When going to college I lived with my aunt. Coffee was too expensive, so we drank tea. I looked up how to brew tea in her old Encyclopedia Brittanica. The most

When going to college I lived with my aunt. Coffee was too expensive, so we drank tea. I looked up how to brew tea in her old Encyclopedia Brittanica. The most useful bit of information I gleaned was that 3 minutes was the optimal steeping time. You want to maximize caffeine while keeping the bitter tannins to a minimum. I also found that drinking lots of tea caused muscle twitches. I did some research at the library and the cause, I determined, was that tannins also hinder the absorption of B vitamins. So take B vitamins if you start to have eye twitches, etc. Or drink less black tea.