We Must Talk Tea

Reading, writing, critical thought or contemplation, these can all be aided by tea. Some in the professions prefer coffee, and it certainly gets you going, or dredges you from tired drowsiness into some semblance of normalcy. This however is on tea, the first post on tea. Tea doesn't just wake us, it calms, it can sharpen our senses, bring us to task and deep thought about our work or purpose. Tea can aid discussions, something known by Asian cultures. It can loosen tongues and allow better expression and lower anxiety. Here we shall discuss temperature and the serving of some varieties.

The first point is on boiling. Don't boil the water, if you don't need to. Boiling water can damage the tea leaves, it will change the intended taste, and prevent gauging the taste until it is cooler. Unless you can drink boiling water, determining when it is perfect will be difficult. If you want to have the tea in 5-10 minutes, after finishing a bit of writing, putting in pure boiling water can make sense. Problem is (and this is dependent on the tea) after some minutes, the drink is becoming stronger, and the longer you wait the stronger it gets. Did you want a cup of overly strong tea with burnt tea leaves and a damaged taste?

No, the temperature of serving can go a bit lower than that. Whether using a bag, or leaves in a teapot, the intent is to suffuse the water with the taste of the leaves. This is to steep. There has been a great deal of work that has gone into each teaspoon of tea leaves, and enjoying this labour is easy. Determine how strong you or your guest wants the tea, check the type of tea it is. Strong, aromatic and powerful tea leaves can be made into a weak cup of tea, it simply means you do not leave them in or soaking for long. If one wants to be frugal, a Russian caravan tea-bag can easily last three cups of tea. If you want a weak tea to have a more full taste, simply wait a while as it soaks. This will require a decent temperature or it will be cold when it is served.

Some guidelines then:

1) Don't boil your water.
2) Get a kettle with a temperature gauge. This will prove very helpful to serving a near-perfect cup of tea from even humble ingredients.
3) Consider what you want to do with the tea first. How long it will need to sit, how strong is the tea normally after a few minutes?
4) Pour green tea at 70-75 degree Celsius (°C).
5) Black tea slightly hotter at 80-85.
6) If serving with honey, serve at a slightly lower temperature so as to not damage the honey and its health benefits.
7) Avoid the poor-quality honeys typically sold in supermarkets. It tastes sugary but is nothing compared to the all natural stuff, with its many distinct flavours.
8) Experiment with honey and tea types. How dark a honey do you want to use? What will be the most clear flavour, and will there be secondary or tertiary tastes?
9) Try a small amount of cinnamon, nutmeg or both.
10) If your guest is used to letting boiling tea stand, encourage them to drink so it does not go cold.
11) If the water does boil, add tap water to cool it down to the right temperature. Again the temperature gauge is useful.

Now you can try for better cups of tea, and make writing or study that little bit easier.

Note: the above comes from but a few years of interest and experimentation with tea. Having moved to the city of Melbourne, I took up tea drinking and gained an interest in combining it with the most natural and tasty honey I could get. Melbourne has many excellent honey providers. To balance the taste of the tea with the honey, I tried different temperatures and steeping times.