Tea Time! (Discussion and Tutorial)

Seeing as we have a coffee thread, and seeing interest in tea I thought we should get one of these started.

Specifically I would like this space to sort of be a gathering place for great home-brewed tea. Which is not that hard as long as you take some time, get some proper tools/ingredients and follow some rules. Then you too will know the pleasure of a great cup of the world 2nd most popular drink (next to #1, water!).

Here is how I brew my tea, with some of the equipment I use. Now these are only what I use (and some of them are pricey, but I am crazy).

Ingredients/Hardware:
For a great cup of tea you will need!

1. Good Tasting Water (NOT DISTILLED)
2. Tea (Loose Leaf)
3. Kettle (Electric or Stovetop)
4. Teapot

Factor #1, Tea Leaves:
First, to get the best cup of tea you need to brew with Loose Leaf Teas! You can get a decent cup of tea from a bag but it takes a much different set of rules to get it done which I will not cover here.

The best place to get loose leaf teas is either online or at a local Tea Shop. Most Tea Shop owners know everything that needs to known about Tea and can point you in the right direction based on your own personal tastes. Ask questions! The more you ask, the more you learn and you can then make your own choices.
NOTE: If you run across Tea Grades, Aim for O.P. (Orange Pekoe) Tea. It is the nice and basic loose leaf that you are looking for. When it doubt, the more letters in the grade (T.O.P., etc) the more expensive the tea.

For a basic intro there are three different types of Tea. Green, Oolong and Black (Or Red) Tea. Each follows some different brewing rules which I will go over when they have differences. Most of the tea you think of (Say Earl Grey) is Black Tea which is most common here in North America and England. Oolong and Green Teas are what you think about when you think of Japan or China for the most part.

So you have your tea. Here is the first thing you need to remember: You need to keep your tea in an airtight dark tin like these:

This will allow your teas to last a year or more. Keep them in a cool pantry.

Factor #2, Water!
So now that you have your leaves, you need your water. If your tap water tastes good then go for it. If you need to use a filter then grab the water before you brew. The fresher the better for the water. Don't use distilled since it won't extract the right about of Tea Goodness. Bottled water isn't so good either since it will be a little too stale. You need lots of oxygen for Tea Brewing so choose fresh!

Factor #3, Boiling the Water/Pre-Brewing Prep:
Ok, put your water in the kettle and start the boil. Get your teapot ready for the brewing. You can choose any kettle really but there are some things you need to keep in mind:

1. It needs to be big enough
2. It needs to retain heat

I personally use a Japanese Tetsubin Teapot like this one:

It is a Cast Iron Teapot with a Porcelain interior. It gets hot and STAYS hot, which is best for the tea. If you have a straight porcelain Teapot or metal or whatever, get a tea cozy to keep it warm if you aren't confident it can stay hot.
When the water reaches a boil, poor some into the teapot and slosh it around until you preheat the pot. This is important for two reasons:

1. It rinses out the inside of the pot
2. It preheats the pot, which prevents the heat from being stolen from the tea

Bring the water back to a boil and get ready for actual brewing!

Factor #4 Brewing!
Here we go! The moment of truth! While you are waiting for the water to come back to a boil, decide how tea you are going to brew. For each cup of tea (6 Ounces of water) you will need 1 spoonful of tea leaves. Spoon your tea into a strainer or cheesecloth. Choose the biggest one that will fit into your pot, you want those leaves to expand as MUCH as possible BUT you need to be able to remove the leaves at the end of brewing.

So you have your tea portioned, your water is boiled. You are ready to brew. NOT YET! What kind of tea are you brewing? It matters because teas need to brew at different temperatures.

If you are brewing Black Tea like Earl Grey, pour the water onto the leaves right off the boil. Black Teas are best when brewed at the full boil. If you are brewing Green or Oolong, let the water sit until it is lowers in temp to around 200 Degrees F for Oolong, 180 for Green. Just give it a long 5-7 count for Oolong or a 12 count for Green and that should be ok. If you are paranoid, use a thermometer to make sure! Whatever temp you need, pour onto the leaves when you reach it and put the lid on your teapot.

Brew time also matters. The GENERAL rule is 3-5 minutes for Black Tea, 4-7 for Oolong and 2-3 for Green Tea. Play around with these depending on how you like the strength of your tea. Remove the leaves as SOON as your time is reaches to prevent over brewing. Your properly prepped pot will keep the tea nice and hot. My Testubin keeps tea hot for over an hour!

Factor #5 Post Brew.
Your tea is done! If you followed the proper brewing steps it should be perfect the way it is. No milk/sugar needed. Oolong/Green should NEVER have additives, it just ruins the subtle tastes. For Black Tea you can add stuff but if you want to add milk, add it to your cup before you pour the tea. This prevents the milk from possibly curdling/bringing solids out of solution for your tea. Sugar can be added when the tea is hot, preferably before the milk so it dissolves best.

Some food for thought, some studies suggest milk actually stops the 'healthy components' in tea from doing their job. I never add anything to my tea, unless I am not at home. The tea I buy is too expensive to ruin with additions, but the tea on the train needs milk/sugar to be drinkable.. :rofl

This is just a basic outline for tea brewing and such. There are some other factors but for a basic tutorial this works. Let the tea drinkers of TSD unite for discussion!

 

Thanks for the tutorial. If I want to add sugar and milk, and if I put milk in the cup before the tea, how do I add sugar before the milk as you suggest? Can it go into the pot?

 

I would put the sugar in with the milk. While the sugar will not dissolve all the way in cold liquid it will get a little head start and finish dissolving when you add the hot tea.

You should keep the pot for water/tea really..

 

You'll never go back to Tea Bags again

 

It takes no more than 7 minutes or so. Most of the time is simply waiting. Plus the results are sooo much better.

I know you can do it..

 

I make a mean pitcher of Sweet Tea

 

Those tea balls are becoming increasingly popular for White Teas so I am hearing, as well as for greens.

Also a good point about the lack of basket. I personally do not use a basket when I make tea that I am going to drink right away. For tea that I plan to drink over a long period of time the basket (or a huge bag of cheesecloth) is nice to remove the leaves to prevent the over brewing.

 

Yeah.. 4 minutes to boil the water, 3 minutes for infusion. It can take 5 minutes to make pop-tarts! It is not that long! :rofl

 

You don't have to babysit boiling water either.. it isn't going to over boil

 

Set a kitchen timer, come back when it goes off and pour your tea. Or you could be toasting your English Muffins at the time.

 

Well since you brought it up, here is some advice for Tea Bag Brewing!

Tea Bags are a slightly different beast as opposed to loose leaf tea. The time is about the same but there are two things you should keep in mind when you brew with a tea bag.

First is, do not let the water boil for a tea bag. The boiling water will extract the bitter qualities of the lower quality tea in the bags. Keep your water at around 180 degrees and infuse with that.

Second is NEVER squeeze your tea bags into your tea to 'get that little extra out'. Same reasoning as above, you'll get the bitter qualities out of the bag. Just let it drain a bit and discard.

There you go Jo, now you can brew a yummy cup of Tea bag Tea!

 

Now that was helpful...ive always done the squeezing.

 

Another side effect is the fact squeezing adds to the cloudiness of the tea.