Last Saturday we had our very good
friends over, Peter and Loraine. We ended up sitting around the kitchen table
almost the entire time, talking, eating, and drinking wine. Even though they
live about ten minutes away from us, we don’t get to see each other often
enough!
As the day started turning into
night, it was time for tea and vanilla cupcakes with fresh strawberries and
vanilla buttercream. In my pantry I had English Breakfast tea bags. So I boiled a teapot of water,
placed teabags into four cups, poured the boiling water into the cups, and
placed them on the table.
The next morning I thought that
when I was growing up, I had never seen my parents brew tea by throwing a teabag
into a cup, pouring water in it, and voila. Instead, they would spend almost
ten minutes following British traditions of tea preparation, and, as I
remember, it tasted quite differently from the tea I served last night.
Being a proponent of quality everything, I thought that I had no right
to serve teabags to my friends. Did I?
Today I decided to make a cup of tea brewed according to Britain
traditions and a cup of tea out of a teabag, taste them both, compare, and make
my judgment.
It should be easy to make a cup of
tea using teabag - put it in a mug, pour freshly boiled water and leave the
teabag for two minutes, no more, no less. Then, after six more minutes, take a
sip. I have to say that the teabag I have is a whole leaf tea in poaches. I
will also try tea from a paper teabag that, as some sources say, consists of
leftovers of processed tea dust.
And then I will try tea brewed
according to Brits’ traditions. As I read in several articles I found on the
topic, Brits also use two ingredients – water and loose leaf tea. The quality
of tea taste, though, comes from the details. And the detail number one is –
getting a good quality tea from, preferably, a specialty store!
The best water to be used is the
Artesian spring water, because the tap water’s municipal treatment affects the
true flavor of tea. To make one cup, pour eight ounces of freshly boiled water
over one to two teaspoons of loose leaf tea, and let it sit for six minutes to
cool tea. 60C is the best temperature that lets the flavors flood out. And
after 17 minutes or more, the tea will be past its best.
Will report my findings tomorrow.
If you are up to the challenge,
taste the teas too and let me know your thoughts!
With love always,
xo, Zuma A.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Would love to hear from you...xo