a recommended brewing temp of 160f and your choices were 155f or 175f, which would you use?
I don’t think there is such a thing as a minimum safe brewing temperature. It is not like tea was a chicken that has to be cooked to 180 degrees to make sure you have killed all the bacteria. If you want to make your green tea at 155 degrees I see no reason why not. Tea is not a product where you need a high temperature to kill off bacteria so I don’t know why the government would set a minimum safe temperature except that they are idiots. There are definite reasons to brew tea at lower temperature, less bitterness and other such things. This applies to all teas. I often brew black teas at 190 degrees or so for just this reason, less bitterness, even though the recommended temperature for black tea is boiling.
“minimum recommended steeping temperature”
Cold brewing green tea is usually done at refrigerator temperatures so I’d say the minimum would be 0 degrees C. Lower than that and it gets problematic. :-)
Talking food safety, it is the temperature and hold time that is bad, which is a few hours. You should be fine since tea is steeped and consumed right away.
Though, logic does apply to sun tea and why sun tea can be dangerous as it is steeped at a dangerous temperature for hours at room temperature. It is safer to ice tea or cold brew.
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