A.1 Basics of Making Tea

Most of the world knows how to make tea, but there is at least one major industrialized nation in which the preparation of a decent cup of tea is a lost art. These are very basic guidelines for the uninitiated, covering black tea in particular.

• Use loose tea; avoid teabags. Your best bet is to find a good tea shop with knowledgeable staff. If you live in the US, you may have to look online.

• Use a good teapot. A mostly-spherical ceramic pot is a good place to start. Make sure that the lid won't fall out when you pour.

• Warm the teapot by filling it with hot water.

• Bring fresh aerated water to a full boil. Just before it reaches boiling, empty your teapot and put in the tea.

• As soon as the water boils, pour it into the teapot. Cover the teapot with a towel or tea cozy.

• Let the pot sit quietly for about four minutes.

• Pour the tea from the pot through a strainer into your cup.

You will want to experiment with this a few times to find out how much tea to use, whether or not you like milk in your tea, and how much sugar (if any) you like. If you use milk, add it to the cup before you pour the tea. For a typical American mug, use approximately one glorp of milk, which is just a bit more than a full slosh. A glorp should more than cover the bottom of the mug and turn the tea a pleasant, warming, light brown color .

Never use cream in tea. Use whole milk, preferably at room temperature. The term "Cream Tea" refers to tea served with scones, jam, and whipped (or, preferably, Devonshire Clotted) cream. The cream and jam go onto the scones, not into the tea.

When putting tea into the teapot, forget everything you ever learned about coffee. The rule of thumb for tea is "one teaspoonful of tea for every cup plus one for the pot." Note, however, that the name "teaspoon" really does have meaning. If you use too much tea, the result will be heavy and bitter. Too little tea and you will have what Jonathan Swift described as "water bewitched."

Email

 From: Matthew Geddes, Xavier College, South Australia   To: [e-mail] I was just reading Appendix A and thought it might be worth mentioning that tea should only be drunk from white cups. For some reason, it don't taste right out of coffee cups (well, non-white ones anyway). And china also appears to make the tea taste better.