How to Make the Perfect Pot of Tea

HOW TO MAKE THAT PERFECT POT OF TEA.

The best way to make tea is to use boiling water from an electric or gas stove heated kettle. The important point is for the water to be boiling when you pour it over the tea, either in a cup, mug or in a teapot. This helps to extract the most flavor from the tea, and it reduces the length of time you need to brew the tea. The longer that you brew, the more bitter tasting tannin will be dissolved. Heating water in the microwave is slower, more dangerous and produces inferior tea.

Better results are obtained using loose tea in a teapot rather than teabags. Loose tea is not ground as fine as the tea in tea bags so it has more room to circulate in the pot. The finer ground tea used in tea bags allows for more bitter tannin to be released. Use a tea strainer to avoid getting tea leaves in your cup.

Use one teaspoon of loose tea per person plus one for the pot.

Use fresh water because when water is re-boiled it loses oxygen which prevents the full flavor of the tea being released.

Warm the pot first. This helps the brewing process by maintaining the brewing temperature for longer, to extract more flavour from the tea. It is very important to use boiling water to make the tea. Water which is not boiling does not allow the tea to brew properly.

Brew for 3-5 minutes because using shorter times will not allow the full flavor to develop. Longer brewing will result in a bitter tasting tea as Tannin will start to be extracted from the tea leaves.
Stir the tea in the pot once or twice while it is brewing.

Note about using tea bags – the same basic rules apply as for loose tea. But you will get best results brewing in a pot. If you brew in a cup brew for a much shorter time, 1 - 2 minutes.

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