A hot cup of tea is enough to take the tiredness out of you. It leaves you with a refreshing and re-energised feel. That’s why tea is one of the most sought after and widely consumed beverage all around the world. Also, some of them even possess certain medicinal values that help in preventing many diseases. Tea can be prepared in a variety of ways and loose leaf tea is one such variation. Brewing your tea with high quality loose leaves will definitely make a savory tea. Also, preparing loose leaf tea does not require any specific skill at all. All you need to do is follow the steps given below and in a matter of minutes, you’ll have a full cup of tea in your hand. Read on.
Complexity Level: Basic
Time Required: 10 minutes
Resources Required:
-
Loose leaf tea
-
Hot water
-
Tea pot or cup
-
Tea filter
Instructions:
1. Place the loose leaf tea in a pot
-
Place tea leaves in a tea pot or cup (whatever you like). The recommended quantity of tea leaves can be known from the package of tea.
-
Make sure that the cup is free of any impurities.
2. Heat water in a kettle
-
Now, pour some water in the tea kettle and place it over the stove to heat. The water should not be very hard, try to use fresh water for this purpose.
-
Note that you only have to heat the water. Do not boil it. This is done because hotter the water, lesser will be the taste of tea. The excess heat burns the essential oils in tea leaves and thus, the taste of the tea becomes faint.
-
Once you are satisfied with the temperature of water, pour it into the cup containing the loose leaf tea.
3. Allow the leaves to steep
-
Now, this step is very important as the strength of prepared tea depends on the time for which the tea leaves were allowed to steep in hot water.
-
The time is different for different type of tea, for instance if you are preparing black tea then time is 3-4 minutes, for green tea it’s 2-3 minutes, for herbal tea it can be 10 minutes and for white tea time, it is 4-5 minutes.
4. Strain the tea in another pot
-
Now, your tea is ready. But before that you have to strain it in a cup so that the leaves can be separated.
-
After straining the tea, you can even sweeten it. But instead of using plain granular sugar, try the fruit preserves such as rose petal and walnut preserves. This will add more flavors to your tea.
-
Do not use excess amount of sweetener as taste of sweetener will dominate the real flavors of tea.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is there any tea with medicinal values?
You can prepare a variety of tea which have medicinal values in them. For instance, the damiana tea is known to treat a variety of ailments from constipation to low libido. This is also very effective in the treatment of depression and coughs. Damiana tea basically acts as a stimulant that works directly on the reproductive system.
Quick Tips:
-
Avoid metals in the preparation of tea as they leave an unpleasant after taste. However, tempered steel accessories are an exception in this case as they do not disturb the taste of the tea.
-
Once you have developed a taste for loose leaf tea, you can even experiment with different flavors, for example adding a teaspoon of honey or a little mint which can do wonders.
Things To Watch Out For:
-
Do not use hard water for making tea. Also, the use of microwave must be avoided.
-
Also, you are not suppose to over steep the tea leaves, as this will make the tea taste bitter.
