Tea Timer
Tap your tea type and steep. Green at 80 °C for two minutes, black at 98 °C for three — or set any time you like.
- Free
- Works offline
- No sign-up
Tea timer
Green tea
Ready
80 °C / 175 °F · 3 g / 250 ml
Or set your own time
Tea type presets
Each preset is a real link — bookmark the one you brew most and it opens ready to start.
Steeping times for 12 everyday teas
| Tea | Type | Temperature | Leaf | Time | Infusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Breakfast | Black tea | 100 °C / 212 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 4 min | 2 |
| Sleepytime | Herbal tea | 95 °C / 203 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 5 min | 1 |
| Earl Grey | Black tea | 98 °C / 208 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 3 min | 2 |
| Chamomile | Herbal tea | 95 °C / 203 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 6 min | 1 |
| Peppermint | Herbal tea | 100 °C / 212 °F | 2 g / 250 ml | 6 min | 2 |
| Matcha | Green tea | 70 °C / 160 °F | 2 g / 250 ml | 0 s | 1 |
| Chai Black Tea | Black tea | 100 °C / 212 °F | 4 g / 250 ml | 5 min | 1 |
| Berry Blend | Herbal tea | 100 °C / 212 °F | 4 g / 250 ml | 8 min | 1 |
| Orange Pekoe | Black tea | 100 °C / 212 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 3 min | 2 |
| Sencha | Green tea | 80 °C / 175 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 1 min 30 s | 3 |
| Yerba Mate | Herbal tea | 70 °C / 158 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 5 min | 8 |
| Rooibos | Herbal tea | 100 °C / 212 °F | 3 g / 250 ml | 6 min | 3 |
Times, temperatures and ratios come from Teafinity’s curated library of 176 teas.
In three steps
- Tap the type you are brewing, or type the minutes and seconds yourself.
- Press start when the water hits the leaf — not when the kettle boils.
- Pour as soon as it chimes. Leaving the leaf in is what turns tea bitter.
How long to steep tea
Steeping time and water temperature are one setting, not two. Green tea steeped for two minutes at 80 °C is pleasant; the same two minutes at 100 °C strips out the tannins and tastes of boiled spinach. Black tea is the opposite — it needs fully boiling water and about four minutes to give up its body, and under-brewing it produces a thin, sour cup that milk cannot rescue.
The presets on this page carry both numbers, and each one is the median across every tea of that type in the library rather than a textbook rounding. Green: 80 °C, two minutes. White: 88 °C, four minutes, because the leaf is delicate but slow. Oolong: 90 °C, two minutes in a Western pot. Black: 98 °C, three minutes. Pu-erh: 90 °C and 43 seconds after a quick rinse, the only one of the six brewed in seconds rather than minutes at Western strength. Herbal infusions have no tea leaf in them at all, so they take the longest preset of the lot: 100 °C for eight minutes — you cannot over-steep chamomile the way you can over-steep sencha.
Timing starts when the water meets the leaf, not when the kettle clicks off. Thirty seconds of pouring and fussing is a quarter of a green tea steep. When the timer chimes, separate the leaf from the water immediately: lift the infuser, decant the pot, or pour the whole cup. Tea left sitting on its leaf keeps extracting, which is why the second half of a mug so often tastes worse than the first.
If you like your tea stronger, add leaf rather than time. More leaf gives you a fuller cup at the same steeping time; more time gives you the same cup plus bitterness, because the pleasant compounds come out early and the astringent ones come out late. The steeping calculator on this site works out the extra grams for the size of your pot.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I steep green tea?
Two minutes at 80 °C for most Chinese and Japanese greens. Gyokuro and some shaded senchas go shorter and cooler — 60 seconds at 60–70 °C.
How long do I steep black tea?
Three to five minutes with fully boiling water; four is the usual answer. Broken-leaf breakfast blends are ready sooner than whole-leaf Darjeeling.
Can I resteep the same leaves?
Yes. Most whole-leaf teas give a good second cup and many give a third — add 30–60 seconds each time. Tea bags with fine dust do not resteep well.
Does the timer still ring if I switch tabs?
The chime fires when the page is brought back into view, and the tab title updates while you are away. For an alarm that rings with the phone locked, use the app.
More free tools
The same timings, in your pocket
Teafinity loads the exact ladder for all 176 teas, rings while your phone is locked, and logs every session — free on iPhone and Android.
