How To Make Your Own Teas To Give You An Excellent Cuppa

Tea can taste bitter, weak, strong or wonderful, aromatic, soothing and/or refreshing.  It all depends on how to make your own teas. Pouring hot water over a tea bag in a mug and leaving it for a while to brew, will hardly give you an excellent cuppa. It begins with treating tea with love and respect.  Before the tea got to you, leaves were picked (sometimes by hand), sorted, dried, possibly fermented, packed and shipped all across the world until it ended up in your store.

If you don't like the taste of tea, that may well be because it was not brewed correctly.   An excellent rule of thumb is one teaspoon of tea leaves to one cup of water.  If you are using a teapot (and I hope you are), then pour a small quantity of very hot water into the teapot to warm it and discard it when you are ready to put in the tea leaves and the boiling water.  Whilst boiling (212F) water is excellent for most teas, delicate teas (e.g. white tea) are better with 180F).  Using good quality water is essential.  Give tea leaves room to unfurl - up to 5 times their original size, so don't pack them in a tiny tea egg.

Whether your tea is expensive or cheap, brewing it correctly brings out the best taste.  Steeping it too long makes the tea taste bitter.  Most tea needs no more than 5 minutes - then take the tea or tea bag out.  Delicate green teas only need about 3 minutes for best results.  Once you know how to make your own teas, it becomes an absolute pleasure and you can always look forward to that perfect cuppa.