quote:Here's one Americans don't always learn: really, only brew the tea for a few minutes. 3 to 5 minutes for black tea, 1 to 3 for green, no more than 2 for white. It becomes bitter and harsh after that. I didn't know this for years, and when I went to Scotland in '96, the locals looked at me in incredulity when I left my teabag in the mug for endless minutes. "How can ye drink it like tha'? It's like tar!" They're right, as it turns out.
Is this right? I'm used to drinking green tea "strong," mostly because I pour myself a cup of tea and then remember half an hour later, oh yeah, didn't I pour myself some tea?...
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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It depends on how strong you like it, doesn't it. Although I did hear that the longer you leave it, the more harmful substances it releases.
Posts: 5700 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Some green teas can be left to brew for a long time. Black tea never should (and, if anything, 3 minutes can be a bit on the long side for some black teas). For instance, anyone who thinks tea is bitter is almost certainly brewing it too long.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Black tea should never be left to brew for longer than two minutes, IMO, especially if it's a British brand. I'm a PG Tips fan, as pedestrian as that might sound, and I find that just over a minute gives me the best flavor. And then I can actually reuse the teabag a second time (although it needs to brew slightly longer).
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I learned this recently myself, actually. It depends upon the type of tea and the *quality*, actually. I used to brew iced tea all the time and just leave it to steep on the counter until I got around to it but they started using lower quality tea (seems a lot of products do this over time) and the tea got worse and worse. I didn't realize what was going on -- I thought I was losing my taste for iced tea. Then I went to visit my mother in law who explained that she set the timer for 3 minutes and no more. That was at Thanksgiving and since them I'm back to drinking iced tea -- timer set for 3 minutes and no more.
I've also started steeping my herbal teas for shorter periods and find that it is much better.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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I love tea of all sorts, although I can't drink green tea very often due to health concerns, sadly. My favorite tea, bar none, is ginger chai the way my MIL makes it. I don't drink it often because of the sugar and milk that goes along with it.
I suspect I brew my tea for too long, but that's because I typically brew great heaping amounts (I drink my tea out of a beer stein), and it's a delicate balance between not strong enough and too strong when you're dealing with that quantity of liquid and only one tea bag.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Here's one Americans don't always learn: really, only brew the tea for a few minutes. 3 to 5 minutes for black tea, 1 to 3 for green, no more than 2 for white. It becomes bitter and harsh after that. I didn't know this for years, and when I went to Scotland in '96, the locals looked at me in incredulity when I left my teabag in the mug for endless minutes. "How can ye drink it like tha'? It's like tar!" They're right, as it turns out.
If its any consolation, Americans would actually be closer to the source here. I've always found that white people's tea is rather weak and then you even add sugar and milk sometimes.
Normally, you just leave the tea leaves in and by virtue of them being leaves, you don't really take them out either.
Interestingly, there was a decently popular "milk tea" sold in Hong Kong long before bubble tea which is a Asianised version of this weak Westernised tea. http://hkvibes.com/2008/05/06/dong-lai-cha/Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Mucus, not all of the round eyed barbarians know nothing about tea. I do love the fact that it's perfectly PC to bash every aspect of the way white people do, oh, everything having to do with cuisine. You don't have to drink my tea, (which I brew very strong from loose leaves) so I don't see why you do have to beat up on white people.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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When I drank tea, I only drank loose-leaf, dark stuff (I liked Irish breakfast.) I brewed it 4 to 7 minutes, depending on the day and what I wanted. And this is one thing I learned from my grandma (who is English)-- you don't pour the water over the tea while it's boiling. You pull it off the stove at the boil, and let it "rest" a minute until it's not quite at a boil, then pour it. I took mine with sugar but no cream. My grandma agreed with me that that was the way to drink a breakfast tea.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Orincoro : Fascinating. If you loved it, why wouldn't you see why I would beat up on white people? Clearly, I wouldn't want to leave your love unfulfilled.
Anyways, I wasn't bashing. If I was, it wouldn't include the phrase "if its any consolation."
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: When I drank tea, I only drank loose-leaf, dark stuff (I liked Irish breakfast.) I brewed it 4 to 7 minutes, depending on the day and what I wanted. And this is one thing I learned from my grandma (who is English)-- you don't pour the water over the tea while it's boiling. You pull it off the stove at the boil, and let it "rest" a minute until it's not quite at a boil, then pour it. I took mine with sugar but no cream. My grandma agreed with me that that was the way to drink a breakfast tea.
No cream? Do you mean milk here, or actual cream? Because cream in tea is an abomination. (As is half and half, or anything else of that ilk. Personally, I don't even like it with whole milk, but I don't like whole milk generally.)
My tea is brewed from leaves, and for 2-3 minutes. A lot depends on the teapot: my one at home is a small china one that brews quite strong - anything more than 3 minutes and the tea is far too tannin-y.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Mucus: Orincoro : Fascinating. If you loved it, why wouldn't you see why I would beat up on white people? Clearly, I wouldn't want to leave your love unfulfilled.
Anyways, I wasn't bashing. If I was, it wouldn't include the phrase "if its any consolation."
Meh, I just don't think the generalization is accurate. If it's any consolation...
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: When I drank tea, I only drank loose-leaf, dark stuff (I liked Irish breakfast.) I brewed it 4 to 7 minutes, depending on the day and what I wanted. And this is one thing I learned from my grandma (who is English)-- you don't pour the water over the tea while it's boiling. You pull it off the stove at the boil, and let it "rest" a minute until it's not quite at a boil, then pour it. I took mine with sugar but no cream. My grandma agreed with me that that was the way to drink a breakfast tea.
No cream? Do you mean milk here, or actual cream? Because cream in tea is an abomination. (As is half and half, or anything else of that ilk. Personally, I don't even like it with whole milk, but I don't like whole milk generally.)
My tea is brewed from leaves, and for 2-3 minutes. A lot depends on the teapot: my one at home is a small china one that brews quite strong - anything more than 3 minutes and the tea is far too tannin-y.
My dad used actual cream. My mom used half and half. I used nothing, not even skim milk. I preferred it with sugar only.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: My dad used actual cream. My mom used half and half. I used nothing, not even skim milk. I preferred it with sugar only. [/QB]
*shudder*
Oh, black is fine. (I like mine with milk, but to each their own.) But, cream? *shudder*
(Yep, I'm a tea snob and I'm proud of it. :grin:)
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I grew up drinking black tea with tons of sugar and milk. Now I only drink green tea, and since I already eat enough sugar as it is, I only drink mild green tea (usually, jasmine).
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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A lot of teabags use the tiny bits of tea leaf (the "dust") rather than the bigger grains. They use these because of the necessarily short brewing time of tea bag tea.
The bigger the bit of leaf, you're going to get a different tea. In my opinion bigger bits of leaves taste a little better.
For example, I can't drink the type of black tea a lot of coffee shops sell because it really lacks a tea-like quality. (You could say that it was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea). I'll get Earl Grey because the Bergamot gives it some actual taste.
I drink tea with milk only.
Depending on the type of teabag, if I'm making it in a single cup, I'm usually fishing it out almost right away because the ratio of tea to water is so high. In a bigger pot I'll let it sit for two minutes or so.
<--- of British roots.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Oh, I suppose to add to the debate that I should add that, like my grandma, I used CUBED sugar in my tea, TYVM.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Is there something wrong with my taste buds because I leave my green tea bags in my mug until I'm finished drinking it? And I almost never add sugar unless I'm drinking a really, really cheap brand.
As for iced teas, I only drink sweet tea as any good Southern belle should.
Not one for many other varieties. It almost never gets cold enough here to warrant hot tea.
After a quick internet read, it seems that longer seeping increases the caffeine levels which explains why my doctor has been trying to get me to quit drinking green tea. I don't drink soda or coffee so my body is incredibly sensitive.
But personally, weak green tea just makes me wonder what the point is. I might as well squeeze a lemon into my water. Less work for a tiny bit of flavored water.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I let the loose tea leaves SWIM in the tea. A neighbour just bought me a teaball. It's good for making iced tea out of loose orange pekoe tea. But for me it's all about Earl Grey with milk. No sugar... In my old age I only like my iced tea with sugar and lemons. And I love a good breakfast tea with milk only.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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It's taken me several years to learn to enjoy drinking Chai tea with milk and Splenda in it. Even now, I still prefer Chai tea brewed in water, with nothing else.
Aside from the above, the only way I will enjoy tea (hot or iced) is straight (no cream, sugar, or lemon). It's odd because while my family was a strict no-sweet tea household, my parents always added lemon. From the first day I drank tea I would make sure it didn't have anything but tea in it. Of course, this usually meant I was making it and pouring it myself...
I love white tea, but it's still a bit of a challenge to find it out here (that's in anything but a 5 year old mass marketed box anyway).
Oh, and the biggest question mark I have on teas... How can people actually enjoy tea when you boil / microwave the water with the tea bag already in it?
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I've learned that people can get strange notions of superiority based on how they drink water with leaves in it Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I don't drink tea - I don't even like the smell of it. Sadly, this means that I can't really make a decent cup of tea for anyone else either as I have no idea what would be nice. I think I probably tend to let it stew too long until it looks a bit like coffee, which I do like. The last time I made tea for a client he 'accidentally' knocked the cup over and spilt it all - I'm pretty sure it was so that he wouldn't have to drink anymore of it (my boss was encouraging him to 'drink up, it'll get cold' at the time). I’m really not being paranoid - he’d be about the fifth person to do that and a few of them have even admitted as much to me later. That's how bad my tea is.
I love iced tea, though. But then, it's not really very tea-y.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I frequently have twinings in the morning, either english breakfast or earl grey. It tastes bitter and acerbic if it's steeped for over, say, 150 seconds.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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