Making Tea In A Teapot
If youre not interested in any of the aforementioned contraptions for brewing your tea, a good old teapot is always a great choice. But, as with many aspects of the brewing process, not all teapots will deliver the same results. Many teapots have built-in strainers that assist in the infusion process, but others will require the use of a separate straining device. Another major factor to consider is how the material of your teapot retains heat and what tea brewing temperature is ideal for your type of tea .
- Iron – Teapots made of iron are common for serving Asian-style green teas, but keep in mind that iron retains heat for a long time, making it a better option for teas that need to be brewed at a higher temperature, such as black tea.
- Glass – Glass teapots not only beautifully showcase the color of your tea but also retain heat well. This means they will deliver the ideal green tea temperature and are great for white tea, as well.
How To Make Green Tea
Top tip: allow to cool and add ice to enjoy a DIY Lipton Iced Green Tea on a hot day!
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Making Your Own Sweet Tea
The best sweet tea is the one in the pitcher in your fridge. If youve never made sweet tea before, start with this recipe and then adjust it to taste. Steep the tea for longer, add more or less sugar, squeeze a few lemons into the pitcher you like your sweet tea the way you like it, and thats just fine.
Southerners and Southerners-at-heart, Id love to hear about your house recipe for sweet tea and what advice you have for making the best version. Please share your stories in the comments!
Boil the water.
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How To Store Tea Bags And Leaves Properly
Whether you prefer loose leaf tea or tea bags, using an airtight container or tea caddy helps to keep your tea dry, fresh and also stops any strongly scented teas from passing their flavour onto more delicate varieties in your cupboard.If you are using loose tea leaves instead of a teabag, make sure to use a good quality strainer. We recommend an open top strainer you place into the cup. This way the tea leaves have a lot of freedom to move around in the cup, if you use a small strainer ball the tea doesn’t have a lot of room to infuse.Another a good tip for loose tea is, don’t use so much. Many people pack their strainers full because they feel that the more tea they have, the more intense the flavour will be. As we said, that is not the case tea needs movement and freedom and even a pinch of loose tea will give you that fantastic flavour you deserve.
Do You Have To Use A Tea Infuser
Infusers arent mandatory when you drink loose-leaf tea, but theyre preferable, because without them, youll end up with a cup of tea leaves and tea dust that floats to the top of your cup. Of course, the amount of tea dust you have to deal with is usually linked to the overall quality of your tea leaves.
But if youd prefer to drink a cup of hot tea without dealing with tea leaves and tea dust floating in your face with every sip, then use a teapot with an infuser or a tea infuser mug.
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How To Brew Perfect Tea Tea Travels
Brewing for Hot Tea:
Preheat a teapot or hot the pot by rinsing it out with hot water. By insulating the teapot, it keeps the tea hot during the brewing process. Bring the fresh cold water to a full rolling boil. Remove from the heat quickly as to not allow the oxygen to escape from the water. Water that has been reheated gives tea a flat taste. Only boiling water can extract the full flavor and benefit from the leaves.
Use one teaspoonful of tea or one tea bag per cup of water. Pour boiling water over the tea.
Steep for 3, 5, 7 or 10 minutes or the recommended brewing time as per the instructions of your blend. Do not judge the strength of your tea by its color. It takes time for the leaves to unfold and release their flavor. If you prefer your tea stronger, do not steep longer as it will only turn the tea bitter simply add more leaves before brewing. If you prefer your tea less strong, add hot water after the brewing period. Tea must be brewed to the full time to extract the complex flavors from the leaves.
As to not burn the leaves on delicate white and green teas allow the water to cool before pouring over the leaves.Always decant the tea before serving to prevent the leaves from stewing in the pot.
Brewing for Iced Tea:
Follow the same rules as for hot tea, but use 50% more tea to allow for melting ice cubes.
Tea may be frozen in ice cube trays and used for iced tea. Tea cubes, when made from the same blend of tea, help to keep the tea from diluting
Is Milk Tea Good For You
The two main ingredients of milk tea are black tea and milk. In most cases sugar is added, too. The fact that so many types of milk and sweeteners exist, as well as various amounts of each used, makes it impossible for there to be a one-size-fits-all type of answer to this question.
On its own, black tea has many health benefits. And many types of milk are a good source of calcium and vitamins like A and D.
One important thing to note, however, is that although tea is full of antioxidants, adding milk to it may decrease this benefit. According to the European Heart Journal, milk modifies the biological activity of tea ingredients. My conclusion, everything in moderation!
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Use The Proper Temperature Water And A Warm Mug For Steeping
Whether you steep tea in a kettle or steep the tea bags directly in a mug, make sure the mug is warm. To do this, boil a little extra water and fill your mug up with plain boiling water.
I like to wrap my hands around the mug and when it becomes too hot to touch, I pour the water out. Ta-da, Ive got a pre-heated mug. Next, put the tea bag in the warmed up mug, fill it with the proper amount of boiling water and set a timer.
Do Not Ever Use Any Of These
If you ever give any of these to a British person by choice you deserve never to speak to one again.
Sure, the taste of real milk compared to this milk isn’t that different and yes, we all had to use these milk sachets when we were students because we were poor. We’ve all had that low period in our lives where we’ve gone to the local Wetherspoons pub and nicked 40 Millac Maids at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Seriously. It’s fine.
But offering them UHT now? In the sanctuary of their office or in the privacy of their own home? How dare you. How dare you. Hang your head in shame.
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Never Put The Sugar Teaspoon Into The Tea
Why? Because you will contaminate the sugar. Contaminate the sugar!
You must tip the spoonful of sugar you are intending to to use into the mug from the spoon. You then must return your spoon into the packet of sugar and repeat until you have the allocation of sugar you need in the mug. Once you have done this, it is then completely suitable to then stir the tea until all of the sugar has dissolved. And you must stir. Keep stirring!
If you haven’t done this, then you have failed.
Hot Spiced Orange Tea
Fall is a time to snuggle up and read a book while sipping a cup of delicious tea. This is one of the hot tea recipes I have in mind for those cuddle days!
Enjoy this delicious lemon-flavored tea. Made with ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and a kiss of orange-flavored Tang. Its easy and ready in less than five minutes!
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How To Make Delicious Tea With Milk
To most tea drinkers, the brewing process of their morning cuppa is almost mechanical. You steep the leaves, you add some milk, you sip. But why not shake things up a bit? Why not try a different approach to your tea-making routine?
Here are some fresh ways you can take to reach the richest and creamiest cup of milky tea. Spoiler alert: they all taste darn good!
Something To Drink Your Tea From
You will need a cup or a mug to drink your tea. Mugs are usually bigger than cups and dont have saucers. But there are many different types of cups toosome have handles and some dont. If you are just starting out, a regular mug or a coffee cup will be good too. Invest in a good cup or a mug that you like. It will make drinking tea really enjoyable.
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Milk In First Or Last
This has long been a controversial topic. Do you put the milk in first? Or splash it in after the tea has steeped?This comes down to personal choice, of course, but the milk-in-first approach refers to the early days of tea-drinking. Lower quality china would sometimes crack when the hot water was poured onto the tea leaves. Adding the milk first, resolved the issue. All modern day teaware is made to cope with boiling water which means it is no longer necessary to add the milk first.When using tea bags, let the tea fully infuse the water first before adding your milk. On the other hand if youre using loose leaf tea, the tea will already have brewed in the pot and so adding a dash of milk to your tea cup first wont impact the infusion and steeping time.Milk goes well with the stronger black teas but we would suggest avoid adding it to green, herbal and fruit teas!
The Western Method Of Tea Preparation
Good Water is Crucial
- For best results, use artesian water.
- Fill an empty kettle with fresh cold water.
- If using tap water, let the water run for 30 seconds so that it is fresh.
Warm the Teapot
- While the water is heating, fill your teapot with hot tap water to preheat it. Alternatively, you can briefly hold your teapot over the steaming kettle .
- Warming your teapot prevents cracking that can occur when boiling water is placed in a room temperature pot, and it helps the brewed tea maintain the proper temperature.
- Discard the water once the pot is warm.
Measure Your Tea
- For loose tea, place approximately one teaspoon of tea leaves per cup into the pot, or into an infuser to place in the pot.
- The best way to measure loose leaf tea is with a scale. The scale needs to be accurate to .1 gram, and a good starting point is 2.5 grams of tea per cup, then adjust for taste. Oolongs frequently require 50% more tea , but are good for multiple infusions.
- If you don’t have loose tea, use one tea bag per 1-2 cups, depending on the size of the bag and personal preference.
Boil the Water
Steep Your Tea
Keep Your Tea Hot
Adding Lemon, Sugar, or Milk
Cleaning Your Teapot
- To wash your teapot, simply rinse with hot water and turn upside-down to dry.
- Never put it in the dishwasher or use soap.
- To remove stains, fill with a solution of two tablespoons of baking soda and boiling water and soak overnight. Then rinse thoroughly and let dry.
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Additional Types Of Milk Tea
Want to go wild and turn on your experimentative nature? Here are some great options of milk tea to try:
- Steep a tea bag as usual, discard it, and add coffee whitener and a sweetener of choice.
- Steep a black tea as usual, discard the bag, add some milk, apple slices, and ice.
- Make it spicy by adding milk, honey, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and vanilla to your black tea.
- Try bubble tea by steeping black tea and adding milk cream, sweetener, and tapioca pearls.
- You can also add fresh ginger slices when steeping your black tea for a spicy and healthy boost.
Whats The History Of Sweet Tea
First, a little history on sweet tea. In 1795, the first tea plantations in the United States arrived in South Carolina. Today, there are still a few left in the state. The first sweet tea recipe has been traced back to the cookbook Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, and was published in 1879. It called for green tea, which was more commonly drunk as iced tea at the time, until World War II when green tea importation was cut off and Americans switched to black tea imported from India.
Sweet tea is so ingrained in Southern culture that in 2003, as part of an April Fools joke, the Georgia Legislature introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for restaurants not to offer sweet tea. In the movie Steel Magnolias, Dolly Parton proclaimed that sweet tea was the house wine of the South. One of my favorite simple pleasures is to sit on the back porch on a velvety Georgia night, sipping sweet tea, and eating a plate of fried green tomatoes while watching fireflies.
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How To Make Hot Tea On The Stove
To make hot tea on the stove using a simple saucepan:
How To Make Tea Like A Pro
Tea, even the knock-your-socks-off Zest kind, doesnt make itself. You need to brew up a mug or cup before you can drink it, and if this is your first time making tea, you may be wondering where the hell to start.
But dont panic, in this guide, weve split tea-making methods into three easy beginner levels that anyone can master.
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How To Brew The Best Iced Tea
You can use the same tea leaves that you would use for hot tea to make delicious iced tea. There are a few different ways you can brew iced tea, but regardless of which method you choose, you should always double the number of tea leaves that you would use for a hot cup to ensure a robust and flavorful iced drink. As for iced tea-making techniques, the three most common include:
- Hot brew – This is likely the most common technique for brewing iced tea, and it basically entails creating a concentrated batch of hot tea that you then pour over ice and refrigerate. When using a hot brew method, you should add your sugar or honey while the tea is still hot so that it dissolves more completely.
- Cold brew – This method does not entail heating at any point in the process, but rather relies on time to draw flavors out of your tea leaves. Simply place your chosen infusing device in a container of cold water and let it sit in the refrigerator for 6-12 hours. As for sweeteners, agave or simple syrup are a good choice for a cold brew, since they dissolve more easily than regular granulated sugar.
- Sun brew – You may have heard of sun tea. This technique is pretty much as simple as it sounds. Just place your tea bag or tea ball in a translucent container of cold water and set it in the sun for a few hours. You can finish your sun tea with fruit juice for a concoction that is entirely your own.
Make Sure The Water Temperature Is Right
Once your kettle is boiled with fresh water you need to leave it for a few minutes to cool down.Some of you may read this and think ‘but I love my tea piping hot?’ Leaving it for a few minutes will still produce a very hot cup of tea and will give you better results.Our top tip is that you should never pour boiling water over a tea bag or loose tea. The reason for this is because the boiling water will burn the tea, it scalds it and therefore, the tea doesn’t release all of its maximum flavours.Tea is a very delicate plant and needs to be cared for in order to receive the full benefits. So once your water has rested for about 2-3 minutes it’s ready to be poured onto your tea.
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