Water Temperature: The One Variable Most People Get Wrong
Why 212 °F ruins a sencha, and the two-minute trick that fixes it without a fancy kettle.
Read the guide →Pagosa Springs, Colorado · Since 2019
Tea, tested properly. Then written up honestly.
Timberline Steep is a one-woman review desk. I buy loose-leaf tea at full retail, brew every batch at least six times across different water temperatures and steep lengths, and publish the tasting notes — including the ones that talk me out of a purchase.
0Teas cupped
0Brews per review
0Years publishing
0Sponsored scores
Why this site exists
Most tea “reviews” are product descriptions with a buy button
I got tired of reading pages that rephrase a vendor's own marketing copy. So in 2019 I started logging what actually happened in my kitchen: the grams, the water, the temperature, the second and third infusion, the day the tin started to fade.
Everything on this site follows the same protocol. A tea is bought anonymously at retail. It is brewed at 175 °F, 195 °F and boiling, in filtered water measured at roughly 40 ppm hardness, at 2 g per 6 oz. It is re-cupped a week later without the label visible. Only then does it get a score.
- Every tea purchased with our own money — no vendor samples in scored reviews
- Scores locked before any affiliate link is placed
- Full tasting logs published, including failed steeps
- Reviews revisited annually; harvest years change, so do ratings
The testing protocol
Five steps, run the same way every time
01
Buy blind
Ordered as a regular customer, shipped to the house on Timberbrook Lane, no press account, no discount code.
02
Log the water
Filtered well water at 38–44 ppm, tested with a TDS meter before each session. Water is half the cup.
03
Brew a ladder
Three temperatures, two steep lengths, minimum six cups. Western style and gongfu where the leaf calls for it.
04
Re-cup blind
A week later, unlabeled, alongside two known references so palate drift gets caught.
05
Score and publish
Aroma, body, finish, consistency and value, each out of 20. Notes go up unedited, the good and the flat.
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Then revisit
Harvests change. Every scored tea is re-tested the following season and the page is dated so you know what you're reading.
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And correct
If we get something wrong, the correction stays visible at the top of the page. See our editorial policy.
Recently scored
The four teas people ask about most
Short version below. Full logs, infusion-by-infusion, live on the reviews page.
Green · Spring 2026
Uji Sencha, first flush
93 / 100
Sweet grass and cut melon at 165 °F. Turns astringent fast above 175 °F — a thermometer tea, not a kettle-and-hope tea.
Black · Second flush
Assam, orthodox GFBOP
88 / 100
Malt, cocoa, a raisin edge. The only breakfast tea in the group that survived milk without going flat.
Oolong · Autumn pick
Dong Ding, medium roast
91 / 100
Six honest gongfu infusions. Toasted grain into stone fruit, then a long mineral finish that keeps going.
Herbal · Year-round
Chamomile, whole flower
84 / 100
Whole heads, not dust. Apple-honey, no hay note. Best value on this list by a wide margin.
Pick a starting point
Not sure which leaf suits you? Start here.
Go for orthodox Assam or a Yunnan black. You want a leaf with enough malt to stand up to a rushed kitchen. Brew 3 g in 8 oz of boiling water for 3:30. If you take milk, add it after the steep, never before — milk protein binds the tannins and flattens the aroma you just paid for.
Skip: delicate first-flush greens. At 7 a.m. nobody is measuring 165 °F, and you will waste them.
Oolong is the afternoon leaf. A medium-roast Dong Ding or a Tieguanyin gives you five or six infusions from one 5 g portion, which means a whole working afternoon out of a single pot. Start at 195 °F, 30 seconds, and add ten seconds per round.
This is also the category where price and quality track most closely — the jump from a $9 tin to an $18 tin is genuinely audible in the cup.
Whole-flower chamomile or a roasted hojicha. Hojicha is roasted late in processing, which knocks the caffeine down to roughly a tenth of a cup of coffee while keeping a real, toasty body. Chamomile should smell like apple skin; if it smells like hay, it is old.
Steep chamomile covered. Half the aromatics leave with the steam otherwise — the saucer-on-the-mug trick is not folklore.
From the guides
Read these before you spend anything
How to Store Loose-Leaf Tea So It Lasts a Full Year
Oxygen, light, heat and odour — ranked by how much damage each one actually does.
Read the guide →
Reading a Tea Label: Grades, Harvests and Marketing Noise
What FTGFOP really means, why “first flush” is a date and not a compliment, and the five words that signal filler.
Read the guide →A note from the desk
“I live at 7,100 feet. Water boils here at about 199 °F, which quietly changes every brewing chart written at sea level. That inconvenience is the reason this site exists — I had to work it out for myself, so I may as well write it down.”
Mary Knight — owner, Timberline Steep
Questions we get by email
Frequently asked
Do you sell tea?
No. Timberline Steep is a review publication, not a shop. We do not hold inventory, take orders or process payments. When a tea is worth buying we link to the retailer that sells it, and if you buy through that link we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Can a brand pay for a better score?
No, and this is the line we care about most. We do not accept payment for reviews, rankings, placement or removal. Scores are finalised and written up before any affiliate link is added to the page. If a brand offers money, we say so in the review.
Do you accept free samples?
We accept them, but samples never receive a numbered score. They can appear in a round-up clearly labelled “sample, unscored”. Anything with a score on this site was bought at full retail price.
How often are reviews updated?
Every scored tea is re-tested at least once a year because harvest quality moves. Each review shows the harvest year and the date of the last cupping at the top of the page.
How do I reach a human?
Call 970-264-3946 between 9:00 and 17:00 Mountain Time, Monday to Friday, or email accounts@affiliate.alliceteaspot.com. Mail reaches us at 4492 Timberbrook Lane, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147. Mary answers the email herself; expect a reply within two business days.
Get in touch
Have a tea you think we should test?
Reader suggestions decide roughly a third of what gets cupped each season. Send it over — we read everything.