Safe Temperature to Drink Tea: Brewing Heat vs Sipping Heat

Tea is made hot because heat extracts flavor. The UK Tea & Infusions Association recommends water at 90–98°C for black tea and around 80°C for green tea. Those are brewing targets — the temperature of the water when it meets the leaf — and they are well above any temperature anyone recommends drinking at.

Drinking temperature is what matters for safety, and it is a separate question. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, drew its line at the drinking end: in its 2016 evaluation, "very hot" refers to any beverage consumed at a temperature above 65°C. Cooling between kettle and lips is the whole gap between a correct brew and a safe sip.

That gap also explains why the same advice can sound contradictory. Our tea water temperature chart tells you to use boiling or near-boiling water for black and herbal tea, and this page tells you not to drink tea above 65°C. Both are true. You brew hot, then you wait.

The distinction matters most for people who drink tea quickly, in large quantities, or straight from a freshly poured pot — habits the research below links to higher risk.

On 15 June 2016, an IARC working group of 23 scientists published its evaluation of coffee, maté and very hot beverages, summarized that day in The Lancet Oncology and later in full as Volume 116 of the IARC Monographs. The key points, as stated in IARC's press release:

• Drinking very hot beverages was classified as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A), specifically for cancer of the oesophagus.
• The classification was based on limited evidence from epidemiological studies showing positive associations between oesophageal cancer and drinking very hot beverages, plus limited evidence from animal experiments with very hot water.
• Studies in places such as China, Iran, Turkey and South America, where tea or maté is traditionally drunk at about 70°C, found that oesophageal cancer risk increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk.
• IARC's director said the results suggest it is the temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be responsible.
• Drinking coffee, and drinking maté at temperatures that are not very hot, were both "not classifiable" (Group 3).

Two things the evaluation did not say are just as important. IARC stated that the proportion of oesophageal cancer cases that may be linked to very hot beverages is not known. And IARC's own explainer on Volume 116 states that its classification indicates the strength of the scientific evidence that something can cause cancer, and does not give any indication of the level of risk associated with exposure.

So the honest summary is: there is enough evidence to treat very hot drinks as a probable hazard, and the line IARC used is 65°C at the point of drinking. Tea itself is not the concern.

Much of the measured evidence on tea temperature comes from Golestan province in northern Iran, a region with high rates of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and a tradition of drinking a lot of hot black tea. Two studies are especially useful because researchers measured temperatures rather than only asking about them.

Islami et al., BMJ, 2009. In a cohort of 48,582 people, nearly all drank black tea regularly, averaging over one litre a day. Measured drinking temperatures were below 60°C for 39.0%, 60–64°C for 38.9%, and 65°C or higher for 22.0%. In the linked case-control study (300 cancer cases, 571 controls), drinking "hot" tea was associated with roughly twice the odds of oesophageal cancer compared with lukewarm or warm tea (odds ratio 2.07), and "very hot" tea with about eight times the odds (8.16). Timing told the same story: compared with waiting four or more minutes after pouring, drinking within 2–3 minutes had an odds ratio of 2.49, and within two minutes, 5.41.

Islami et al., International Journal of Cancer, 2019/2020. This prospective study followed 50,045 people aged 40–75 for a median of 10.1 years, with 317 new cases. Objectively measured tea temperature of 60°C or higher was associated with a 41% higher risk (hazard ratio 1.41) compared with below 60°C. Drinking 700 ml or more a day at 60°C or above was associated with about a 90% increase compared with drinking less than 700 ml a day below 60°C.

These are associations in a specific population with very high consumption, and smoking, alcohol and other factors also cause oesophageal cancer. But they point in one consistent direction: hotter, faster and more is riskier, and a few minutes of waiting is part of the difference.

Long-term cancer risk is not the only reason drinking temperature matters. Hot tea burns skin and mouths quickly, and the time it takes is shorter than most people assume.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission gives these figures for hot water and adult skin:

Water temperature	Exposure that can cause a third-degree burn (most adults)
150°F (66°C)	2 seconds
140°F (60°C)	6 seconds
130°F (54°C)	30 seconds
120°F (49°C)	5 minutes

The CPSC notes that most tap-water scald injuries and deaths involve older adults and children under five, and recommends household water heaters be set to 120°F.

Freshly made tea is far hotter than any row in that table. A 2008 analysis in the journal Burns (Brown and Diller, University of Texas at Tyler) states that tea, hot chocolate and coffee are frequently served at 160–185°F (71–85°C), and that brief exposures in that range can cause significant scald burns. A spilled cup of fresh tea is a burn hazard measured in seconds, not minutes.

That is one more reason to treat "let it cool" as part of making tea, not an optional extra — and to keep freshly poured cups, teapots and kettles out of reach of small children.

The average hot cup of tea starts well above the 65°C line, and a published measurement shows how far above.

A 2010 study at the McIndoe Burns Centre in East Grinstead, UK (Jamnadas-Khoda et al., Burns) made common drinks under controlled conditions — 230 ml ceramic mugs, water boiled in an electric kettle, teabags, a room held at 22°C — and recorded temperatures over ten minutes. Its findings:

• Milky drinks started coolest, at 75–77°C.
• Black tea and black coffee stayed above 65°C even after cooling for ten minutes.
• Adding sugar made no difference to the cooling rate.
• Skimmed and full-fat milk cooled at very similar rates.
• Adding 10 ml of milk rather than 5 ml lowered the starting temperature and made the drink cool faster.

The authors concluded that a cup can still cause a full-thickness burn after ten minutes of cooling or after adding cold milk.

Together with Brown and Diller's 160–185°F serving range, that means a fresh cup without milk can take longer than ten minutes to drop below 65°C.

People often want a simple timetable — how hot is tea after 5 minutes, 10, 20? The honest answer is that the measured data covers only part of that range, and the rest depends heavily on your cup.

What is measured:

1. At 10 minutes, black tea in a 230 ml ceramic mug in a 22°C room was still above 65°C (Jamnadas-Khoda et al., 2010).
2. With milk, the starting temperature was lower (75–77°C for milky drinks) and more milk cooled the drink faster.
3. Time from pouring to drinking matters in real life: in the Golestan studies, drinking within two minutes of pouring was associated with higher risk than waiting four minutes or more (BMJ 2009), and drinking within two minutes versus six or more (International Journal of Cancer).

What is not measured in any source we could verify: a reliable cooling curve for tea at 15 or 20 minutes in typical home conditions. That curve changes with the size and material of the mug, whether it was pre-warmed, whether it has a lid, how full it is and the room temperature — so a single "after 20 minutes it is X degrees" figure would be invented precision. We have chosen not to print one.

The practical solution is a cheap one: a food thermometer. Check your own usual mug once at 5, 10 and 15 minutes, and you will know your own cooling curve far better than any general table could tell you. If that is too fussy, the evidence-backed habits are simpler — wait several minutes, add milk if you take it, and don't sip from a just-poured cup.

Every number below comes from a source cited on this page. It is a reference, not a recommendation to aim for any particular figure.

°C	°F	What it is	Source
90–98	194–208	Recommended brewing water for black tea	UK Tea & Infusions Association
~80	~176	Recommended brewing water for green tea	UK Tea & Infusions Association
71–85	160–185	Typical serving temperature of tea and coffee	Brown & Diller, Burns 2008
75–77	167–171	Starting temperature of milky drinks in a 230 ml mug	Jamnadas-Khoda et al., Burns 2010
~70	~158	Temperature at which tea or maté is traditionally drunk in high-risk regions	IARC press release, 2016
above 65	above 149	IARC's definition of "very hot" when consumed	IARC press release, 2016
60	140	Threshold used in the Golestan prospective study; also, CPSC: third-degree burn in 6 seconds	Islami et al. 2019; CPSC
60 ± 8.3	140 ± 15	Preferred drinking temperature of coffee in a 300-person dataset	cited in Brown & Diller 2008
~57.8	~136	Modelled optimum serving temperature balancing taste and scald risk (coffee)	Brown & Diller 2008
49	120	CPSC-recommended maximum for household hot water	CPSC

Read from top to bottom, the table shows the journey a cup of tea makes: brewed in the 80s and 90s, served in the 70s and low 80s, and only reaching the low 60s and below after it has had time to cool. The safe temperature to drink tea, on the IARC definition, sits somewhere below the 65°C row — and the comfortable temperature many people actually prefer, judging by the coffee data, sits around 60°C.

None of this means giving up hot tea. It means adding a pause between the pot and the first sip.

• Wait. The Golestan data compared drinking within two minutes of pouring with waiting four to six minutes or more. A few minutes is a small price.
• Add milk if you take it. Jamnadas-Khoda's measurements found milky drinks started at 75–77°C and that a larger splash cooled the drink faster.
• Take small first sips. If the first sip is uncomfortable, the tea is telling you something.
• Measure once. A food thermometer in your usual mug, once, replaces guesswork with your own numbers.
• Go cold when the weather allows. Iced tea and cold brew sidestep the issue entirely; our cold brew tea hub and how to make iced tea guide cover both, and can you drink green tea cold covers what changes when a hot-brewed cup cools all the way.

What doesn't help: brewing black tea with cooler water to make it "safer." That only makes it thin, and the cup still has to cool. Brew at the temperature the tea needs, then wait.

The groups most at risk from hot drinks are the ones least able to protect themselves from spills.

The Jamnadas-Khoda paper opens with the scale of the problem in the UK: scalds are the commonest cause of paediatric burns leading to hospital admission, most children's scalds happen in the kitchen (49%), and about three children under five a day are scalded by pulling a cup of a hot beverage onto themselves. Its authors argue for better caregiver education precisely because a cup that has been sitting for ten minutes, or has had milk added, can still cause a serious burn.

The CPSC's tap-water guidance makes the same point about age: most scald injuries and deaths involve older adults and children under five. Its 120°F recommendation for household water heaters exists because thinner or less responsive skin burns at lower temperatures and in less time.

Simple precautions follow from that:

• Keep hot cups, teapots and kettle cords away from table and counter edges.
• Don't hold a hot drink while holding a child.
• Use a lidded mug when carrying tea around the house.
• For older relatives with reduced grip or sensation, a lidded, stable mug and a cooler serving temperature reduce both spill and burn risk.

This page is general information about a beverage, not medical advice. For a burn, follow first-aid guidance and seek medical care for anything more than a minor scald. If you have symptoms such as difficulty or pain when swallowing, or concerns about cancer risk, talk to a doctor.