Making a Fine Cup of Tea

By, Lady Mary

The last time we visited, it ended with a promise to talk about how to prepare loose leaf tea. To honor Lewis Carroll, we will “begin at the beginning and go on till we come to the end and then stop.”

This time we will focus on how to make one perfect cup of tea. You will need a few items to begin. First, select a tea. Second, select a tea cup or a mug. Next, go to your junk drawer in the kitchen and find a tea infuser (that little wire mesh ball with a chain on it that you never knew what to do with). Lastly, you will need a method to obtain your boiling water (stove top, microwave oven, fancy coffee maker). 

Measure out one teaspoon of tea leaves and put it into your infuser. Close and lock the infuser. Place it into your cup and then pour the boiling water over it until the infuser is completely covered. Now you are steeping your tea. 

Steeping times vary by whether you are making an herbal tea (7 minutes), a black tea (5 minutes), or a green tea (3 minutes). Steeping times can vary with individual tastes. If you want your tea to have a more robust flavor, experiment with steeping it longer than the time suggested. Or if you want it milder, decrease the infusing time. This isn’t rocket science…….it is trial and error of what pleases the individual tea drinker.

After the steeping time is completed, remove your infuser and place it nearby. If you wish to add lemon, milk or sweetener, do so now. It is time to ENJOY your cup of tea. When this cup of tea is all gone, you can put that same infuser with the same tea leaves back into your cup and get a “second pour” out of it. Steep it again!

The last thing left to do is shake out and rinse your infuser. Leave it to dry and it will be ready for the next time you need it. You are now officially a STEEPSTER!

Leaving you with the tea drinker’s blessing: Bottoms up!

Let’s Start Talking About Tea

By, Lady Mary

My goal in writing about tea is to share with you fun, interesting, and healthy information about something as simple as making and drinking loose leaf tea. Occasionally, you will also have to suffer through some tea puns. For example: No tea-sing about it, tea is good for you! Believe it or not, tea is the second most popular drink in the world, after water.

Tea is an ancient drink—well over 5,000 years old. It was discovered in 2737 BC by Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung. He was also known as the “Divine Healer.” As legend goes, some tea leaves accidentally blew into the Emperor’s pot of boiling water……..and the rest is history!

The tea journey begins in the many countries that grow tea, including: China, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, South America, Egypt and USA. The tea plant is formally known as Camellia sinensis plant. This plant produces white tea, green tea, black tea, pu-erh and oolong teas. Before I began my tea journey, I used to think there were white tea plants, green tea plants, black tea plants, and so on. I had NO IDEA that they were all from the same plant. What makes the different tea varieties is what age the leaves are picked and how much oxidation the leaves receive when they are picked and dried (for the two extremes, white tea is barely oxidized and black tea is fully oxidized). Now, I know we all feel a lot smarter just knowing this bit of information! There are many herbal teas, root teas and mate teas that are not from the Camellia sinensis plant. They are grown as whatever plant they are and then picked, dried and packaged as something to infuse into water to make a drinkable liquid, but they are not truly tea. We are just used to equating the word “tea” with a hot brewed beverage that we make and drink. We’ll cover herbs, roots and mates another time.

Next time we visit, I’m going to talk about different techniques for making/brewing your loose leaf tea. 

Till then, bottoms up! (That’s a little more tea humor!)