Monday, July 16, 2007

How to prepare a perfect cup of tea?

I know you think it is rather simple to prepare your cup of tea...I mean pour boiling (or very hot depending on the type of tea) water over tea leaves or a tea bag...and wait for few minutes. But when asking a true tea lover the whole matter is much more complex.
Recently I came across one of those guides to a perfect cup of tea...It was published in the Evening Standard (England) of the 12th January 1946. World famous writer George Orwell wrote there about things necessary for making great tea. Here are those instructions:
1. Use tea from India or Ceylon (Sri Lanka), not China
2. Use a teapot, preferably ceramic
3. Warm the pot over direct heat
4. Tea should be strong - six spoons of leaves per 1 litre
5. Let the leaves move around the pot - no bags or strainers
6. Take the pot to the boiling kettle
7. Stir or shake the pot
8. Drink out of a tall, mug-shaped tea cup
9. Don't add creamy milk
10. Add milk to the tea, not vice versa
11. No sugar!
That was an advice of a tea lover...Now let me write some advices of how to make a great cup of tea as presented by the United Kingdom Tea Council:
Use a good quality loose leaf or bagged tea
This must be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature
Always use freshly drawn boiling water
In order to draw the best flavour out of the tea the water must contain oxygen, this is reduced if the water is boiled more than once.
Measure the tea carefully
Use 1 tea bag or 1 rounded teaspoon of loose tea for each cup to be served
Allow the tea to brew for the recommended time before pouring
Brewing tea from a bag in a mug? milk in last is best

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