Tea Preparation Guidelines
The following are tips and guidelines for preparing your own tea.
- Use fresh water only when brewing tea because the quality of the water will affect the quality of your drink.
- When making iced tea, use more tea than you normally use because the ice will dilute your tea mixture.
- When making iced tea, let the tea steep longer in water that has been boiled and cooled to the precise temperature (lukewarm) so as not to burn the tea leaves which will give the tea a bitter taste.
- There is a big difference when you use quality tea leaves for making hot or iced tea.
- Brewed tea should be cooled to room temperature before pouring it over ice.
- If you want to sweeten our tea, do not use sugar granules, instead use honey or sugar syrup. To make sugar syrup, mix equal parts of water and sugar and bring to a boil. Do not use hot syrup on your iced tea drink, let it cool before using.
- Add a slice of lemon or lime for an added twist to your tea.
- Do not soak tea more than the appropriate time needed for a type of tea, 3 minutes for green tea, 5 minutes for black tea, 7 minutes for oolong tea and 12 minutes for white tea. If you need more tea double the quantity of the tea you will soak and soak it at the correct time rather than soaking it longer than needed which will make your tea bitter.
- Learn to experiment with different variants of tea and preparing it with other varieties for an extraordinary taste.
- For recipes requiring one cup of tea, use the standard measuring cup and not the teacup. One measuring cup is equal to 8 ounces while a teacup holds only 6 ounces.