I try, with varying degrees of success, to get my friends to drink more tea. I love nearly everything about it and so, naturally, I want to spread the affection around. I can be a bit of a tea snob, though, and I’ll admit it. But I mean well.
I could happily spend hours talking about the comfort of sitting down with a cup of tea. I could talk about the possible health benefits. I could talk about the different varieties available, and muse on about which blend a friend might fall in love with. Give me a quiet afternoon and a few tins of tea, and I am perfectly capable of entertaining myself into infinity.
Now, I do prefer loose-leaf tea. There is something wonderfully satisfying about choosing a tea, measuring it out, and brewing it properly. But tea bags have their merits, and I think we do them a disservice when we pretend otherwise. They are convenient, often considerably cheaper to purchase, and do not require all the bits and pieces to make a simple cup of tea.
Tea bags are usually what those I attempt to convert to Tea are most likely to pick up first (if I manage to convince them at all). Some people, however, are reluctant to make the leap. Especially if they have had a bad experience with tea before.
The two objections I hear most often are either that the tea is too bitter, or it simply isn't strong enough for their tastes. Interestingly, both problems can often be traced back to how the tea is being prepared in the first place. And the biggest mistake people frequently make with bagged tea is, quite honestly, how they prepare the water.
If you search for instructions online, you will find plenty of advice telling you to boil the water for your tea. But the truth is a little more complicated: If you are making tea from tea bags, I do not recommend letting fully boiled water anywhere near your cup.
Every type of tea has its own little performance ratio: A particular combination of water temperature and steeping time that produces its best flavor. Green teas often do better at lower temperatures (often between 100 and 195f), and may need only two to four minutes of steeping. Black teas, on the other hand, generally prefer hotter water (typically exceeding 200f), and will steep for four to six minutes. Even then, however, the exact temperature and timing can vary considerably from tea to tea; Butterfly of Taiwan, Pu-Erh, Oolong, and countless others all have their own preferences.
With loose leaf tea, the brewing instructions are usually clearly printed on the packaging. It's worth following them as closely as you reasonably can. Tea bags, however, are another story. Stash and Twinings (two of the most popular and widely available brands) are generally fairly good about printing instructions, even if those instructions are not especially detailed. Most other brands, unfortunately, are far less helpful.
But even when instructions are printed on the box, I have rarely found that pouring fully boiled water over a tea bag gives me a truly delicious result. And there is a very good reason for that.
Have you ever broken open a tea bag and looked at the little bits inside? They often look more like coffee grounds than tea; most companies grind their tea and other ingredients down to a much smaller consistency. Unlike what some myths on the internet insist, however, this isn't a bad thing. It's done because bagged tea is meant to be a convenience product; you stick the bag in the cup, poor some water over it, wait a minute, and presto: A cup of tea without the extra time and effort that properly brewing loose leaf tea can sometimes require.
The trouble is that many people brew tea bags as though they were brewing loose leaf tea- and unfortunately, that method does not always work very well for tea bags.
The smaller the material, the less heat is generally needed to extract flavor from it. A couple of teaspoons of loose-leaf black tea in a teapot of very hot water may do perfectly well. But a tea bag containing the exact same blend, but with the leaves ground into much smaller pieces, may not fare nearly as well; you are ruining much of its flavor and increasing the amount of tannins released.
Tannins are naturally occurring astringent compounds found in Camellia sinensis, the plant from which true tea is made. It is the primary compound that gives Tea its bitter flavor. A proper amount isn't necessarily unpleasant. But too much can make a cup of tea overwhelmingly bitter, leaving you with something that is harsh and unpleasant to drink.
So before you put the kettle on and bring the water to a furious boil, stop for a moment.
If you are especially determined and have a well trained ear, you can simply cut your kettle off in the brief period of quiet before the water comes to a full boil. though I will admit that this takes some practice.
Otherwise, I would suggest investing in a cheap electric kettle- either in glass, so that you can see the water before the boil; or one which is temperature controlled to begin with, allowing you to expertly set the temperature yourself.
The result of either option should be a properly brewed cup of tea with good flavor and a pleasant drinking temperature, without the great rush of bitterness and loss of flavor that very hot water can sometimes produce with bagged tea.
And if your tea still is not strong enough for your taste? Do resist the temptation to simply increase the water temperature or leave the bag sitting in the cup until the end of time. Instead, try adding a second tea bag to the cup. Or, if you find yourself wanting more depth and flavor, it may be time to venture into the wonderful world of fuller-bodied loose-leaf teas.
I promise you: There are worse places to become a little bit of a snob.
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