How do you make tea?

avoidtheupsidedownbottles

Just curious to know how folk actually make their tea.  Do you prewarm the pot / mugs / cups?  Milk first / milk last?

I'd always studiously pre-warmed the mug or pot with boiling water before brewing with boiled water but my tea was always a bit rough and bitter.  Just recently decided to try filling the cold mug with boiling water and giving it half a minute to cool before adding the teabag.  The result is much nicer tea . . .    

I thought making black tea using boiling water was one of the fixed laws of the physical universe.  Have we been lied to all these years?

Rosa_Damascena

Milk last, not first! I use a stainless steel teapot, boiled water and then stick it on the hob to get extra hot. That way I can sip away over a good 2 hours and thoroughly enjoy whatever boring administrative task I am undertaking at the time.

Great idea for a light-hearted thread, btw!

Farway

Stainless pot, pre warmed. But use decent loose leaf tea not cheapo 100 for a quid tea bags

Mistral001

Rosa_Damascena said:

Milk last, not first! I use a stainless steel teapot, boiled water and then stick it on the hob to get extra hot. That way I can sip away over a good 2 hours and thoroughly enjoy whatever boring administrative task I am undertaking at the time.

Great idea for a light-hearted thread, btw!

Light hearted?  Wars have been started by lesser things than what is the best way to make a cup of tea!

Stenwold

Mistral001 said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Milk last, not first! I use a stainless steel teapot, boiled water and then stick it on the hob to get extra hot. That way I can sip away over a good 2 hours and thoroughly enjoy whatever boring administrative task I am undertaking at the time.

Great idea for a light-hearted thread, btw!

Light hearted?  Wars have been started by lesser things than what is the best way to make a cup of tea!

If you really want to watch the world burn, try asking about the best way to eat a scone!

dreaming

Stenwold said:

Mistral001 said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Milk last, not first! I use a stainless steel teapot, boiled water and then stick it on the hob to get extra hot. That way I can sip away over a good 2 hours and thoroughly enjoy whatever boring administrative task I am undertaking at the time.

Great idea for a light-hearted thread, btw!

Light hearted?  Wars have been started by lesser things than what is the best way to make a cup of tea!

If you really want to watch the world burn, try asking about the best way to eat a scone!

Or how to pronounce it!!

maisie_cat

China pot, boiling water, loose tea. Tea first & a drip of milk. I do often let tea go cold and microwave for 30 seconds to warm up, sometimes several times!

bouicca21

Yes to china pot, boiling water and loose leaf tea. Don’t take milk so you can argue as long as you like over first or last ( a friend gets super upset over this).

But if the tea when properly made is too bitter, you are either buying cheap tea or the wrong sort of blend.  I have no truck with high street brands which tend to be largely fannings.  I get mine from Drurys.  Avoid blends with too much Assam, try a decent better balanced English Breakfast or maybe swap to Ceylon.

bouicca21

I am seriously surprised no one has shared this
https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/living/american-tiktok-user-brits-tutorial-hot-tea-british-tea-a4463126.html

YouTube has further videos from the same woman on making  tea the American way which is unbelievably even worse.

gt568

This is the only acceptable way.....

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2006/08/tea-making-fearnley-whittingstall-dangle/

/End Thread

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Steel pot, loose tea, cosy. Brew for five, milk last. And if tea was meant to be white, they’d put cows in the plantations.