The other day, while scrolling through things online, I happened upon a rather lively discussion on how to properly make tea. You might think the internet has brought out such discussions, and it was a rather lively discussion, but this is something I can remember from long before the internet.
I had one friend who was rather particular about his tea. The water was not to just be made hot, but it was to be boiled. Not just brought to a boil, but at a rolling boil for five full minutes. I can remember looking at him one day and saying, “You know it only gets to one hundred degrees, right? After that, it’s steam. It can only get so hot.” But any argument about the physics of boiling water was of no consequence. These were the rules of tea we were talking about.
He also had rules about when to add the milk for best possible results. I, believe at that time, he liked to add milk and hot water or tea at the same time, which could result in scalding the milk. But since I don’t take milk in tea, he was on his own for that one.
But there are a lot of different rules people have for making tea. Many like to make sure the water, which first must be freshly drawn, boils for several minutes. I wonder how some of these people function with today’s automatic kettles that shut off as soon as a boil is reached. Do they have their kettles rewired for a special “tea” setting?
Beyond just getting the water hot, you may want to warm your tea pot or mug by putting in a bit of hot water before you put in the hot water for your tea. It does make some sort of sense.
There are also charts for how long to steep different types of tea. Green teas may take less time. But generally, they seemed to be between three and five minutes.
But I think back to the tea pot that was always on the back of the stove at my grandmothers. It was there all day. It may get freshened up at some point, but generally, if the water got low, you added water. If the tea got weak, you tossed in another bag.
There were no rules. There was just tea. Whenever you wanted. Always there. Always hot.
Care for a cup?