Our top tip is that you should never pour boiling water over a tea bag or loose tea. The reason for this is because the boiling water will burn the tea, it scalds it and therefore, the tea doesn't release all of its maximum flavours.
For greens, whites, and oolongs, you want to bring the tea to water. In other words, pour the hot water into the brewing vessel and then add the loose tea to the water. This method allows for a more delicate experience without extracting the bitter notes from the leaves. Allow the leaves to steep for 3 minutes.
The temperature of the water decides how quickly flavour and structure is released. The higher the temperature, the quicker the release. A cup of tea made with boiling water will look darker, taste stronger and have more structure than a cup of tea made with 80-degree water that has infused for the same amount of time.
Simply put your tea leaves directly into the cup, pour in hot water, and steep! Drink when ready. Note: This is only for those who don't mind bit of tea leaf bumping their lips and/or ingesting brewed leaves.
Collect your used tea leaves in a tin or Tupperware box on the side and weekly sprinkle on your flower beds, no need to dry them out first. You can also mix them into soil or compost before planting new plants. The nutrient-rich leaves will help plants grow, rose plants especially like chagra!
Steep the tea for too long, and you'll end up with an unpleasantly strong, bitter cup. Steep the tea for too short a time, and you'll have a weak, flavorless cup of tea. Making matters even more complicated, different teas require different steep times in order to bring out their best flavor.
How many times can you steep loose leaf tea? Depending on what method of infusion you use, you can steep tea leaves about five to ten times. Using a traditional western preparation method, you can infuse many types of tea at least two to three times.
There are no major risks to drinking or eating loose tea leaves. In fact, there are several benefits, including a Vitamin A quotient. However, be aware that many tea leaves contain more caffeine per volume than coffee beans.
Bring water to a boil*, and pour over the tea as soon as it reaches boiling. Over-boiling will cause oxygen to be reduced, making the tea taste 'flat'. Use 1 tea bag per cup, or 1 teaspoon of loose tea per cup (6 oz.).
We recommend steeping tea somewhere between one and ten minutes, but it all depends on the type of tea. Steep time is one of the most important things to nail when it comes to brewing up a tasty, balanced cup of tea. Steep the tea for too long, and you'll end up with an unpleasantly strong, bitter cup.
(The better the water quality, the better the tea will taste.) Place a tea bag in your favorite cup or mug. Bring water to a rolling boil and immediately pour over your tea bag. Steep for a good 3 to 5 minutes.
Hot water brings out the tannins in tea a lot more than cold water, which is usually what provides the typically bitter tea taste. There's also more caffeine and a stronger flavor when using hot water as your steeping method.
Warm the Teaware
The most legitimate reason for rinsing the tea has very little to do with the tea at all. Using some hot water to briefly rinse the teaware will ensure it is free of any dust and will also help maintain the temperature of the brew during the process of steeping.
We call "washing/ rinsing" the act of pouring out the very first brew of tea. Its purpose is to literally "wash" the tea leaves. Washing tea has become an essential step in the tea ritual. Some people go to the extent of "washing" even the most gentle and delicate teas, like green tea.
Steep your tea
Once your water has reached the desired temperature, the next step is to infuse your tea leaves. We always recommend pouring hot water over tea leaves, rather than spooning tea leaves into hot water.
If sat at a table, the proper manner to drink tea is to raise the tea cup, leaving the saucer on the table, and to place the cup back on the saucer between sips. It's considered rude to look anywhere but into the cup whilst sipping tea, and absolutely no slurping!
Never pair any cold food with hot tea as it can disrupt the digestion process. Consuming foods of different temperatures together can weaken the digestive process and might make you nauseous. Avoid having anything cold for at least 30 minutes after drinking warm tea.
Generally speaking, you shouldn't use a teabag more than twice in 24 hours. After 24 hours have passed, the tea bag should be discarded. You can reuse tea bags more as long as they are kept in a place that is safe, but realistically a lot of people won't do that.
First of all, you'll need to store the tea bag in a moist medium. Once they get dried out, they become a breeding ground for mold and bacteria. So your best bet is to store them in a small shot glass filled with water. That will keep them seeping while they are being stored.
Do not drink yesterday's tea. Tea, standing for several hours, quickly loses vitamins and other nutrients. The Chinese consider old tea poison. But leftover tea is fine used as an external agent for therapeutic purposes.
Golden Moon Tea's official position is that tea must be discarded 3 hours after it has been steeped. This means that once your wet tea leaves have been exposed to water you have a maximum of 3 hours to use those tea leaves before you throw them away.
Made from high-quality tea leaves: A handful of years won't magically turn the worst teas into beautifully aged teas. The quality of raw materials is important to benefit from the aging process. The same way that a bad wine won't improve with age, a low-quality tea will lose even more flavor over time.