Now that the temperature has started to drop in Australia, we've seen a very strong increase in the number of promotional cup sales. This happens during the cooler months each year, and we love giving people what they want -- which is why we've decided to put together some great tips for getting the most out of the tea you make in your new custom cup!

Getting the Best Tea Flavour in Your Personalised Cup

The key to achieving the tea flavour you desire is how long you steep the tea in your new promotional cup. This is essentially a fancy way of saying how long you soak your tea in water. While the basic qualities of tea are the same regardless of how many minutes you leave your tea soaking, to get your ideal flavours and the best level of antioxidants in your tea, you will need to take some advice with your steeping!

What Does Steeping Do Exactly?

Steeping green and black teas in your fave personalised mug releases chemical compounds from the leaves into the water by way of a process called osmotic diffusion. What causes variance when steeping is how long it takes for different compounds to diffuse (because they do this at different rates). The temperature of the water can also impact the speed at which they diffuse. So there's a lot of variables in the process, which is why we've put together this handy cheat guide.

I Want Healthy Tea!

Then you'll want your steeping to unlock polyphenolic antioxidants, which may protect against things like diabetes, heart disease, and liver disorders. Both black and green tea have these compounds in them and the ideal brew time to unlock them is around 2:30-5:00 minutes.

I Want Tasty Tea!

The longer you leave your black and green tea to soak in your favourite reusable cup, the more bitter it is likely to taste due to how slowly it takes the tea to release compounds called tannins. If you like your tea light and tasty (and also less likely to stain your custom cup) then aim to steep your tea for 1:00-2:30 minutes for a less bitter taste. If you like that strong flavour then you should leave the tea steeping for an extra 1:00-2:00 minutes for that added bite. Herbal teas don't have these compounds so soak them as long as you like!

I Want My Caffeine!

And finally if you're a caffeine addict like many of the Cubic Team, you'll want to soak your tea in its cup for a while, but don't think that steeping for 6 minutes or so is a great idea. While you do get more caffeine in your tea the longer it's steeped, you also get a lot more yucky stuff too. So 3:00-5:00 minutes is all you'll need to unlock the caffeine in your tea leaves without also releasing things like thearubigins, which you don't want.

And that's it! So why not grab your fave cup down from the shelf and start brewing this weekend?

Details first spotted here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/536417/how-long-steep-your-tea-according-science