My tea is harsh and I cannot tell whether it is bitter or astringent

In short

Bitterness is a taste and astringency is a physical sensation, and they arrive from different compounds by different routes. Almost all consumer tea writing runs them together, which is why the same advice — cooler water, shorter steep — is offered for both and only helps one. Establish which you have before changing anything, because the two faults are fixed in opposite directions.

Likely causes, in order

Most likely first. Answer the question under each one before moving on — several of these look alike in the cup and are told apart only by what was done to the leaf.

1. 1. It is bitterness — a taste, registered on the tongue

   Over-extraction

   Check: Swallow, then wait ten seconds. Is what remains a flavour — sharp, medicinal, like over-strong coffee or grapefruit pith — that you could describe to someone who had never drunk tea?

   Fix: Bitterness in tea comes chiefly from catechins and caffeine, and both are extracted faster by hotter water and longer contact. Drop the water temperature first, in ten-degree steps, and only then shorten the steep. Leaf quantity is not the main lever here: more leaf brewed briefly and cool is far less bitter than less leaf brewed hot and long. Go to the bitterness records from here.

2. 2. It is astringency — a feeling, registered on the surfaces of the mouth

   Leaf quality

   Check: Run your tongue over the inside of your cheek. Does it feel rough, dry and grippy, as after an unripe persimmon or a young red wine, whether or not anything tastes bitter?

   Fix: Astringency is not a taste at all. It is tannins binding to proteins in saliva, so the lubrication goes and the mouth reports friction. Temperature is a weak lever on it; surface area and agitation are the strong ones. Move to whole leaf rather than broken, stop stirring and stop squeezing the bag, and reduce the dose rather than the time. Go to the astringency records from here.

3. 3. It is both, because the tea was over-leafed and over-steeped at once

   Leaf quantity

   Check: Did you increase the dose and extend the time in the same change, because the previous cup tasted weak?

   Fix: Change one variable. Over-leafing and over-steeping produce different faults and the standard response to a weak cup — more leaf, left longer — creates both simultaneously. Keep the larger dose and cut the time hard, which is the gongfu answer and the one that produces strength without harshness.

4. 4. Neither — it is a drying finish that belongs to the tea

   Leaf qualityInferred by TeaHQ, not established

   Check: Is this a Darjeeling first flush, a brisk Ceylon, a konacha or a young sheng pu-erh, and does the drying arrive at the end rather than throughout?

   Fix: Some teas are built with grip and are not improved by having it brewed out of them. A brisk drying finish that clears is a described characteristic of several categories, and the honest adjustment is to a different tea rather than to the parameters.

Brewing methods this applies to

• Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.
• Mug infuser brewing — Loose leaf in a basket inside a mug — the most common way loose tea is actually made, and the method most often responsible for people concluding that loose leaf is not worth the trouble.
• Tea bag brewing — Pre-portioned tea in a permeable bag. The format was an accident of early twentieth-century sampling practice and became the dominant way tea is drunk worldwide, because it removes every decision except how long to leave it in.

Related problems

Sharing a cause category, a tea type or a brewing method with this one.

• My tea came out too strong — can I just add water? — A cup or pot is far stronger than intended, and the obvious response is to dilute it.
• My tea tastes sour or acidic — A tart, sharp or faintly vinegary edge sits in the cup — closer to lemon or to wine than to the bitterness or dryness tea is usually criticised for.
• My tea disappears when I add milk — A tea that tasted fine on its own becomes a pale, vaguely sweet milk drink with no tea character left in it.
• The same spoonful gives a different strength every time — Following the same recipe — a level teaspoon per cup — produces tea that is strong one day and thin the next, with no other change.
• There is an oily film on the surface of my tea — An iridescent or dull skin sits on the surface of a cup or pot, breaking into patches when disturbed and clinging to the side as the level drops.

Sources