Does it hurt anything if I steep my green tea for ten minutes instead of three to five minutes?!
Answers:
Green tea can taste a bit bitter if it's over steeped.
Me - personal experience!
A general rule of thumb: If you want stronger tea, add more tea. DON'T steep longer. ("Herbal teas" can be steeped as long as you want, because they don't actually contain the tea leaf)
(Also the tea will be cooler after waiting 10 minutes instead of the usual 2-5. To help with this if you do decide to steep longer, pour boiling water in the cup for a few minutes to heat it up. Then drain the water, add tea and fresh hot water.)
The reasoning for this is because when you steep tea longer you release compounds called tannins naturally in the leaf. These cause an astringent, bitter taste that is usually unpleasant to the consumer. (To me feels like a prickling/stabing/numbing sensation on the tongue.)
So while it won't exactly hurt you, it may be undesirable unless you actually like the astringency.
See profile.
Also a tea fanatic.
Well, the main thing it depends on is the temperature. If you are using 50-60C water, you can steep the green tea for 10 minutes without it going bitter. But in the end it really depends on how you like it: if you like it bitter, just use the time you want. The main rule that should be strictly followed here is max temperature: if the water is too hot, you'll kill green tea. All the rest if up to your taste. For example I like soft and delicate green tea without it going bitter (I have young pu-erh for bitter stuff) so I usually steep green tea for 5 minutes max using 60-70C water. If you like it bitter, just steep it for longer time, it's totally ok.
Steep it for ten minutes and see how it taste. If you don't like it then steep it for three to five minutes. It's a matter of what you like. Sometimes you have to experiment to get the taste you want. I like strong tea and I do steep mine for ten minutes.
Some people say this makes the tea tase more bitter, but the truth is, it make the tea detectable via spy sattelite and the governemtn then knows where you are. So steep you tea to make it stronger, if you trust the government!