If you’re an avid tea drinker, then it might make sense to squeeze the tea bag to get the most out of it as soon as possible so you don’t have to wait for your tea to brew. But is it a good idea to squeeze your tea bag?
Squeezing your tea bag means releasing the Panic acids in tea which can create a bitter and even sour cup of tea. It can also cause bits of tea to escape from the bag, leaving gritty, cloudy pieces in your cup.
Let’s discover what happens when you squeeze your tea bag and what some of the harmful side effects are, from potentially hurting yourself to creating an unpleasant cup of tea.
What Happens When You Squeeze a Tea Bag?
You’re never going to find someone who knows a lot about tea squeezing their tea bag to try and speed up the Brewing process or get more flavor from their tea, and it messes with the chemistry. It is going to mean that you don’t have the distinct and enjoyable taste you wanted.
Tea contains acidic tannins, and in most cases, when you brew your tea over a certain length of time, some of the tannins mix with the hot water, but it is a very low concentration. However, when you squeeze your tea bag, it releases far more acid into the water, making it taste acidic and tannic acid stains your teeth.
Reasons You Shouldn’t Squeeze Your Tea Bag
Now that you know that you shouldn’t squeeze your tea bags, let’s go through some of the adverse effects that squeezing your tea bag can cause to enjoy your tea and for some health reasons.
It Makes the Tea Bitter
Nothing is worse than getting ready to sip a good cup of tea only to find that it tastes bitter and acidic. While squeezing the tea bag might seem like a good way of getting past waiting for it to brew, it will cause those tannic acids to mix with the water, and you’re going to end up with a sour taste in a cup of tea.
Even if you love a strong cup of tea, this isn’t going to be the right kind of strong taste you would like, and it will be an overpowering stringent paste instead of a dark brew you might be craving.
Grit in Your Tea
Not only will your tea taste bitter if you squeeze a tea bag, but you’re also going to be encouraging pieces of the tea leaves to make their way out of the mesh of the bag. This results in you getting little bits of grit floating in your tea, especially once you start to get to the bottom of your cup.
There could be an even worse effect if you accidentally break open part of the tea bag while squeezing it. This could completely ruin your cup of tea, and you might end up hurting yourself.
It Can Burn Your Fingers
While it isn’t likely that you will end up burning your fingers while squeezing at your tea bag, it’s still possible. Especially if the bag breaks and you end up spilling your cup, you could end up not only part of your fingers but some other part of your skin.
It’s More Likely to Stain Your Teeth
Not only are you going to end up with a cup of tea that doesn’t taste the way you wanted to, but you could end up hurting yourself in the process, squeezing your tea bag means that your tea is going to be more acidic, which in turn can end up staining your teeth.
If you want to keep enjoying tea and having a white smile, it’s best to let your tea brew at its own pace.
How Long Should I Let a Tea Bag Sit?
Now that you know that squeezing your tea bag isn’t the way to get a strong, well-brewed tea, we can talk about how long you need to wait for your teeth to brew correctly. Most tea packaging suggests a brewing time, so it will depend on the type of tea, as black teas will be different from white teas or green teas.
A general rule of thumb is 3 to 5 minutes, which will be the same amount regardless of how strong you want the tea to be. If you’re looking for a strong tea, then the way to get to that sleeper isn’t to leave your bag for a longer but to add another tea bag or more tea leaves.
Remember that green teas usually only need a brewing time of 1 to 3 minutes, and they also require water at a lower temperature than something like black teas or herbal teas. This is because all of the flavors will come out in that time, and even leaving the bag longer isn’t going to increase the taste.
Here’s a quick list of brewing times for different types of tea to get you started:
- Black tea: 3 to 5 minutes
- Herbal tea: 3 to 5 minutes
- Green tea: 1 to 3 minutes
- White tea: 3 to 4 minutes
- Oolong tea: 3 to 5 minutes
- Pu-erh tea: 3 to 5 minutes
Why You shouldn’t Steep Tea for Too Long
The same reason that people think squeezing at the tea bag will make their tea brew stronger, you might think that leaving your tea bag for longer will result in a stronger taste. In reality, letting your tea steep for longer than 5 minutes will only result in more of the tennis acids getting into your tea.
The only way to truly get a stronger tea without the bitter flavor is to add another tea bag or add more tea leaves to your infuser. If you prefer stronger tea in general, using loose-leaf tea with an infuser might be better because you can control how much tea you use at a time.
Conclusion
While it might seem like a way of getting a more potent brew to squeeze your tea bag, it will only result in you having bitter and acidic tea that might even have some grit from the tea leaves. Moreover, the increased acid could cause your teeth to stain more easily.
Hi, I’m Jen Williams, chief editor and writer for ThirstPerk.com.
I’ve been drinking coffee and tea for most of my life, but it wasn’t until I started working at Thirstperk.com that I became an expert on the subject. I’m a total caffeine addict who has spent hours upon hours reading about and experimenting with the different types of coffees out there in my search to find the perfect cup of joe.
I’ve been a tea lover for as long as I can remember as well. I grew up in a house with a mom who loved to drink herbal tea, and I think that’s where my love for tea first began. These days, I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting teas to try, and I love experimenting with different brewing methods and flavoring combinations.
