the Chinese via steeping in hot water at approximately 70–80 ◦C
for green tea, 80–90 ◦C for oolong tea and 100 ◦C for black tea,
with infusion times of approximately 20–60 s. The tea leaves
are re-steeped several times before being thrown away.20 The
first infusions of green tea and oolong are always thrown away
by the Chinese people due to their excessive astringency.21 The
Japanese like to prepare their green tea in hot water for 2 min
and then re-steep two to three times. Meanwhile, in the West,
people prefer drinking black tea by pouring boiling water (100 ◦C)
onto the tea.20 Because people do not consume tea leaves directly
but prepare it as beverage, different steeping procedures may
influencetheantioxidantcompoundsreleased intotheinfusions.22
Thus, this study was undertaken to observe the effects of water
temperature, multiple brewing steps and brewing times upon
phenolic concentrations in the C. asiatica herbal tea infusion
during tea preparation.