Oh my....this post has been languishing in my draft box for AGES. I was having major blog technical problems, and just had to walk away for a bit. which turned into walking away for MONTHS. So....finally I will publish this! I even had photos, but my laptop seems to have eaten them? Considering how tech savvy I am, this is really no surprise.
I may come from Latte Land (Seattle), and I do love my coffee (French press only, please don't speak of this blasphemous Keurig thing in my presence), but come afternoon-time, and I have a thing for tea. Not so much DRINKING tea, as much as BUYING tea. I started to think that maybe I was missing something, because I really like the IDEA of tea. I read a lot of books that take place in England, and have a few British friends, and their devout seriousness about tea runs pretty parallel to a Seattlelites wacko-ness (pain in the ass-ness?) for coffee.
Recently, our local British pub had a How to Brew the Perfect Cuppa event. The owner even flew one of his Brit friends over for the event, to teach us all properly. Sign me up! Here is what she taught us.
Remember....these are not MY rules, they are Englands. Any errors belong to them, and you can log your complaints with the Queen.
I may come from Latte Land (Seattle), and I do love my coffee (French press only, please don't speak of this blasphemous Keurig thing in my presence), but come afternoon-time, and I have a thing for tea. Not so much DRINKING tea, as much as BUYING tea. I started to think that maybe I was missing something, because I really like the IDEA of tea. I read a lot of books that take place in England, and have a few British friends, and their devout seriousness about tea runs pretty parallel to a Seattlelites wacko-ness (pain in the ass-ness?) for coffee.
Recently, our local British pub had a How to Brew the Perfect Cuppa event. The owner even flew one of his Brit friends over for the event, to teach us all properly. Sign me up! Here is what she taught us.
Remember....these are not MY rules, they are Englands. Any errors belong to them, and you can log your complaints with the Queen.
First, you must decide which tea you want. This is where the tea problem comes in. I have lots. For my every-day tea I tend to go with PG tips.
The flavor is pretty great, the bags are easy to contend with. I also still like Twinnings, even though one of my very dear tea-purist (she's a total tea snob! it's a term of endearment) friends refers to them as vacuum dust-bags. ha!
The flavor is pretty great, the bags are easy to contend with. I also still like Twinnings, even though one of my very dear tea-purist (she's a total tea snob! it's a term of endearment) friends refers to them as vacuum dust-bags. ha!
I rarely use loose-leaf teas. The tiny bits that get into my finished cup, ugh...i just hate that. My tea press does a fairly decent job of filtering them out, but oh...before you get to that point there is all the measuring and maths, and....So the tea press spends a great deal of time sitting in the cabinet, thinking about what it did.
Ok. Time to get to brewing. Oh wait. the sugar. and the milk. For the sugar, i like turbinado sugar, OR if you are lucky enough to have an amazing friend stationed in Germany who understands you, you get special German caramel sugars!
You add your sugar to your chosen mug, and then add milk. And it HAS to be milk. According to Miss British Tea Lady, no self-respecting tea drinker she knows would EVER EVER use cream, or half and half. Those are pretty much her words, verbatim. I wouldn't cross her. She was pretty adamant about it. She bore a striking resemblance to that cat-loving scary Professor in Harry Potter, so unless you want your arm all carved up with your wand, don't put any freaking half and half in your tea, ok?
OK. Now that we have that all settled, we can move on to our teapot.
If using loose-leaf, I will use the tea-press, but we already know how I feel about all of that, so I really prefer to use my Brown Betty. This is where Miss British Tea Lady got super rule-y. You must prep your teapot for the brewing process to occur correctly. OH...and also, you MUST brew your tea IN A POT. For all of you fools (she didn't say fools, but I could tell she wanted to) who brew your tea in a CUP....you are doing it wrong. It needs a pot in order to ensure proper circulation. Who knew?
So...as soon as the water gets CLOSE to boiling, pour it into your teapot, and let it sit.
Put water back on stove to come to a full boil. As soon as the water reaches a full rolling boil, dump prep water out of the teapot, throw your tea into the pot, and fill it with the boiling water. Set timer according to whatever tea you are brewing. Evidently all tea has a magical brew period, and if you go over it your tea is gonna punish you with bitterness and spite. Maybe not spite, but bitterness for sure. For the PG Tips, I stick to 4 mins. Brew tea. Remove tea bags.
By now the milk and sugar have melded into one, and when you pour your hot tea into the mug, you've no need to mix them together with a spoon.
Now sit back and relax with your perfect cuppa. Or maybe this post has completely turned you off of tea for life, and it all just sounds like WAY too much trouble.