Should I consider water temperature in kettle or in cup to infuse my tea?

Question

Most, if not all, teas have an ideal infusing temperature. Is this temperature the real water temperature at the time of infusion, or the water temperature while pouring it from the kettle ?

For instance, let's say that I have a kettle that can warm up water with a 1°C accuracy. I want to drink a green tea that suggest 75°C infusion for 3 min. What should I do ?

• Warm water up to 75°C, pour it on my tea infuser, and wait 3 min.
• Warm up water up to 85°C, pour it on my tea infuser, and wait 3 minutes. Because, right after pouring it, since the cup and tea infuser were at room temperature, the water will nearly instantly lose 9-10°C (and roughly 7°C without the infuser from what I measured).

So I wondered which case was taken into account when determining the ideal infusing temperature.

Answer 1

75°C is the temperature you want your tea to brew, so if your temperature drops by 10 degrees when you pour it in the cup you'll want to heat it to 85°C, pour it into the cup and let it warm up the cup before you add the tea, that way it is at the ideal temperature.

The other option is heating the cup up with hot water while you heat the kettle, then pouring that water out of the cup just before you add your 75°C water.

I like the first method if you have the measurements down as you'll get a consistent result with fewer steps, but if you're using different cups the second method is more consistent.