I am a bit old fashioned, never really touch tea bags, it has to be leaves, makes a far better cuppa, warm the pot add the leaves, add boiling water, leave to brew, pour through strainer, then add milk and sugar and wallop, perfect tea.
Dry cup
Shake the Sainsbury gold lable tea bag to loosen the leaves
Tea bag in cup
Pour on fresh decent quality boiling water (not a second boil)...by decent quality, don't fill up the kettle with water from a tank with a dead pigeon in it! The boiling water myst be exactly on the top cusp of boiling.
Spin the bag in the cup (don't press it against the side of the cup/mug) with a clean spoon.
Judge the colour of the tea against the spoon
Remove the bag when the tea is a lovely golden brown, let it drip/dribble into the cup, don't squeeze it.
Add milk carefully until the required golden colour...never put too much milk in, you can add more, but if too much you can't take it out.
Sugar if required.
perfect
[quote][cite]Posted By: Elthamaddick[/cite]...is how to make the perfect cup of tea.
Me:
Milk in cup, then add boiling water, drop tea bag in and leave, squeeze gently on side of cup and remove bag, then (add sugar as required) stir....
exciting bunch in here I can tell ya !![/quote]
From a manufacturing perspective, this process is flawed.
With milk already in the cup, the boiling water is immediately reduced in temperature. Hence, the extraction efficiency is reduced, so the tea will be slightly weaker than it should have been.
Then, because of the presence of the tea bag in the cup, on removal the liquid level will go down, thus depriving you of a significant percentage of the total brew.
For these reasons, F or D's process is better ... with full extraction efficiency being achieved through the use of boiling (not boiled) water and with the final addition of the milk allowing the full volume of liquid to be realised.
However ...PeteF's process is much more like it. 'Tea bag' and 'perfect' should never be used in the same sentence ... apart from this one, of course.
There is now no need to put milk in first.
It was simply a way to protect delicate cups from cracking when boiling water was added to it.
Now, all cups can handle the heat, so you can put milk in at the end.
The weekend, time on your hand for the perfect cup, tea Boiling water Loose tea - assam to be sure - one spoonful per person plus one for the pot Boiling water on tea Cover with cosy Leave for ten minutes. Milk in mug Pour in tea
For the office perfect cuppa Teabag in cup pour on freshly boiled water (be wary of large tea urns) stir and prod with spoon Add milk stir again Remove bag.
The other big question to address is whether one should leave the last of the tea in the cup?
[quote][cite]Posted By: MrOneLung[/cite]There is now no need to put milk in first. It was simply a way to protect delicate cups from cracking when boiling water was added to it. Now, all cups can handle the heat, so you can put milk in at the end.[/quote]
Not true, the milk scorches when added to hot water.
Does one leave a little at the bottom of the cup/mug? A hang over from the wider use of tea leaves. I only use leaves for Chinese tea these days.
Another question is the use of the word 'strong' when describing tea. For some 'strong' is about the amount of milk, for others it's about the length of infusion, and subsequently the degree of tannin in the brew, it is also confused by a combination of the amount of milk, plus the amount of tannin.
If you make a pot with bags or leaves, then the longer you leave the tea in the pot the more tannin (stewed) it gets, this is ok if you pour when golden brown, and immediately add more boiling water, and with teabags you can then remove from the second brew when it gets to a nice colour much harder to remove the leaves and therefore a greater risk of the stewing of the tea.
So called boiling water in an Urn is never right, it is never quite boiling, and the water becomes metallic in taste.
I would love to make tea for a living but there is no money in it.
Incidentally tea leaves are better for fortune tellers.
[cite]Posted By: MrOneLung[/cite]There is now no need to put milk in first.
It was simply a way to protect delicate cups from cracking when boiling water was added to it.
Now, all cups can handle the heat, so you can put milk in at the end.
Not true, the milk scorches when added to hot water.
Someone told me recently that if you are using tea-bags then you should add the milk last because if you add it first, then put in a tea bag, the milk blocks up the small holes and the tea can't diffuse properly.
I don't know why, but sometimes I can have a great cup of tea & sometimes its just average - not sure why.
For instance - last week my PA made me a cup & it was ready, on my deask, as soon as I got into the office..............its was lovely. The other day I was at home & made one and wasn't that good..............any idea why ???
How on earth you think you can make a cup of tea without even mentioning the use of a teapot demonstrates the distinct lack of breeding this society is currently suffering...
Equipment:
Kettle
Teapot
Cup
Spoon
Ingredients:
Water
Fresh milk
Tea bag
Sugar
Method:
Boil the water, when boiled pour a small amount in the teapot, this helps clean the teapot and kills any lurking spiders up the spout, empty the pot...
Pour enough water to equal one and a half times of the capacity of the cup used, stir it vigorously, before it settles drop the teabag in and give a more gentle stir taking great care not to mash or squeeze the teabag with the spoon, place lid on teapot and wait three minutes for it to brew...
Remove the teapot lid and and give one gentle stir and carefully lift the teabag out and hoy it, replace lid and pour into the cup...
Add milk, gently stirring continuously until the correct shade of brown that appeases your taste...
If you're gonna put milk in the cup first, what is the point of using a kettle? Might as well use water from the hot tap.
Tea should be made with BOILING water (i.e about 100 degrees C). By adding it to (usually cold) milk, you have just put it into water now around 80 degrees C and it can't brew properly...hence piss weak tea. Disgusting.
If you're really going to do it properly, you have to warm the pot first to ensure that the water is as hot as possible when it comes into contact with the tea (as described by redzed above). I have seen a thread on this before on B3ta and the upshot was that one of most crucial stages was leaving it to brew...even if it is only for 30 seconds. If you don't do that your cuppa will be bobbins.
Oh, and golfy...that thing about the holes being blocked up sounds like someone was pulling your leg!
Tea bag in mug.
Add boiling water.
Immediately squish the bag 5-7 times against the side of the mug and remove.
Add milk.
Take to wife...I don't like tea.
I don't buy tea or coffee very often. Usually make it myself. To this day, the most stressful event in my life was trying to buy a cup of tea in a Starbucks in New York City. Did I want Chai Tea? No. Did I want Green Tea? No. Did I want camomile tea? No. I wanted Tea tea, but I had no idea how to describe it.
Worst cup of tea I've ever had: also in New York, this time in a small café. Styrofoam cup, milk, tea bag, cold water, microwave and stir. Shudder.
[cite]Posted By: IA[/cite]
Worst cup of tea I've ever had: also in New York, this time in a small café. Styrofoam cup, milk, tea bag, cold water, microwave and stir. Shudder.
This has to be one of the most appalling things I have read recently.
Comments
Boiling Water
Leave to brew
Remove tea bag
Milk
This
Shake the Sainsbury gold lable tea bag to loosen the leaves
Tea bag in cup
Pour on fresh decent quality boiling water (not a second boil)...by decent quality, don't fill up the kettle with water from a tank with a dead pigeon in it! The boiling water myst be exactly on the top cusp of boiling.
Spin the bag in the cup (don't press it against the side of the cup/mug) with a clean spoon.
Judge the colour of the tea against the spoon
Remove the bag when the tea is a lovely golden brown, let it drip/dribble into the cup, don't squeeze it.
Add milk carefully until the required golden colour...never put too much milk in, you can add more, but if too much you can't take it out.
Sugar if required.
perfect
Me:
Milk in cup, then add boiling water, drop tea bag in and leave, squeeze gently on side of cup and remove bag, then (add sugar as required) stir....
exciting bunch in here I can tell ya !![/quote]
From a manufacturing perspective, this process is flawed.
With milk already in the cup, the boiling water is immediately reduced in temperature. Hence, the extraction efficiency is reduced, so the tea will be slightly weaker than it should have been.
Then, because of the presence of the tea bag in the cup, on removal the liquid level will go down, thus depriving you of a significant percentage of the total brew.
For these reasons, F or D's process is better ... with full extraction efficiency being achieved through the use of boiling (not boiled) water and with the final addition of the milk allowing the full volume of liquid to be realised.
However ...PeteF's process is much more like it. 'Tea bag' and 'perfect' should never be used in the same sentence ... apart from this one, of course.
It was simply a way to protect delicate cups from cracking when boiling water was added to it.
Now, all cups can handle the heat, so you can put milk in at the end.
The weekend, time on your hand for the perfect cup, tea
Boiling water
Loose tea - assam to be sure - one spoonful per person plus one for the pot
Boiling water on tea
Cover with cosy
Leave for ten minutes.
Milk in mug
Pour in tea
For the office perfect cuppa
Teabag in cup
pour on freshly boiled water (be wary of large tea urns)
stir and prod with spoon
Add milk
stir again
Remove bag.
The other big question to address is whether one should leave the last of the tea in the cup?
It was simply a way to protect delicate cups from cracking when boiling water was added to it.
Now, all cups can handle the heat, so you can put milk in at the end.[/quote]
Not true, the milk scorches when added to hot water.
boiling water
let it brew
squeeze as much tea as possible
touch of milk so it's still darkish/golden
2 heaped sugars
Strong & sweet.
Another question is the use of the word 'strong' when describing tea. For some 'strong' is about the amount of milk, for others it's about the length of infusion, and subsequently the degree of tannin in the brew, it is also confused by a combination of the amount of milk, plus the amount of tannin.
If you make a pot with bags or leaves, then the longer you leave the tea in the pot the more tannin (stewed) it gets, this is ok if you pour when golden brown, and immediately add more boiling water, and with teabags you can then remove from the second brew when it gets to a nice colour much harder to remove the leaves and therefore a greater risk of the stewing of the tea.
So called boiling water in an Urn is never right, it is never quite boiling, and the water becomes metallic in taste.
I would love to make tea for a living but there is no money in it.
Incidentally tea leaves are better for fortune tellers.
But not when hot water is added to milk ????
Any other way and i can't drink it, seems to get rid of the sharp tatse doing it like that.
Yep, I am an obsessive about tea, and I simply can't function without starting the day with a perfect cup of tea.
Making a cup of tea is much like making love to a beautiful woman:
It's got to be hot. You've got to take your time. You've got to stir.. gently, and firmly.
You've got to stir that baby until they squeak. And then you put in the milk!
I don't know why, but sometimes I can have a great cup of tea & sometimes its just average - not sure why.
For instance - last week my PA made me a cup & it was ready, on my deask, as soon as I got into the office..............its was lovely. The other day I was at home & made one and wasn't that good..............any idea why ???
Me:
Milk in cup, then add boiling water, drop tea bag in and leave, squeeze gently on side of cup and remove bag, then (add sugar as required) stir....
exciting bunch in here I can tell ya !![/quote]
Very, very northern me ol mucker.
How on earth you think you can make a cup of tea without even mentioning the use of a teapot demonstrates the distinct lack of breeding this society is currently suffering...
Equipment:
Kettle
Teapot
Cup
Spoon
Ingredients:
Water
Fresh milk
Tea bag
Sugar
Method:
Boil the water, when boiled pour a small amount in the teapot, this helps clean the teapot and kills any lurking spiders up the spout, empty the pot...
Pour enough water to equal one and a half times of the capacity of the cup used, stir it vigorously, before it settles drop the teabag in and give a more gentle stir taking great care not to mash or squeeze the teabag with the spoon, place lid on teapot and wait three minutes for it to brew...
Remove the teapot lid and and give one gentle stir and carefully lift the teabag out and hoy it, replace lid and pour into the cup...
Add milk, gently stirring continuously until the correct shade of brown that appeases your taste...
Add sugar to taste...
Voilà, pure bliss...
Tea should be made with BOILING water (i.e about 100 degrees C). By adding it to (usually cold) milk, you have just put it into water now around 80 degrees C and it can't brew properly...hence piss weak tea. Disgusting.
If you're really going to do it properly, you have to warm the pot first to ensure that the water is as hot as possible when it comes into contact with the tea (as described by redzed above). I have seen a thread on this before on B3ta and the upshot was that one of most crucial stages was leaving it to brew...even if it is only for 30 seconds. If you don't do that your cuppa will be bobbins.
Oh, and golfy...that thing about the holes being blocked up sounds like someone was pulling your leg!
Time to put the kettle on.
Add boiling water.
Immediately squish the bag 5-7 times against the side of the mug and remove.
Add milk.
Take to wife...I don't like tea.
(for tea aficianados, George Orwell wrote an essay on how to make the perfect cup of tea)
But full strength black tea tastes like creosote, ideal for painting fences.
Instead, one mug of boiling hot water.
Dip tea bag in and out - until the colour of virgin's water.
I can drink gallons of this stuff. Really thirst quenching.
But coffee is a different matter.
Once you get a taste for filter coffee, instant Nescafe rubbish is no substitute - undrinkable.
Again drunk black but full strength, no sugar .....nectar for that first five minutes at your desk in the morning.
Kick starts the day.
One thing I never understand - you go to a coffee shop and ask for black coffee.
The assistant never fails to ask you if you want milk and sugar.....!
Duh!
Worst cup of tea I've ever had: also in New York, this time in a small café. Styrofoam cup, milk, tea bag, cold water, microwave and stir. Shudder.
This has to be one of the most appalling things I have read recently.
Got to say that is an awful way to make tea.You're strangling that tea bag!
If you're using a pot (by far the best way) then by all means add the milk first.