Neat article. For those like me that struggle getting 170 degree water for green tea, I found a good trick which is to just put an ice cube on top of the tea, and pour the hot water on top of that. That prevents singeing the leaves that can kill a nice cup of green tea. I find it a lot more reproducible than 'waiting longer than a minute'.
A good trick is to listen to the water boiling. At around 180°F the water starts bubbling and dancing, gets a bit agitated and might make a resonant sound in your kettle. I suggest using a thermometer and getting to know how the water sounds at different temperatures.
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When I boil water in an open pot, I can usually recognize the different temperatures by the way the water shimmers, the size of the bubbles, etc. Do that a couple times with a thermometer, and you can probably eyeball it from there.
I heard that you should boil the water first, and then let it cool down. The listening method only works when you don't boil it, but go to the desired temperature without a detour.
