Secret Of Good Tea

The very same tea doesn’t always taste the same - sometimes it tastes better than other times. Making a good tea isn’t so easy as it looks like, there are some rules to follow to get it right.

Use loose leaf tea. The quality of loose tea is usually better than teabag ones and it doesn’t taste like paper.

Store your tea in a sealed container. This guarantees that the tea won’t lose its flavor.

The bigger the tea infuser, the better, more space allows tea leaves to diffuse and steep properly. You’ll get the best results by putting loose tea directly into tea pot.

For black, green, white and oolong teas take about one teaspoon of tea per 200 ml (7 oz) water, even though it may vary according to tea and taste.

Before pouring the water, warm up the pot or mug so the tea wouldn’t cool down immediately. Hot water will do the trick just fine.

Quality of water is also important – bad water will ruin the taste. If you want, you may try using spring water. According to some sources, minerals in it will bring up the taste.

Next key component is right temperature of water. For black tea it should be at boiling point (100 °C or 212 °F). Don’t let it boil for a long time, it will remove the oxygen but the oxygen is what brings up the taste. (Note that under 90 °C (194 °F) black tea wouldn’t also brew properly.)

Green, white and oolong teas should be brewed on temperature around 80 °C to 85 °C (176 °F to 185 °F). Higher temperature will burn the leaves and produce a bitter taste.

Time of steeping varies from tea to tea, but all types of teas should be brewed at least 30 seconds. Steep black and oolong teas for about 3 to 4 minutes; green and white teas about 2 to 3 minutes. Longer time usually makes the tea bitter.

If you don’t have time to go through all these steps, you may try just some of them and still get a better tea.

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