Best place to brew tea is home sweet home

The worst place to have a cup of tea is at a restaurant. The water is frequently lukewarm, and the only tea may be a Lipton bag. Even in fine restaurants that offer an assortment, the selection is very limited, long on flavored and nontea teas.

At home a tea novice can hone the skills at making a great tea. When all you have to do is drop a tea bag in hot water, what could be difficult about making a cup of tea?

Well, try making tea — the right way.

Not all teas are brewed for the same length of time, and the recommended water temperature varies from 180 to just off the boil to 212 degrees — a true boil. Indeed, the amount of tea leaves used varies with the selection.

Generally black teas use water just off the boil and steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Oolong teas steep for about 3 minutes. Green teas may steep only 2 minutes and at much lower 180 degrees.

But you don’t need to use a thermometer to make tea. It’s easy to recognize the full boil. Turn off the heat and the water will return to off the boil. Set the pot aside for two minutes and the temperature may drop to 180.

Boil enough water to pour some into the pot or cup to “hot the pot,” then pour that out. Longtime tea drinkers say that step enhances the flavor and fragrance of the tea because warmed teaware maintains the temperature needed to infuse the tea.

Although tea bags may be the norm in this country, purists prefer loose tea. The convenient tea infuser, sometimes called a tea ball, and closed tea spoons have limitations because there is little room for the tea leaves to unfold. Companies such as Adagio (www.adagio.com) have come up with large, pyramidal cloth-mesh pouches with plenty of room for the tea leaves to swirl, and six varieties of tea are available in these teabags. Large infusing baskets that fit in a mug or pot are also available from Republic of Tea.

Or put the measured tea in the pot with the water. Look for one of the little strainers sold to place over a cup.

But first, measure the tea. Check instructions on or inside the container. While white tea or Pu-ehr tea may call for 1 tablespoon per 8-ounce cup, green tea will likely require only 1 teaspoon.

Now is when a timer comes in handy, because the brew time for teas ranges from 2 to 6 minutes (white teas may brew even less). If making iced tea — and that’s how 80 percent of the tea is consumed in this country — brew it for 5 minutes.

Remove the tea leaves or tea bag immediately. If it continues to steep the tea will become bitter.

Offer it the English way with milk, and with a choice of sugars, brown or white.

Don’t just discard the tea leaves. Some can be steeped again, as many as four times (that is usually noted on the package).

For the final step of the tea ritual, return the used leaves to the earth, dumping them in the garden or on the compost pile.

(this article was taken from azcentral.com)