Tea Brewing: How to Make the Perfect Cup

To enjoy the wonderful taste of tea, you must first know how to properly brew a cup. For some, tea brewing may be tricky, so here’s a review of how to be successful at brewing that perfect cup of tea. There are just as many ways to brew tea as there are types of tea! Correctly steeping teas comes in five parts: water, weight, temperature, time and equipment.

Water

Great tasting water is the first step in tea brewing. Your water should have between 40 and 50 parts per million of mineral content and usually this means a rather expensive reverse osmosis filtration system and a calcium carbonate cartridge to establish the proper amount of mineral content. Water with too many minerals will extract extra astringency from your tea and give you a harsh brew and water with too little minerals will not extract enough of the polyphenols that deliver astringency, health benefits and taste. Thus, you’ll have a weak, muddy cup. When tea brewing, fresh water is important in order to keep its oxygen and purity.

Weight

When tea brewing, your tea will be bitter if the weight of tea you use is too great. You will also be disappointed if you use too little tea resulting in a weak cup. The “golden ratio” of leaves to water is one teaspoon of most tea leaves (approx. two grams) per a traditional six-ounce cup of water. Keep in mind that most mugs are nearly twice that at 10 to 12 ounces. In addition, a large, open leaf tea like a White tea or some Oolongs may require two or more teaspoons to equal two grams. Teas that are broken or tightly rolled like gunpowder may pack as many as three grams of tea into a single teaspoon. Keep on eye on the leaf size, adjust the amount based on your preference and you’ll have the perfect cup of brewed tea!

Temperature

Different teas can require different temperatures in brewing. Some like it hot; some like it cooler. Use boiling water (212F) when preparing Black, dark Oolong and Herbal teas. These teas are tough, can take the burn and even require it in order to break down the leaf and release the flavor and antioxidants. However more delicate teas, such as Green, green Oolong and White teas require you to use cooler water when steeping. Water that is too hot will cause a delicate tea to taste overly bitter or astringent. Water that is too cool will cause a tea to taste flavorless and weak. Should you not have a thermometer or kettle with a gauge, you will find that typically boiling water that sits for five minutes will have dropped to roughly 180F.

Time

Tea brewing is especially dependent upon time. Too much time can result in a bitter and astringent taste. For most black teas, the rule of thumb is three to five minutes for most black teas, while dark Oolong and White teas can allow for a little longer. For light Oolong and green teas, only two to three minutes will result in the perfect steeped cup.

Equipment

The final part in tea brewing is utilizing the proper equipment. Your tea will need ample room to move and breath since the leaves can unfurl up to five times their dry size when hot water is added. A large infuser area is essential to imbue as much flavor into your cup as possible. Thus, loose tea is best in allowing movement and quality to your tea.

Finally, along with these mentioned parts in tea brewing, buying an excellent quality tea is imperative. Choose a well-blended, flavorful tea and you will surely find success in tea brewing!

Store Now Open

Our store is NOW OPEN and we are very excited. Please check out all of our wonderful blended teas. We offer fruit tea, white tea, green tea, herbal tea, black tea, flavored teas, Oolong tea, Rooibos tea and Mate teas. For a limited time we are offering half-off and free shipping on all our samples. Use coupon code sample at check out.

What is tea's health impact?

Recent medical studies are showing the benefits of drinking tea to one’s over-all health and livelihood. While drinking tea may not be a cure for all your ailments, it may have significant health benefits throughout your body. Here are some conditions researchers believe can be affected by tea:

Arthritis: According to research, older women who drink tea are 60 percent less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those who do not drink tea.

Bone Density: Those who drank tea on a regular basis for 10 or more years had higher-bone mineral density in their spines than those who had not.

Cancer: Some studies show that green tea extracts were found to reduce the growth of bladder cancer cells in the lab, while others suggest that it also can protect against developing stomach and esophageal cancers.

Flu: In addition to simply washing your hands often and getting vaccinated, black tea consumption may further boost your efforts to stay healthy from the flu. Those who gargled twice per day with a black tea extract solution showed a higher immunity to flu virus compared to the people who did not gargle with black tea.

Heart Disease: One study has found that drinking more than two cups of tea a day decreased the risk of death following a heart attack by 44 percent and consuming just two cups a day decreased it by almost a third.

High Blood Pressure: Drinking a half-cup of green or oolong tea per day reduced a person's risk of high blood pressure by almost 50% in a new study. People who drank at least two and a half cups per day reduced their risk even more.

Parkinson's Disease: Drinking tea may help protect against developing this debilitating neurological disorder.

Oral Health: Rinsing with tea may prevent cavities and gum disease.

Why Choose Loose Tea?

It’s common in countries such as Japan to eat the leaves after drinking their brew and they are a delicious treat. While drinking tea itself may improve your emotional and physical well-being, ingesting the tea leaves may provide even greater benefits. Tea leaves are rich in vitamins A and E and protein. Good quality loose leaf tea can be re-infused several times and it is significantly cheaper to purchase loose leaf tea versus teabags. Steep your tea, pour all of the liquid off the leaves and keep the leaves to re-infuse with more hot water several times more. This will also keep the costs of serving premium tea down and provide many cups of delicious tea.

Try some of these other practices once you have brewed and enjoyed your tea to benefit even more from your leaves:

Keep a small dish of used tea leaves in the refrigerator to keep it smelling fresh.

Wipe cutting boards, frying pans or cooking utensils with used leaves to clean them.

Rub leaves between your hands to remove onion odor and give them a nice, soft feel.

Wipe iron kettles or iron pans with used tea leaves to prevent rust; green tea leaves’ tannin reacts with the iron and forms a film on the surface.

Cleans oils from hard surface floors by spreading well-drained used leaves and sweeping them clean off the floor.

Place used leaves in a tightly tied clean rag and polish your wood furniture with them for luster.

Roast dry leaves in a pan, wrap them in gauze and stick into an old, clean sock to place in your shoe closet or gym shoes for extra smelly relief.

Add leaves to the base of your roses to help with pesky pests.

There are numerous benefits to using loose tea leaves in your brews and around your home. People have been using these methods for generations and are happy with the helpful results!

A Sensory Reaction To Tea

Do you ever come across a smell that takes you back in time to a memory from the past? Like baking apple pie with your grandmother or the crisp, fresh smell of snow while sledding down your neighborhood hills. All of our senses are overloaded each day, but it’s a real treat when something reminds us of a time gone by or the people we cherish and remember every once and awhile.

Smells can stimulate our senses, boost our energy and revive our emotional and physical well being. The special blends of Doehi tea will do just that for you. By drinking tea and inhaling the deep aromas, two things are happening. An emotional response arises from an association to another time or event and then a physical effect happens. Whether it’s Auntie’s Pumpkin Pie reminding you of Thanksgiving with friends and family or Pina Colada taking you back to the trip you took to the Bahamas several years ago, our Doehi teas are a special treat for your senses.

Some smells may cause your body to produce neurochemicals, such as serotonin, which relaxes and induces sleep. So not only will the tea produce nostalgia, but also will soothe and comfort. It can energize your life and create a positive atmosphere around you, so that you will stay more active and at peace.

Everyone loves to cherish special moments with friends and family and remember “the good ole’ days”. Take a trip back in time and delight your senses with Doehi tea.