prescribed steep times

not sure why peoples experiences are different than mine; curious as to whether its my taste buds or maybe the type of tea or another factor, i guess time will tell.

teavivres response best fits my situation, alas i do not use a gaiwan.

It depends on what black tea you drink. It’s a broad spectrum, and Indian/Ceylon tea and Chinese black tea are at two opposite ends. So there is no one-size-fits-all brewing method. Besides, in my observation, many brewing instructions on tea packages can be directly ignored :-p I suspect some people make such instructions just to fill the blank on the tea package :-D