We have gone to a lot of effort to source high quality teas and it is really important, that you make the tea properly, to allow the flavour to come out.
The first thing is that you should warm the teapot with hot water. This means that when you actually come to brew the tea, the cold teapot won’t cool the water too much, so the tea will then brew properly. So just give that a little swirl around, pour it away. Next you take our tea. We have our tea here in a nice tea caddy,
that’s very important, because to store tea properly, you
need to keep it airtight and away from moisture. You
can add as much tea, as you want, that’s personal
taste. The traditional measurement that we give is one
teaspoon per person, and one extra spoon for the pot.
So, I am going to make the tea for two people here, so
I am going to put in three teaspoonfuls.
The next stage which is very, very important is that when
you use the water for your tea, you use fresh water. If
you use water which you already boiled, a lot of the
oxygen will have come out of it, so it won’t brew
properly and the resulting tea will be very flat. So we
are going to take some fresh water. So here in our tea
tasting room, we have a special tap, which has filters
and softeners on it. It is always better to use filtered
water if possible, because that will remove any
impurities, which will affect the taste of the tea. So let
the water come to a rolling boil. It must reach boiling
point - 100 degree celsius. You don’t want to over-boil
it because, again if it over-boils, a lot of the oxygen will
come out. OK, so the water is just starting to boil now.
Most modern electric kettles tend to actually over boil
the water. So, as soon as this will come up to a right
level, (see it’s just starting to roll now) I am going to
actually switch it off, so it doesn’t over-boil and I am
going to pour that straight onto the tea. And I am also
going to put the tea cosy over the top, just to keep that
as warm as possible.
You really need to give the tea a good amount of time,
to allow the full flavour to come out. The colour will
actually develop quite quickly, but the flavour will take
longer, and we say for loose tea, the minimum time you
must give the tea is 5 minutes.
So now the tea had a good 5 minutes to properly
brew, we are ready to drink it. Next thing we should
do is give it a stir, just to mix it up a little bit. And then,
we can pour it out into the cup. So now, it is really
ready for you to drink - how ever you prefer; just drink
it black like that, or with a touch of milk, lemon or sugar.
That’s really up to you.
So that’s really how to make the perfect cup of loose tea.