Living · 6 pages · 12 min
Why tannins make tea bitter if it sits
Polyphenols keep leaching out, and they pucker as well as taste bitter.
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From the opening
Tannins make tea bitter if it sits because those polyphenols keep diffusing from the leaf the whole time it remains in the water. Early minutes carry more aroma and color; later minutes keep adding the slower, more astringent fraction. The opening covers polyphenols keep leaving the leaf, astringency is protein binding, and broken leaf and heat speed it.
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Inside
- Polyphenols keep leaving the leaf
- Astringency is protein binding
- Broken leaf and heat speed it
- Milk proteins bind them first
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Tea polyphenols and the sensation of astringency
- Continued diffusion from a leaf left in the cup