To brew a good cup of tea

To brew a good cup of tea

Always use fresh cold water from the cold tap for your tea. Let the water run for a while first.

This ensures that you do not use water that has been in the pipes and has lost oxygen.

Or you can use spring water. This is nice, but expensive.

Water temperature

Tea

The water temperature means everything when you brew tea.

Various types of tea require different water temperatures.

If you want to make sure that the water has the right temperature, you can buy a special kettle for tea. Here you can set the exact water temperature.

Otherwise, buy a little thermometer that can measure the water temperature.

  • Black tea: Use boiling water for black tea and short infusion time. Remove the tea leaves so your tea will not tastebitter
  • Green tea: Use water that is 80 to 85 degrees. You can brew the same tea leaves several times
  • White tea: Use water that is 70 to 80 degrees. You can brew the same tea leaves several times, but not as much as with green tea

Room to roam

Tea leaves like to have good space. If they are squeezed too much into a small strainer or a filter, the water does not come into the tea leaves and will therefore not draw enough flavour out.

Therefore, it is important that your tea strainers or filters are big enough for the tea leaves to take up less than half the space.

Pot and pitcher

Choose your teapot with your heart, but think about how many cups it can hold, how long it can keep warm, and what teas you want to brew.

If you invest in a nice glass pitcher, use it only for white or green tea. It will be easier to keep clean.

A glass pitcher as you see here in the picture, is also very suitable for tea blossoms.

For example, you can use a cast iron pot for your black tea. I do.

The right amount of leaves

Getting the measurement correct is important for taste. For most ordinary teas you need about 2 grams of tea per cup – equivalent to 1 teaspoon per cup – and an extra jug. Many tend to use too few tea leaves because some teas can be reasonably broad-leaved and take up a lot of room compared to their weight.

If you don’t use the right amount of tea and then compensate for the taste by steeping longer, you risk brewing a bitter cup of tea.

Steeping times

The steeping time depends on the processing and size of the tea leaves. Obviously, you must always check the recommended steeping times for each tea.

In general; green tea, takes 2-4 minutes black tea, 3-6 minutes, and oolong tea 4-5 minutes. Herbal and rooibos tea take about 5-10 minutes longer.

Experiment and you will be amazed at the changes and different taste expressions ♥

 

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