So I’m sitting here, drinking my first cup of tea . . . ever. Well, not really. It’s the first cup of tea I’ve steeped from whole tea leaves. You know what I’m talking about, right? Boil the water in a kettle, put some tea leaves in a tea pot, pour the boiling water on top of the tea leaves, steep for a few minutes (black tea), pour from tea pot through a strainer into the tea cup. Man, that’s a good cup of tea right there. And ridiculously cheap to boot.
I’ve even got my tiny 6oz tea cups ready to go. Still trying to figure all this stuff out because I grew up with tea in little baggies, not this loose leaf stuff. I’ve basically figured out that if I want one 6oz cup of tea that I need to put 1 tea spoon of leaves in the pot and then 12oz of water on top of them. 6oz for the cup, 6oz for the leaves. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s the way it works. Well, at least it’s an inexpensive endeavor on my part. Any input from veteran tea drinkers out there would be helpful to say the least.
10 Comments
green tea FTW
I’ve been using an infuser with ground up tea leaves from our local tea room. Pretty good for the most part.
As a Brit, I’ve been drinking tea since I was about 7. Nowhere else in the world drinks it in the same style as us, but I would urge you to try it. Brewed for five minutes then add a dash of milk, and possibly a teaspoon of sugar. As for amounts of leaves, I can’t help if you’re just making a cup. I use 2 teaspoons for a teapotful. Do that, and you’ll be the first American who knows how to make tea. The main thing is that the water must be BOILING. Not just microwave hot, or hot tap hot. PS, I didn’t notice you’d gone back to Textpattern!
@Matt: The part about the boiling water I’ve got a handle on. I know that black teas like to be steeped at a full boil. As for the amount of leaves, how many cups of tea are in one of your teapots? Generally speaking?
At first, it does take a bit of experimenting when it comes to loose leaf tea.
Oh btw, I would suggest trying Darjeeling tea. It’s the champagne of teas.
How big are the leafs when you’re using full leafs? I assume the ones I use are ground up leaves, but I guess I’m not entirely sure.
@scottfrye: yeah, that’s the first batch of tea leaves I bought, darjeeling.
@Ben: Yes, they’re OP so they’re whole leaves.
I would say four cups in a tea pot, bearing in mind these are more mugs than cups.
I’m finding that it’s hard to make tea because you can’t save it. You’ve got to make just what you’re going to drink in that setting, can’t nuke it once it goes cold