33 teas · 10 free in the app

Black Tea

Black tea is Camellia sinensis leaf left to oxidise fully, which is why it pours copper-red and tastes malty rather than grassy. Across the 33 black teas here the median brew is 98 °C (208 °F) for 3 minutes at 3 g per 250 ml — near-boiling water that a green tea could never take.

Black Tea at a glance

Black Tea at a glance
	Leaf	Water	Temperature	Time	Re-steeps
Western	3 g	250 ml	98°C / 208°F	3 min	2
Gong Fu	6 g	100 ml	98°C / 208°F	10 s +	6

Caffeine: 50 mg per cup6 with a Gong Fu ladder 10 free in the app

Median values across all 33 teas on this page. Each tea's own page carries its exact numbers.

Start this timer → teafinity.app

What makes black tea black

Black tea is Camellia sinensis leaf that has been withered, rolled to rupture its cells, and then left to oxidise until the conversion is complete — the same chemistry that browns a cut apple, held for hours rather than minutes. That full oxidation is why the liquor pours copper-red instead of pale gold, why the aroma reads malt, honey and dried fruit rather than grass, and why black tea is the one type that takes milk without collapsing into a grey cup.

In China the same category is called red tea, hongcha, after the colour in the cup rather than the colour of the dry leaf — which is why a Chinese Jin Jun Mei and an Indian Assam end up in the same section here despite tasting almost nothing alike.

How to brew black tea

This is the most forgiving type in the library. The median across these 33 teas is 98 °C (208 °F) for 3 minutes at 3 g per 250 ml — water at a rolling boil, which would strip a sencha bare, does exactly the right thing to a robust blend. The forgiveness has a limit: past four minutes most black teas turn astringent, and that dryness is tannin extraction, not strength. If your cup is harsh, shorten the steep before you reduce the leaf.

Two useful exceptions. Delicate first-flush Darjeelings and high-grown Chinese blacks prefer roughly 90 °C and a shorter steep, closer to how you would treat an oolong. And six of the teas here carry a Gong Fu ladder — 6 g per 100 ml, a ten-second first infusion, six or more steeps — which is how Chinese red teas are usually drunk where they are grown.

Caffeine and when to drink it

The median black tea here delivers 50 mg of caffeine per cup, roughly half a home-brewed coffee, alongside L-theanine — the amino acid responsible for the steadier, less spiky lift tea drinkers describe. Most people find a cup after four in the afternoon still noticeable at bedtime; if that is you, the herbal collection is the honest alternative rather than a weaker steep, since a shorter brew removes flavour faster than it removes caffeine.

Ten of these teas are free in the Teafinity app with their complete brewing schedules. Each tea below links to its own page with the exact temperature, ratio, infusion ladder, tasting notes and origin.