How to make the perfect tea

Tea bags? Pfft.

A spoon of Assam loose leaf in a tea infuser, boiling hot water, 4 mins to steep, and a splash of milk.

Lovely.
 
Tea bag in
Add water
Quickly pulse the teabag 50 times against the side of the mug using a teaspoon
Add milk

Biggest mistake to make is leaving the boiling water with the teabag for too long, makes the mug too hot to drink from.
 
Yorkshire Tea bags. Pre-heat cup with boiling water then empty and add teabag and boiling water. Leave to brew for at least five minutes with the spoon in, stirring occasionally. Squeeze tea bag against side with teaspoon. Add milk to taste, in my case it is quite a lot.
 
Hmm, I have different kinds of tea techniques with different kinds of tea.

Hangover tea is bag in the cup with two heaped sugars, pour on the water immediately at boiling point to scorch the leaf and then attack it with your spoon to get the tea circulating in the bag. However, this is the crucial point when making any tea - never ever squeeze the bag on the side of the mug or with your fingers. Just fish it out and then add your milk :)

Normal breakfast / daytime tea is as above but without the sugar.

Guest tea is done in a teapot with enough bags for the volume of water, again adding the water at boiling point to scorch the leaves. Stir well and leave to brew for a few mins. Add the milk to your mugs/cups and then pour the tea. Put sugar on the side for those who want it.

Special tea time is always Earl Grey for me. Black, no sugar made with fresh boiling water and depending on how I feel I sometimes flavour with a bit of fresh lemon juice.
 
Spacedeck said:
Depends how I feel at the time of making but it always has to be Yorkshire Tea! At work we buy in bulk a big bag of PG Tips and just eww! They don't taste nice so I buy my own box of Yorkshire Tea for work. At home I also make sure we always buy Yorkshire Tea.

At work when I'm rushed, I have to squeeze the teabag. This is not my preferred method though, because I find that it just doesn't really get strong. At home and if I get the chance at work, I will leave the teabag to soak for a couple of minutes, add some milk (not too much! not a fan of milky tea!) and definitely NO sugar!
Click to expand...

Don't think Yorkshire tea mixes well with the hard water we have down here - comes out very earthy tasting which isn't for me personally.

Only mainstream run of the mill teas I can drink are what used to be Somerfields premium line (no longer made sadly - was replaced with some co-op fairtrade rubbish which was weak as anything and not even comparable) and Typhoo neither of which is amazing* but do have a layered texture rather than the 1 dimensional blandness of tetleys, etc. tried some of Miles tea ( http://www.djmiles.co.uk/ ) recently and I think its growing on me - didn't really grab me at first but after a couple of cups I was starting to acquire a taste for it - might try some of their other blends.



*The Somerfields made for a really relaxing cup of tea though.
 
I used to drink 10 cups a day.. Scaled back now to 3 cups.

Anyway, boil water, slow pour directly on tea bag. Stir lightly, remove bag. Add a splash of milk and a sweetener. Job done.

There are differences between tea bag manufacturers. Some you'll need to stir a little more and squeeze, some you need to let stew for a good 30secs, others a light stir then out.. The main thing is water directly on tea bag... I find that one tea bag is enough for two cups. Just remove the bag after pouring and a quick swirl then put it in the other cup, then treat it as a weaker strength bag, as in more of a stir than the first cup, and allow to sit for a little longer.. But the pouring directly using a slow stream is the essential part to making a good cuppa.

Adding 'refrigerated' milk prior lowers the temp of the boiling water, thus not allowing the full flavor to be extracted from the tea leaves.
 
Last edited:
Tea is the superior hot drink. These coffee joes don't know a dime I tell you.

Also, I recently got a new box of tea, Kenyan black from Tesco. Super mellow tea and reasonably priced. Nice colour and flavour. I can highly recommend.
 
I believe the term 'miffed' comes from the order of which you add milk.

Milk in First would deem someone to be miffed. Thus not being suitable for my upper class daughter.

Could have made that up though.
 
balky12 said:
I believe the term 'miffed' comes from the order of which you add milk.

Milk in First would deem someone to be miffed. Thus not being suitable for my upper class daughter.

Could have made that up though.
Click to expand...

A tea lady commented on this in an old video about tea I watched. The gist was:

• Back In The Day •
Apparently the history of this 'milk first or last' quandary comes down to your blood stock. Keeping it brief, if you had fancy china it'd crack when you poured boiling tea into it. As such, sticking the milk in first did a nice job of cooling the whole think down and keeping your wares in good order. You've got the added bonus of a subtle bit of one-upmanship in the crockery stakes since everyone could see what your cups were made of!

Now given that everybody would use loose leaf tea and prepare a nice pot of the stuff this method was absolutely fine. The tea had already brewed so whether the milk was already in the cup or not didn't matter.
Click to expand...


• Not So Fast... •

Nowadays we're more concerned with the witticisms or number of oddly-positioned cats on our mugs, so the quality of porcelain isn't really something we judge our friends by. Equally most tea just isn't brewed in pots, we dunk it right there in the mug along with everything else.

This is were the answer to milk first or last is really important!

By lobbing it all into your brew at the same time the boiling water is cooled immediately by the milk, particularly if you're partial to a good glug of white stuff. Just what we want to avoid when making a really good cup of tea as the water needs to be absolutely boiling to get all of the best flavours and characteristics from your tea. So by mixing it all in together you're going to end up with a less than super tasty brew.
Click to expand...

Personally I let the kettle boil a single mug of water at a time, let it pour and let the tea infuse for a few minutes. I then add a bit of milk to golden the colour and maybe a pinch of sugar if it's a Ceylon brew or similar.
 
Have a water heater thing in work, so no freshly almost-boiled in a kettle water for me :(

If green:
-Put water into teapot
-Wait until the steam is quite reduced
-stick a teaspoonful of leaves in
-wait 8 minutes or so
-Pour into mug

If black:
-Warm pot
-Pour in healthy amount of tealeaves
-Pour in water
-Leave for 3~5 minutes
-If Assam (Especially Harmutty), splash of milk in cup
-If Yunnan/Ying-Dee then no milk
-Pour in tea

At someone elses house, add 1/2 a sugar to the watery, "at least it's warm & wet" tea.
EDIT - Also I ask for to NEVER crush the tea-bag, releases tannins that you don't want and tea tastes funny - Gently squeeze most of the water water out, not crush the bag to death / mash it against cup :mad:
 
Last edited:
I do black or with milk, sugar or no sugar, depending on my mood, but milk always after the water, let the boiling water seep through the bag before adding the cooling effect of the milk.
 
Lad I knew once religiously stirred the teabag in the boiling water 100 times exactly, 50 clockwise, 50 anticlockwise. he was a fun guy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom