The Art of Preparing Tea
How To Make The Perfect Cup Of Tea:
Good water is essential
Fill an empty kettle with fresh cold water. If using tap water, let the water run for 5 seconds so that it is fresh. If you have hard water, for best results, use spring water
Measure Your Tea
For loose tea, place approximately one teaspoon of tea leaves per cup into the pot, or into an infuser placed in the pot. If you don't have loose tea, use one tea bag per 1-2 cups, depending on the size of the bag and personal preference.
Boil Water
As soon as the water comes to a boil, remove it from the heat. Overheating the water causes the tea to taste flat. Immediately pour the water into the pot, cover, and let stand. If using green tea, allow the water to cool slightly before pouring onto the leaves
Steeping Your Tea
How long to steep depends on how strong you like your tea and the type of tea you're using. Do not judge by color because some teas brew light while others brew dark. Most teas will taste bitter if you steep longer than TWO minutes. If you have used an infuser or tea bags, remove them from the pot when the tea has reached the desired strength. Tea bags steep more quickly because the leaves are finely cut, so don't let them steep too long. You may squeeze the bags gently before removing them from the pot to reduce drips. If you placed loose leaves directly into the pot, you may want to pour the tea into a second warmed pot through a strainer to separate the tea from the leaves. But if you plan to pour all the tea into cups soon, simply place a strainer over the cup and pour slowly from the original pot.
Adding Lemon, Sugar, Milk or Honey
If you add lemon and sugar to your tea, add the sugar first, since the citric acid from the lemon will prevent the sugar from dissolving. Milk is often used in full-bodied black teas such as our Broken Leaf Tea. (Don't use cream as it interferes with the taste of the tea.) Also, Do not use milk with green tea (Many teas are better without). Adding a little honey to tea is a personal preference, but it is a delicious way of sweetening your tea.
Storing Tea
Tea to be enjoyed properly must be sealed properly! It is that simple. Teas are known for there taste, color, aroma etc, and are very easily affected by other scents-which could alter the quality of a good tea. Often times, people will notice if they leave there tea in a cupboard for many months without being stored in a proper package or container, that their teas have picked up other scents from surrounding foods and spices. Grown hundreds of miles away from industrial pollution using traditional farming methods, when you open your package of Gorreana tea the first thing you will notice is the aroma of the high quality tea leaves! Fresh never tainted!
