Be Mindful of a Few Points When Drinking Bagged Tea at Work!
A cup of tea not only fills the air with fragrant aroma but also offers a pleasant taste with lingering sweetness. It can refresh the mind, boost spirits, and uplift mood. But how many times should a cup of tea be brewed?
Bagged black tea, green tea, and flower tea are typically discarded after one brew, because during processing, the leaves are cut and rolled, breaking cell walls and forming granular or finely fragmented shapes. This makes the effective components in tea easily extractable during brewing.
When steeped with boiling water, flower tea, black tea, and green tea release about 55% of their soluble substances in the first 3 minutes; the second brew yields around 30%; the third about 10%; and the fourth only 1%–3%. Regarding the extraction of vitamins and amino acids, about 80% are released in the first brew; by the second brew, the extraction rate exceeds 95%. Other effective components like polyphenols and caffeine follow similar patterns.
From the actual aroma and flavor of tea:
1. First brew: rich fragrance, fresh and crisp taste;
2. Second brew: though stronger, the freshness is less than the first;
3. Third brew: aroma and flavor become weak;
If further brewed, the tea tastes like plain water. Some scholars also warn that repeated brewing may gradually extract poorly soluble harmful substances, such as trace residual pesticides. Therefore, for each cup containing 3 grams of flower tea, black tea, or green tea, it is generally best to brew 2–3 times. Multiple brews are not recommended.