Learn To Make Your Own Tea
As a new year begins, many of us make resolutions. Whether your motto for the year is to learn to play the piano or lose a few pounds, the common thread is often making yourself a healthier person. If your goal this year is to make more, then youre in the right place. This month we are dedicating each day to learning a new skill with our #31DaysofDIY tradition. From weaving to wood burning to gold leafing, youre sure to find a skill you want to improve. For todays DIY were showing you how to make your own tea. A tea-torial, if you will. Not only will this project get you into the making spirit, but it will also provide you with some beneficial drinks to help you achieve your health goals and tea-tillate your taste buds.
No idea what #31DaysofDIY is? Its a brand new tradition here at Brit + Co thats all about kicking off 2015 right. Weve challenged ourselves to make or learn something new every single day for the month of January, and were inviting all of you along for the ride. From DIY basics like Sewing 101 to learning to design and laser cut our own stencils, we hope this month of making inspires you to make all year long. Now, lets get TEA it 🙂
Materials:
tea ingredients as per each recipe below!
Tools:
scissors
shape hole punch
How To Use And Clean
Depending on how strong you like your tea and the kind of tea youre brewing, fill the small tea bags with a couple of teaspoons of loose tea and secure the drawstring. Let steep for the required time then take out and put aside. I tend to reuse my tea bags once before emptying and starting fresh.
When youre ready to clean, turn the cloth bags inside out and empty the tea leaves into your compost bin. Give the tea bags a good rinse and let completely dry overnight.
Some people reuse their cloth tea bags without drying but I prefer to rotate through a few bags so they remain dry and free from bacteria.
From time to time I will wash the reusable tea bags in the washing machine on a quick cycle without detergent , making sure to place them in a wash bag to protect them.
Step : Fill The Fabric Tea Bag With Loose Tea And Enjoy
You have completed an open ended teabag where you can spoon in the tea leaves needed for a cup or a pot of tea. Pull the drawstring to close the top of the teabag, place in the cup or pot and add hot water.
Enjoy your favorite cuppa knowing that these DIY reusable teabags are going to help stop landfills from being cluttered up with manufactured teabags that could be leaching plastic and toxic compounds into the soil. The actual tea leaves you empty out when finished drinking your tea are easily composted and are beneficial to your garden. Natural tea leaves will break down to increase the quality of the soil, and better soil attracts more earthworms, creating improved nutrients for your plants.
Now that you have your first teabag complete, youll want to start making lots more DIY reusable teabags, and getting creative with the charms you add. Five or ten bags make a great gift along with a quality loose leaf tea. Imagine giving an ocean lover tea bags with a whale or dolphin charm, a garden lover one with ladybird charms, and for kids ones with dinosaur charms?
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Reusable Tea Bags Make Your Own
Heidi from Rain Countrys video is by far and away the longest guide out there. This one is 20 minutes from beginning to end. It starts by explaining the benefits of reusable tea bags, then moves onto a description of the best fabrics to use. This is another project where youll need to use a sewing machine, and here Heidi uses a zigzag stitch. She demonstrates a number of different techniques too, so you can pick whatever suits you best.
How To Start A Tea Business
If youre looking to learn more about running a successful tea business, there are a number of resources available for you to explore. Here are a few ways to get started:
- Tea education. Becoming a tea expert will give your brand a unique story and build credibility with your audience. Use the early stages of your business to learn from other tea experts who can share their knowledge on starting a tea business from scratch.
- Look into tea certification. This will help give your brand a degree of authenticity and can show your customers that youve taken the time to truly become an expert in the product you sell. The Tea and Herbal Association of Canada offers certification in various areas of the world of tea.
- Get to know your customers and competitors. Once youve decided on the niche youd like to focus on while selling tea, start exploring all competitors within it to get a feel for your customers. Understanding who youre selling to will help you decide on your brand positioning, pricing models, and to become familiar with the industry youll be competing within.
- Start building your online store. Building a website for your business is a lot easier today than ever. In order to start selling tea online, youll want to build your website on an ecommerce platform like Shopify that makes the experience easy with many free tools available. Youll also want to have a brand name that reflects your products, along with a website domain and recognizable logo.
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Tips For Using Fresh Fruit To Create Your Own Tea Blends:
If you are using fresh fruits, like I used lemon and ginger, use a vegetable peeler to remove thin strips of the rind from the fruit.
Then place them on a baking sheet, and place them in your oven at 200 degrees for 2 hours, or longer if necessary, to begin to dry them out.
After two hours, you can let them rest on the counter overnight as well they should be good to go by morning. Chop them into fine pieces, and you are ready to blend.
How To Make Reusable Tea Bags Zero Waste Tea Time
This four-minute video from Born to Be Organics shows you how to make reusable tea bags with or without the companys own pattern. Theres lots of useful guidance on which fabric and cord to use for the bags. And theres information on how to prepare it for the best results. This is another method that involves using a sewing machine. The video includes all the settings for stitch width, length and tension, so theres no room for error. The action is set to cheerful piano music, with all the extra description appearing as text over the top.
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Why Not Just Buy A Tea Ball
Hey, no one is stopping you if you want to buy a tea ball instead I wont be offended. I really like this one HERE. If you are not really a crafty person, I could see where buying a tea ball would be way more efficient. HOWEVERThese tea bags are very simple to make, I promise. When I made these, it was my second time sewing. Plus, they are super-cute, make unique gifts and are waaaayyy easier and convenient to take with you on the go.
You dont want to be that person with the big bag of loose tea and a tea ball do you? Just kidding, Id still like you if you were that person. But Im serious about the easier, more convenient part! Plus, if you like different kinds of teas throughout the day, you can make a few with various mixtures to satisfy your tea cravings. With a tea ball, you are sorta stuck with what youve got.
Just make them, you wont regret it.
Diy Reusable Tea Bags
eHows video is under two minutes long, but gives you everything you need to make your own DIY tea bag. In this case, the tea bag is reusable because its made of fabric. Youll need to do a little machine sewing, but its very simple. Just take your time if youre not a confident needle person to make sure the stitches are nice and straight. Note that theres no equipment list at the beginning of this video, so youll need to watch it through before you start.
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*options For Sweetening Your Chai Tea Latte Concentrate
Youll want to add a sweetener of choice to your chai tea latte to get that traditional coffee shop taste. Here are your two options:
- Stir sugar into tea after you remove the tea bags, when the concentrate is still hot.
- Add sugar to your individual latte as you make it, which allows you to add it more or less to taste.
How Do You Make Homemade Tea Bags
To make your DIY tea bags, youll need some coffee filters, string or heavy thread, and loose tea. . Youll also need a scissors and a stapler. Finally, a small bit of pretty paper or card stock is nice to make a tab at the top of your string for holding as you dunk your tea bags.
Heres the complete step-by-step process with photos:
1. Flatten out a coffee filter and then cut a little bit off each side to make a more rectangular shape.
2. Put about a teaspoon of loose tea in the center of the coffee filter.
3. Fold the coffee filter in half the long way, closing the tea inside.
4. Then fold the long sides back towards the middle, folding it over three times, making small folds.
5. Now that the tea is folded inside, youll want to re-center things, kind of rolling the package so that the folded seam is going down the middle.
6. Next fold the filter package in half.
7. I then cut about 3/4 off the top so that the package wasnt so long and skinny and was more the shape of a traditional tea bag.
8. Fold in the two top edges so that the top now comes to a point.
9. Fold over the top point of your filter package just a little bit. Lay a 5 piece of string on top, and then staple. This will seal the package shut and also attach the string.
Now you have your very own homemade tea bag!
Depending on how much you cut off your coffee filter in step 1, and how big or little your folds are in step 4, you can end up with skinny tea bags or fat tea bags.
- Stapler
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Reusable Silicone Tea Bags
The final option are resusable bags made from silicone. This is basically just like using a tea infuser with loose leaf tea, in that you need to fill the infuser each time you use it and wash it out afterwards.
Thus, it is not quite as convenient as using tea bags. But it is the most environmentally friendly and also the cheapest method, since you can keep reusing the same bag over and over.
Reusable Tea Bags: Buy Or Make Your Own
As a prolific tea drinker, Im well aware of the wastefulness of single use tea bags. I gave up using them at home many years ago, preferring to use a fancy teapot with a stainless steel strainer.
When my glass teapot recently came to the end of its natural life , I switched to reusable tea bags out of curiosity.
The biggest issue with disposable paper tea bags and those newer style silk teabags , is that they usually contain small amounts of plastic, meaning they arent compostable and generally end up in landfill.
Even worse is if you place these so-called biodegradable tea bags in your home compost and inadvertently end up with micro-plastics in your backyard garden soil.
Sure there are some completely compostable tea bags but you have to do your research carefully before finding the right brand.
The easier option is to buy or make your own reusable tea bags.
Made with unbleached cotton fabric and thread, or even better hemp, you can be sure they are plastic-free and zero waste.
Reusable tea bags are also considerably cheaper than regular tea bags as you can buy your tea in bulk.
You can then fill your cloth tea bag with the exact amount of loose tea leaves depending on how strong you like your tea.
Refillable tea bags are the more frugal option, an important factor in sustainable living.
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The Basics Of Blending
Every blend uses one ingredient as a base. This is usually a pure real teas or dried herbs that connect all flavors together. Fresh flavors of mint, spearmint, lemongrass and tangy and sour lemon, hibiscus and strawberries are great for summer teas, while spices make perfect warming winter teas. Black and rooibos teas blend well with sweet ingredients, and green tea with sour, fruity and fresh ingredients.
Common Questions About Making Tea
What does brew mean when making tea?
Brew is the term that is used when you make tea. Sometimes it is confused with the term steep. Steeping your tea is the term used for how long you let your tea leaves sit in the hot water. But, brew is the term that applies to the whole process of making tea from start to finish.
Do you put tea bags in boiling water?
If you pour boiling water into your cup with the tea bag, then you run the risk of burning the tea leaves. Instead, get the water almost to the boiling point and after youve turned off the heat, let it sit for a minute before pouring into your cup. That way the tea leaves will release the full flavor instead being burned and releasing a bitter taste.
How do you steep a tea bag?
Steeping is simply referring to letting the tea bag sit in the hot water for a period of time, which is determined on what type of tea you are drinking.
How long do tea bags need to steep?
It completely depends on the type of tea that you are using. For some teas, like green tea, they become very bitter if you let them steep for too long. Other teas, like black tea, need a little more time to steep so that the tea leaves have enough time to release the full flavor.
Why shouldnt you squeeze the tea bag?
Whats the best temperature to brew tea?
Does tea get stronger the longer it steeps?
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Diy Tea Bags With Printable Tags
A popular alternative to coffee, tea is made by pouring hot water over natural plants and herbs. Tea can be enjoyed year-round, used as a soothing warm beverage in the winter and a chilled refreshment in the summer. Tea is often chosen due to its variety of flavors and medicinal benefits. Depending on the flavor you choose, this drink has been known to help with cancer, heart disease, diabetes and weight loss.
The beauty of tea is that you can customize its flavor and benefits depending on what you include in the tea bag. To help you create the perfect blend, we have nine steps to create DIY tea bags. Weve also created printable tea tags so that you can transform a simple tea bag into a customized gift for your friends and family.
Once you learn the basics of how to make a tea bag, you can use your creativity to make unique tea blends. Be sure to reference our list of 10 popular flowers used in tea to add a floral aroma and taste to your cup of tea.
Lets get started!
Loose Leaf Tea Make Your Own Tea Bags
Optional:Amanda
*Amanda is one of my brand new D.I.Y. Contributors! Check my about page for a full list of contributors. I’m really happy to have added these ladies to my team so we can bring you even more inspiration this season! Oh… and I have a pretty new blog design launching very soon. I’ve been working on it since May, if you can believe that…. so excited to share. Stay tuned!
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Labeling Your Tea Bags
With consumable gifts, I always recommend including a full list of ingredients in case there are allergy concerns you dont know about with your giftee. Also, if your tea comes with steeping temperature and time recommendations, its thoughtful to include that on your label or note as well.
The main label and the tea-tabs are the perfect opportunities to thoughtfully customize these bags specifically for your unique giftee. Make it a design theyd appreciate, a self-care affirmation theyd relate to, or even an inside joke to make them smile.
Diy Tea Bags Cute And Useful
There is nothing better than sipping an herbal tea that not only tastes amazing but has a beautiful aroma as well. For those who want to take this joy with them on-the-go, DIY tea bags are your new best friend. Rather than bringing a diffuser with you, simply create your own tea bags out of coffee filters. Be sure to make extra so you can share them with others too!
To help you create your own tea bags with these natural herbal tea blends, FTD has a tutorial on how to make a tea bag. This DIY project has simple steps for making a tea bag and includes cute printable tags to make your tea-drinking experience that much more enjoyable. Once youve mastered this DIY project, try making them as gifts for family and friends.
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