Coffee, Tea, and Me - Part 1: Tea

Although I try to always adhere to the fact that all people are created equal and that a good Christian always puts others first and self last, there is one area of my life where my inner snob emerges and runs wild with abandon: hot beverages. Shock! Horror!

(Although coffee enjoys more popularity in America than tea, I will cover tea first because it was my first love. See Tuesday and Wednesday's blogs for info on coffee, hot chocolate, and cider.)

To be honest, I don't remember where or how it all began. I do remember making my first cup of hot tea, as opposed to the iced tea I'd grown up on. I made it in the kitchen and then took it to my room to drink. I was about 14 or 15, I believe. I took a sip and was astonished to find that I disliked it because it tasted just like unsweetened iced tea! (My southern roots are showing a bit here.) So I added a bit of sugar and promptly fell in love! My mother was the first to label me a "tea snob" sometime around the age of 20, when I discovered the "paperbagless" taste of loose leaf tea from a metal canister as opposed to mini envelopes of generic Lipton from a cardboard cube.





Most directions for making tea in this way tell you to use one teaspoon of tea per person and one for the pot. Ignore that advice! It forgets to take into account the size of the pot, the thirst of the tea drinkers, and several other elements like refills and preferred strength. It just makes no sense. I fill the bottom half of the infuser(pictured above with my favorite loose leaf tea) with dry tealeaves. No more! This amount is quite perfect for one pot of tea. Actually, I'm just going to do this like another recipe.


The Perfect Pot of Tea

No, don't laugh. Everybody has to start somewhere. For years I heated water in the microwave oven and dunked teabags. After discovering the infuser I have never gone back to teabags.

Here's the equipment you'll need:

• Water - No kidding. Use tap water or filtered, as you like. (Please don't use distilled!)
• Something to heat the water in.This can be anything from a teakettle to a saucepan.
• A bag or a box of loose tea.
• A ceramic teapot.
• (China is good, too. But although silver looks classy, many people believe it gives tea a metallic taste.)
• Something to strain the tea with, a tea infuser is my choice. (More on this later.)
• Teaspoons and cups.

Not too tricky so far, right? Now before we get started, let's talk about the water.

It must be very, very hot in order for the tea to steep properly. But don't boil the "life" out of it, or your tea will taste flat. Take the pan or teakettle off the heat just before it breaks into a rolling boil. (You know, when the water makes those cute little bubbles on the edges of the saucepan.)
If using a tea kettle, take it off the heat just when you hear it start to bubble, before te whistle goes off.

And now we'll make the tea:

Warm the teapot by filling it with hot tap water and letting it sit while you heat your tea-water. (Don't empty it until just before the tea-water begins to boil.) This prevents the hot water from cracking a cold pot. If you don't know the capacity of your teapot, measure the tap water as you pour it out. (Six-cup teapots are the most common size, but double-check, as the six-cup variety is the size I use with the 1/2 infuser amount tealeaves.) After you've emptied the "warming-up" water, place your half filled tea infuser into the pot before the water.

Pour the almost-boiling water over the tea. Replace the teapot's lid and let your tea steep for 3-5 minutes, according to taste. (Read the directions on your box of tea for a hint on steeping times. Some teas take longer.)

Some teapots come with little ceramic baskets built in, but you can buy plastic mesh strainer-baskets in any cooking store. The tea leaves are placed in these baskets in these cased and an infuser is not necessary. Both of these are easy to remove when the tea is ready.

Enjoy your tea plain or with milk, lemon, honey, sugar, splenda, stevia...whatever, except cream or half and half. Aside from the unnecessary and terrifying amount of saturated fat and calories they will add to your very healthy beverage, cream curdles in tea.

Additional notes:
If you like stronger tea, don't steep it longer, just use more tea. Longer steeping makes tea bitter, not stronger. (Just like coffee.)

Tea cozies are a great invention. They are an insulated cover for the pot. They'll keep your tea warm until you get to that second or third cup. Just don't cover the pot until you've taken the tea leaves out of it. (That's called "stewing" the tea, and trust me--your wonderful tea will quickly become undrinkable.)

Finding a few stray tea leaves in the bottom of your cup is charming, not "gross".