How do you make your tea?

[ellairiesmom]

This may go down as the silliest question ever! lol

I love hot tea in the cold weather & cold tea in the warm weather. I buy all kinds of packaged tea/tea bags & have even wondered about loose teas lately but need to learn more about preparing those.

I typically microwave (i know, yuk) a pyrex measuring cup with water for my hot tea & use my iced tea brew pitcher for cold tea. My iced tea brew thing is made of plastic & that has always bothered me a little but I don't know if there are any other options???

A family member needed a gift idea for me for our grab bag & it got me thinking about something for my "tea process"...I love the look of some of the glass tea pots I have seen & have been looking around for other interesting looking tea pots.

What other options are there for hot and/or cold tea? If it matters, we have a gas cooktop so I'm not sure if that would be energy efficient for making tea...I just saw another thread about that & it seems folks felt gas might be wasteful for making tea???

TIA!

[sewchris2642]

We make hot tea on the stove by boiling the water in a tea kettle and pouring it over the tea bag in a mug. Iced tea is made on the picnic table in a gallon glass pickle jar we have had forever. Depending on the uv index, it can take a couple of hours to all day. Iced herbal tea is made in a pitcher in the fridge.

As for the gas stove, gas is a lot more energy efficient and, at least here, cheaper than electric. I would kill for a gas stove. My cast iron would kill for a gas stove.

[InMediasRes]

I boil water in the tea kettle and pour over loose-leaf tea in an infuser (I like the mesh kind, not the kind with tiny holes, and DON'T get the pinch kind cuz the tea falls right out). For iced tea, I boil in the tea kettle and use a whole pot infuser with loose leaf and then just stick the pitcher (glass) in the fridge. I think you can buy a decent glass pitcher at Target for $10, or check thrift stores. They always have that kind of thing.

I drink all kinds of teas. This year I am asking for a new tea kettle. You might also really like a one-cup infuser, which is a tea cup/mug with a matching infuser that sits inside of it. You just pour the water into your cup, drop the infuser in, pull it out when it's done and drink!

I HIGHLY recommend www.dragonwater.com. They are doing a lot of organic/fair trade stuff lately, and they are a wonderful mom&pop business. You can order loose leaf samples of anything you want to try out.

Lemme know if you have any more questions. This is one of my favorite topics! Not a silly question at all.

[KristyDi]

Can't you make tea in a french press?

I usually use bags and make iced tea a gallon at a time. But for boiling water I love my electric kettle. I have this one. I boil a full kettle and pour it into my pitcher, add four big tea bags and brew. Then I dilute it up to a gallon. (I drink a lot of tea)

[InMediasRes]

Oh, yes, a french press is nice! Ask for that...

[Chamomile Girl]

I boil water in my electric kettle and pour it over looseleaf in my teapot (that I have prewarmed with hot water). I then keep it warm with a tea cosy while it brews. I love my teapot btw. Its by a company called Beehouse and is very easy to clean.

I don't ever make iced tea. I'm not a fan.

[somegirl99]

I use an electric kettle and then pour the water over looseleaf or teabag.

[puffingirl]

This is the best tea infuser I've ever had. http://www.teavana.com/Teavana+Perfe...ProductDetails DH bought one for me years ago and it's how I make all my loose leaf tea now.

[Katho]

I put water on to boil in a kettle (gas stove), measure out loose tea in an infuser and fill my mug with hot tap water to warm it. When the kettle's ready, I dump out the water in the mug, put in the infuser and pour boiling water over. I set the timer while it's brewing, so not to leave it too long! Sometimes making and drinking tea is the best time of my day...

You can get a lot of information about tea under the "Information/General Tea Information" tab at Upton Tea.

[ellairiesmom]

Wow-lots of great info! Yay!

I know I am going to have more questions after looking at each post & checking out links & such...

For now-I'll start with a very basic question...how do you keep your tea warm after steeping it & then while drinking it? I just ordered myself one of the new Klean Kanteen Insulated bottles with the cafe lid because after looking through all our cabinets, I realized we had no "to go" container for hot beverages & there have been so many times recently when I wanted to make tea to bring in the car. Anyway-I am thinking of using that whether or not I leave the house with my tea because it will probably keep it warmer than an open mug.

But does it come down to making sure the hot water is boiling & not just super hot?

[rainbowmoon]

I use a tea press.

I really want to get an electric tea kettle though!

[somegirl99]

Originally Posted by ellairiesmom

For now-I'll start with a very basic question...how do you keep your tea warm after steeping it & then while drinking it? I just ordered myself one of the new Klean Kanteen Insulated bottles with the cafe lid because after looking through all our cabinets, I realized we had no "to go" container for hot beverages & there have been so many times recently when I wanted to make tea to bring in the car. Anyway-I am thinking of using that whether or not I leave the house with my tea because it will probably keep it warmer than an open mug.

But does it come down to making sure the hot water is boiling & not just super hot?

Boiling water is better for the tea flavor.

Try pre-warming your mug with hot water first.

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by rainbowmoon

I use a tea press.

I really want to get an electric tea kettle though!

Whats a tea press? Like for coffee?

[tinuviel_k]

Originally Posted by somegirl99

Boiling water is better for the tea flavor.

This entirely depends on the kind of tea you are drinking. Trust me: if you use boiling water on green tea... blech! You'll end up with bitter, over-strong tea. I used to work in a tea shop and I had countless folks come in asking about how to get the health benefits from green tea when they hated drinking it. Almost without exception they all really enjoyed green tea after I showed them how to brew it properly.

Here is the general rule of thumb for tea temperatures and steep times:

Herbal: full boil- 10+ minutes steep
Black: bring to a boil and let water cool a minute- 4-6 minute steep
Oolong: 175-185 degrees F- 4-5 minute steep
Green: 165-175 degrees F- 2-4 minute steep
White: 160-170 degrees F- 2-3 minute steep

[velochic]

Dh is from Turkey, so we use a typical turkish tea pot. It's like a double boiler. In the bottom, you heat water and it the top you steep the tea. The tea in the top becomes extremely concentrated. You put a little bit of the concentrated tea in a typical Turkish teacup and then add the water to get the consistency you want. It's usually loose tea that is used. I do iced tea the same way, except I strain the concentrated tea and then add it all to a stainless steel pitcher of ice.

Here's someone's blog about the Turkish teapot. I have no idea who the person is. I just googled for it.

http://www.vagabondjourney.com/trave...h-tea-pot.html

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by velochic

Dh is from Turkey, so we use a typical turkish tea pot. It's like a double boiler. In the bottom, you heat water and it the top you steep the tea. The tea in the top becomes extremely concentrated. You put a little bit of the concentrated tea in a typical Turkish teacup and then add the water to get the consistency you want. It's usually loose tea that is used. I do iced tea the same way, except I strain the concentrated tea and then add it all to a stainless steel pitcher of ice.

Here's someone's blog about the Turkish teapot. I have no idea who the person is. I just googled for it.

http://www.vagabondjourney.com/trave...h-tea-pot.html

Very interesting. That website had a comment about Samovar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samovar

[kjbrown92]

I don't know when I made it just by the mug. I boil the water, wait 1 minute, then pour it over my loose leaf red tea in the infuser in the teapot. It makes about 4 mugs. What I don't drink then, I drink when it's cold over ice (iced tea, if you will). My favorite is hazelnut dolce red tea which teavana is discontinuing unfortunately. My infuser fits in a teapot or a mug. It's mesh. I tried the teaballs too. Didn't like them at all.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by KatWrangler

Very interesting. That website had a comment about Samovar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samovar

Yeah, I lived in Russia in the early 90's and, funnily enough, I rarely saw anyone actually use a Samovar. They did use very intricate tea pots, though. In Turkish, they call this tea pot a Çaydanlik (IIRC).

ETA: I went back and actually read the blog (as opposed to just looking at the pictures), so I guess what I said above was already mentioned. Oops!

[somegirl99]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

This entirely depends on the kind of tea you are drinking. Trust me: if you use boiling water on green tea... blech! You'll end up with bitter, over-strong tea. I used to work in a tea shop and I had countless folks come in asking about how to get the health benefits from green tea when they hated drinking it. Almost without exception they all really enjoyed green tea after I showed them how to brew it properly.

Here is the general rule of thumb for tea temperatures and steep times:

Herbal: full boil- 10+ minutes steep
Black: bring to a boil and let water cool a minute- 4-6 minute steep
Oolong: 175-185 degrees F- 4-5 minute steep
Green: 165-175 degrees F- 2-4 minute steep
White: 160-170 degrees F- 2-3 minute steep

Thanks for the clarification.

Although for those I still boil water and let it cool a bit, rather than heating it up in the microwave (it's really not the same).

[tinuviel_k]

Originally Posted by somegirl99

Thanks for the clarification.

Although for those I still boil water and let it cool a bit, rather than heating it up in the microwave (it's really not the same).

Yes, I also never use the microwave for tea. I forget the specifics of how it works, but heating in the microwave reduces the oxygenation of the water and it tastes more flat.
I use a kettle, and I stick a long stemmed cooking thermometer in the spout. It works great! I can take off the water the instant it reaches the right temp for whatever tea I am brewing.

Its also gotten to the point after so many years that I can gauge the temperature of the water by the sound my kettle makes as it gets hotter. My husband and I will be in the living room and one of us will say, "Oh, it sounds like the kettle is at about oolong temperature. You might want to get that!"