Tea making

I don't drink tea very often, but when I do, it's water first always! I've had folks make me tea where they've put the milk in first & it becomes too milky for my tastes, oh and no sugar or sweetner!

Indian Chai every once in a while, since I like that extra sweet :bigsmile:

I gave up coffee a few weeks ago in an attempt to cut down caffeine as I was having crazy heart palpitations. I couldn't give up my warm morning drink ritual altogether so I switched to Chai Tea. I've been using Stash tea bags, regular in the morning and decaf at night. I always boil water in a kettle then pour the water into a 12oz. mug, then add two tea bags. Steep for 4 or 5 minutes, wring out the tea bags by pressing against spoon, then add milk and sweetener (splenda or agave).

I have a feeling there is a better way to make chai tea. Can anyone enlighten me?! It is really worth steeping loose tea in a tea pot and then straining? Please help me recover my English roots as my family has been entirely ruined by American ways over the past 100 years! ;-)

I always put the milk in second, because:
1. I can see exactly how much milk I need to put in.
2. For some weird reason I hate the sight of a tea bag sitting in milky tea.
3. After years of doing it this way, some kind of beverage expert assured me it was the correct way to do it. I can't remember the reasoning now, but it was possibly the reason quoted from RAF guy below.

Always water first. To properly infuse the tea the water needs to be as close to 100 C as possible, if you add the milk first this immediately reduces the temperature of the water, stopping the infusion. This is why you can not get a good cup of tea anywhere that is at altitude as water boils at a lower temperature the higher you go. If you are making a pot of tea, you should always warm the pot first to stop the dramatic drop in temperature when you had the boiling water to the cold pottery.

Probably the blend, you need a nice breakfast blend such a Twinnings

Eww, I always thought Twinings (especially Yellow Label, the hotel-room curse of the international traveller), is why foreigners think British tea is revolting.

To understand British milk-in tea you need a good everyday blend like PG Tips, Yorkshire or Tetley, brewed with just-boiled water (and never re-heated water). Milk in the cup first if using a teapot, milk last if brewing in a mug.

BEWARE tea blends don't always travel - they are subtly different around the country to account for hard or soft water.

Oh dear!

Well, will try Twinings (Twinnings?) and Tetley because I know we have both in the States. I haven't ever seen the other two, but I'll look and see if I can find them. I don't know what I have at home. I wish I could remember. And I'll play around with the amount of milk and see what works for me.

Thanks for the help!

English BTW, and was horrified on first trip to US when I ordered tea & got an iced cupful, eh , what?

Where were you? Most restaurants here have hot and iced tea and usually when people want iced tea, that's what they say.

And in any coffee house, they serve hot tea regularly.

Steep tea in a teapot. Pour milk in the cup. Pour tea over the milk. I worked at a tea room for a while and did a lot of research on the history of tea. The reason milk was originally added to tea was to cool the tea as it entered the cup so it wouldn't break the porcelin because the English had not yet learned how to glaze porcelin.

American also here, I adore tea, I drink tea all day long. I always use just hot water no milk (or sweetner) unless its a chai,cinnamon or vanilla flavored tea,all other teas I drink without anything in it. IMHO plain tea is simply delish just as is! *sips some right now*:drinker:

English BTW, and was horrified on first trip to US when I ordered tea & got an iced cupful, eh , what?

Where were you?

Florida, Homestead

Water first! And different types of tea require different temperatures and steeping times. Also loose leaf is generally better quality. I'm not british, but I do love my tea

Water first! And different types of tea require different temperatures and steeping times. Also loose leaf is generally better quality. I'm not british, but I do love my tea

This is the way its done, for anyone interested, the best tea maker is the http://www.brevilleusa.com/the-tea-maker.html far and away the best tea maker there is fully programable fot type of tea and temp. If you lkie drinking tea dump the tea bage and try loose leaf tea it tast so much better. They take whats left after sorting the loose leaf teas and put it in bags where it sits in store rooms and shelfs for who knows how long. Tea should be stored in air tight containers away from high temps.