Whether you like your brew iced or hot, the tea council of the USA has some suggestions for making the best tea every time.
Hot tea
You don’t have to cook up a tempest in a teapot to brew an excellent cup of tea. Here are 4 golden rules you can follow and you’ll find yourself sipping an exquisite blend:
- Prerinsing the teapot or teacup you’ll be using for your tea with hot water will help ensure your tea stays warm while brewing.
- Fill your tea kettle with fresh cold water. The reheated water gives tea a flat taste. So, bring water to a rolling boil. Only the boiling water will bring out the full flavour of the tea leaves.
- Use one Tea bag or 1 teaspoons full of tea for every cup of water. Then, pour boiling water over the tea.
- Now watch the clock. Your tea should be brewed for 3 to 5 minutes. It’s important to note that the colour of the tea is not a good indicator of its strength. So, if you find that your tea is too strong for you after it’s finished brewing, add a little warm water.
Iced tea
When you make iced tea, you have to use 50% more tea than you normally would use when making hot tea. For example, if you want to make 8 glasses of ice tea, you would need to use 12 tea bags or 12 teaspoon fulls of loose tea instead of the eight you would use to make hot tea.
The extra tea gives an allowance for melting ice and also helps maintain the full flavour of the tea. If you don’t have an automatic tea maker, use the easy pot method below to make 2 litres of ice tea.
- Bring 1 litre of fresh cold water to a rolling boil
- Remove water from the heat and add one third cup of loose tea or 15 tea bags
- Stir, cover and leave it to stand for 5 minutes
- Fill your jar with 1 litre of cold water. Stir again and then strain into a jar.
- Keep tea at room temperature until it’s ready to serve. You can refrigerate tea even though it often turns cloudy. Pour your tea over ice. It it clouds up, add a little boiling water to restore it’s clear amber colour.
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