Tea Question

Teabags always float in my experience but the hottest water will always be at the top of the cup so it may be for the best.

Generally to avoid the tea bag floating I place the tea bag in the empty mug and then leaving the mug on the table, pour the hot water down the side of the mug at a medium pace. This allows the tea bag to saok up water slowly and usually float in the middle or beneath the surface. I find if you pour water in too quickly you tend to get air trapped in the bag and then it will float. Yes I know I have too much time on my hands.

I don't drink tea that much any more as I prefer english tea which I can't find that easily over here in Canada. I usually drink English tea with no sugar and some milk. Chinese tea I drink no milk or sugar.

The best way to make tea is don't use tea bags. Use loose tea.

Tea comes in 4 grades, leaf, broken leaf, fannings, and dust. Whole leaf is the best, and the most expensive, you get what you pay for. What goes into tea bags is dust, with a small percentage of fannings at best. This is basically the swarf, floor sweepings. Makes poor tea, but you can't know that until you compare the bag version with a pot of the good stuff made correctly. Convenient but substandard.

A lot of people pour boiling water onto the tea bags, absolutely wrong. Tea is an infusion, the bag must be lowered into the water and allowed to infuse its flavour into the hot water slowly. Pouring boiling water onto the bag releases oils and bitter nasties. I would suggest you buy a "tea ball" infuser. You can carefully insert the tea bag into it and submerge the whole thing into the hot water, or, cut opn the bag and load the loose tea into the infuser and then submerge it. Problem is, if the "dust" is really fine, it will be smaller than the holes in the infuser and you will end up with what my Yorkshire Gran used to refer to as "grumbs".

Oh, and let the kettle rest for 15 seconds after unplugging it or removing it from the fire once it has boiled. Stop the "rolling" boil, the water should be stil.

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Originally posted by undertone:
The best way to make tea is don't use tea bags. Use loose tea.

Tea comes in 4 grades, leaf, broken leaf, fannings, and dust. Whole leaf is the best, and the most expensive, you get what you pay for. What goes into tea bags is dust, with a small percentage of fannings at best. This is basically the swarf, floor sweepings. Makes poor tea, but you can't know that until you compare the bag version with a pot of the good stuff made correctly. Convenient but substandard.

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This strikes me as counterintuitive. A leaf will not have as much surface area to interact with the water as that same leaf would if crumbled into small bits. By that same reasoning, the smaller the bits, the better, right. This seems particularly true if you are after something like "infusion". That said, my tea seems to be fairly course.

I also confess to dipping the bag into the water as soon after I turn off the heat as possible. Just shortly after my water has stopped boiling, if I dip the teabah right in it begins to boil violently again. The school-boy in my likes the excitement. However, the scientific side suggests the rapid agitation is good for "infusion". Perhaps I am off base.

Judd

Never confuse long infused tea with strong tea. Theophylline, the stimulant in tea, is completely released after three minutes. Thereafter, the slightly bitter tasting tannins are also released giving the tea its full, complete flavour.

The longer tea infuses, the more tannin is released and the less active the theophylline. Consequently, the less the tea is infused, the more the stimulatory effect will be felt. Tea must not be left to infuse too long (particularly broken leaf): it will become too bitter to drink.

Black or semi-fermented tea

Tea to be made in a suitably warmed pot. Put in a small teaspoon of tea (2.0g) per person or per cup. This is a general rule. You must check the flavour of each tea and in the end it is your taste that counts (kind of like audio).

Pour in water which has just come to the boil. Overboiling "cuts" the water and adversely affects the tea leaves causing the flavour to be lost.

Allow the tea to infuse:

- for broken leaf teas, approx 3 minutes
- for whole leaf tea, approx 5 minutes
- for Darjeeling first flush, just 3 minutes with slightly more tea
- for Oolong, 7 minutes

Remove tea leaves, stir and serve

Judd,

Get yourself a teapot - it makes all the difference. Nothing fancy - a brown betty is the standard design. I'm pretty sure that adding milk to green tea would result in a pretty putrid brew. Stick to black tea for that. If you can find it, there was a good thread on brewing up a good cuppa a month ago.

cheers,

Dan

p.s. I seem to recall hearing that the teabag was invented with the advent of television commercials - bags made for a quicker brew time.

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Pour in water which has just come to the boil. Overboiling "cuts" the water and adversely affects the tea leaves causing the flavour to be lost.

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Now you're just talking smack.

Judd

Any advice on where to get decent de-caffeinated tea? Does such a thing even exist?

For some unexplained reason (probably past overuse) I have become very caffeine sensitive, and had to give it up. But, I like my tea.

At the moment I can only find bags of dust blend. Anyone know of any leaf de-caff?

Rockingdoc

Try Rooibos tea, from South Africa, available from most wholefood shops. This herb can be drunk with milk like tea, has a similar colour and a lovely taste. It has no caffeine, naturally.

Nick

Thanks. Very familiar with the red bush, and this is what I normally go for, but I wondered if there was any real tea which has been de-caffed.

Caffine is extremely soluble in water and therefore most of it is released immediately. If you want to avoid the caffine, then pour on your water and stir, pour the water away immediately and refill. You will have washed away 95% of the caffine.
Milk in tea & coffee? Yuk.

Rasher milk in tea and coffe is a deeply personal thing, you should say IMHO

On to brands.

Lipton Tea is my favorite, they seem to have cracked it on the breakfast tea and there own blend. If you ever find a coffee shop with one, try out one of the Lipton T-Bird teas.

There is also a fair trade tea, now in my experience, organics and fair trade have always left me wanting, prbably because I am used to overly strong flavours. However 'Clipper' fairtrade tea is deliecious, a robust flavour that dosn't need long on the water.

Down to individual teas.

Celyon is a nice one for those that are used to PG style teas, I am guessing that Celyon is probably one of the larger ingredients in blends, a nice tea.

Darjelling, (Sorry about the spelling) is a very delicate tea, people tend to steep for longer because they arn't getting the colour out of the tea, however in my opinion it dosn't take long and should not be taken with milk.

Assam a more robust tea, often used in breakfast teas.

Earl Grey, a lot of the flavour comes from an oil they put on it and the cheaper the brand the stronger it seems to be!

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Am I simply buying the wrong tea, or is this a common problem?

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Yes, it's the bag that's the problem

For an easy and no effort way to use leaf tea, without the faffing around of tea strainers, buy a 'Chatsford' tea pot.

This has an infuser into which the leaf tea is placed, allowed to infuse, then removed, preventing over-infusion.

You won't go back, honest.

Andy.

I've just bought the Tefal Magic Teapot, or something pretty close to that. It is electric, has an infuser, and the water is sent up through the infuser pipe and then comes back down. It shuts off automatically when the tea is just nice and strong, but you can shut it off before if you prefer it weaker. It's really fuss free, and very convenient, sort of like a coffee brewer for tea. Now I admit I am no expert on tea, but I find it makes a great cup.

Edouard S.

Justin,

Most of the advice here is about black tea. The stuff about choosing loose tea and an infuser tea pot still applies to green tea though. A little Japanese pot would be very elegant. There are hundreds of types of green tea of different tastes (and prices) and it's worth trying a few versions if you can find them. The very highest quality Japanese green tea is a very fine powder which forms a paste when you add water. Chinese green tea tends to be coarse-leafed like loose black tea. My impression is there is less caffeine in green tea than in black but perhaps that's just because I tend to sip small bowls of the former and swig large mugs of the latter. A little sugar might be permissible to take the edge off the bitterness, though I'm sure purists would say not. Milk in green tea: definitely no!

Gary, have you been to the 'States? Lipton's in the US tastes quite different to the version over here, despite having similar packaging. It's the default brand in most fast food or coffee shops and tastes very insipid to a palette used to UK brews. I’d be very interested if any US contributors know where or how to get a decent cup of flat earth tea in their part of the world.

duncan

Email: djcritchley at hotmail.com

DJC.

Agreed I tried liptons in SF when there and I thought it was just an old box or something, it is weaker.

The very best lipton blend I had was when working in france and that was rich and strong.

In the UK I find it just right.

For those into something a little different there is smoked tea: Lap Sang Soshong (wrong spelling again)

I distinctly remember a tea called Gun Powder as well, normally from specialist tea shops (Do they even exist now, there used to be a lovely one in Salisbury) It tastes much like its named.

Re: Lapsang Souchong.

I'd second iGary's recommendation here, it makes a good after-dinner drink as an alternative to coffee.

Unusual, but I love it, I think it would probably appeal to Malt drinkers.

Andy.

Andrew L. Weeks wrote:
Re: Lapsang Souchong
"it would probably appeal to Malt drinkers."

Thats the Lagavulin of teas...

Nick

Apparently..... tea is meant to be drunk without milk. The idea of adding milk is an English one and was done to cool the drink before the heat of the boiling water cracked the fine bone china of the time.

Must be true - I read it on the back of a packet !

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Originally posted by garyi:

I distinctly remember a tea called Gun Powder as well, normally from specialist tea shops (Do they even exist now, there used to be a lovely one in Salisbury) It tastes much like its named.

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You can get Gunpowder tea from just about any Chinese grocery store. To make it really interesting, pick up some dried Licorice root. Just 100 gm or 4 oz is enough. You can also buy this from Chinese grocery shops and Chinese herbal medicine halls. Break off a small piece of the root, say half the size of a golf tee, and put it in with the loose tea leaves before adding the boiling water. Makes a very nice aromatic brew.

I think iron teapots look and feel great. Do they keep the tea warm longer (I always thought iron dissipated heat quickly?) or "enhance" the flavour in any way?

Thomas

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Originally posted by djc:
A little sugar might be permissible to take the edge off the bitterness, though I'm sure purists would say not.

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Just had a word with my green tea expert. The verdict? "NO! NEVER!!"

So now you know.

duncan

Email: djcritchley at hotmail.com