I've read that, after boiling, tea should be steeped until it cools to about 130°F in ~ 20minutes, prior to serving.
That would make horribly strong, stewed tasting tea, of any sort.
Black tea should be made with boiling water, steeped for 3-5 minutes. Oolong should be made with boiling water, steeped for 5-8 minutes. Green tea should be made with water that is 180° - the little bubbles are just starting to rise to the surface) and steeped for 3 minutes. All of these teas can be rebrewed, the taste is different for each cup (oolong rebrewed is especially interesting, it brings out some subtle undertones that don't shine through on the first brewing). Can you tell I love tea?
Indeed - that is why I said "(this tea etiquette is completely foreign to me)". Here's the
source. Perhaps it's a specific technique/custom tea? (who knows... or cares... lol).
The fluid you're 'overheating' the honey with stays with the honey.
:?
I should think if you drank it quickly enough you'd still get most of the goodness of the honey.
If the end solution (honey dissolved in tea) is above 110F, enzymes
will perish. How long can various enzymes survive and at what temps? That's likely a moot question as those who want something truly raw would not subject their honey to the high temps in the first place and those unconcerned with enzyme's role in health and diet would be unlikely to gulp hot tea just to potentially save a small %.
However, if there's a scientific curiosity, I believe the following formula would be a decent approximation for the effects upon the enzymes:
First, the enzymes present in honey (invertase, diastase, glucose oxidase, etc.,) and their respective (deactivation rate) coefficients, would need to be determined.
The thermal denaturation of an enzyme may be modeled by the following serial deactivation scheme:
where k
d1 and k
d2 are the first-order deactivation rate coefficients, E is the native enzyme which may, or may not, be an equilibrium mixture of a number of species, distinct in structure or activity, and E1 and E2 are enzyme molecules of average specific activity relative to E of A1 and A2. A1 may be greater or less than unity (i.e. E1 may have higher or lower activity than E) whereas A2 is normally very small or zero. For the rest of the formula go here ~>
LINK.
As far as the other deleterious effects of heat upon honey (e.g. denatures and promotes crosslinks in proteins, amino acids, etc.,), I would submit they are difficult to separate from enzymes (also being a protein), are of secondary significance, and likely even more difficult to qualify.
A nice piping hot cuppa is a pleasure I won't mess with :-P
Precisely why I prefaced my additional comments (beyond the simple answer to the original poster's question) with the caveat "How much of a concern is that for you? That is a personal issue."
Despite their importance upon health, a lot of people aren't concerned with enzymes. I try to separate the personal lifestyle choices from the facts in any such discussion. To each their own. :-D
Cheers,
Dane