Infusion is simply the act of steeping tea leaves, or any botanical, in hot water to pull out flavor, color, and aroma. It’s the one step every cup of tea has to go through, no matter the category.
The word “infusion” and “steep” mean essentially the same thing and get used interchangeably. What actually changes the outcome is time and temperature, the two variables that decide how much flavor, and how much tannin and caffeine, actually make it into the cup. Too short a steep and a tea tastes thin and underdeveloped. Too long, or too hot for the leaf, and it turns bitter or astringent. The exact numbers change by tea type, which is why a green tea and a black tea don’t share the same instructions even though the process itself is identical.
More control than most people use
Most of the character difference between “this tea tastes flat” and “this tea tastes great” comes down to infusion technique, not the tea itself. The same leaf, infused a minute too long in water a few degrees too hot, can taste noticeably worse than the exact same leaf brewed with real attention to timing and temperature. It’s the single most controllable variable in how any tea actually turns out, more than the blend, more than where it was grown.
