Tea for two

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Posted at 11:45AM, 21 January 2010 by Stuart Walton - Food and wine writer

If you want a job doing, we say up north, do it yourself. It's the only way things ever get done properly, or at least in a way that suits you. Never is this more true than when it comes to making tea or coffee.

There is a whole culture of mutual support in homes and workplaces when it comes to brewing up hot drinks. We welcome in the dear old friend and the nattering neighbour by putting the kettle on, and we take it in turns in the office to make rounds of sustaining cuppas for everyone around us. And yet... it can all go so wrong.

If well-meaning friends and colleagues get it wrong, it's so hard to grin and bear it

The making of tea and coffee is surely the one category in all of eating and drinking where our preferences are more sharply defined than any other. If well-meaning friends and colleagues get it wrong, it's so hard to grin and bear it. Those first few sips are a torment, a terrible waste of an opportunity. A poor cup of tea or coffee is like an unintended insult.

Having struggled bravely through the eras of home coffee technology, I've found - sad to say -that there isn't a domestic machine in existence that I want my coffee made in. Not filter-machines, not espresso machines, not steamers. I don't mind cafetière coffee, as long as you can't stand the spoon up in it, but mostly, I just want a cup of decent instant, with plenty of coffee and plenty of milk too. Virtually nobody can get their head round this.

Now to the real minefield. Hands up anybody who knows how to make a decent cup of tea. We are the nation of tea-drinkers. We are so devoted to tea that we (sort of) lost the north American colonies over it. It is the cup that cheers. If only...

Commit these simple principles to memory. You absolutely mustn't put the milk in until the tea bag has served its purpose, otherwise the fat globules in the milk gum it up. It needs less milk than coffee because the water has had a chance to cool down a little, and you don't want lukewarm tea or anything that could be described as beige.

Having said that, my parents react with horror when they see me putting a tea bag into each of three mugs. There is a teapot after all, which is evidently much less wasteful. But then here's my own shameful confession. I don't really know how to make tea in a pot. If you don't use one bag per person, how many do you use? And as to loose tea leaves , I wouldn't know where to begin. A little help?

Comments

Foody Lush

21 January 2010, 3:57PM
Foody Lush

Test your tea pot to see how many cups it will hold. If you know that the tea bags are stong ones, such as Yorkshire tea bags, one bag for two mugs or 4 teacups is ample, but if you have poorer grade tea, you'll have to use one for each mug/ two cups, pour out any 'weak' ones first then give it all a good stir before you pour the rest - jobsaguddun. Also, if you use a tea cosy, wait until the teapot handle is hot, then the tea is reasy. That's what i do. Hope this helps

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John Vaughters

22 January 2010, 1:29PM
John Vaughters

As my wife mainly drinks green tea, I end up popping a PG tips into a mug most times for a single cup of tea. The point about not adding milk until the tea bag is out is true. However I also think you should hold off on the sugar until it's out as well. Otherwise part of the dissolved sugar gets tossed out with the bag. What a waste. For a pot of tea (using tea bags) I still go with the one per cup plus one for the pot. It usually works pretty well. I am American though, so please forgive me if my tea-making sounds shocking.

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Robert Wormald

24 January 2010, 1:30AM
Robert Wormald

Teabags? You mean those awful tissues containing the dusty floor scrapings from underneath the tea grading machine? As for milk in last, pah! If the milk is added into the hot water, it will scald, leaving an emulsified taste, destroying completely the fragrance of your beloved brew. Always, always, always, leaf tea. If you must produce one cup at a time, get an infuser. Best is a pot. Always freshly drawn water, boiled once only - otherwise you get that scum on the top of the tea. As for how much tea per cup - that is a matter of taste and varies with tea type and grade. For my usual Assam, it is one teaspoon per cup, plus the good-old 'one for the pot'. Warm the pot first, tea will not brew unless hot.

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KatyH

26 January 2010, 11:17AM
KatyH

My boyfriend insists on putting milk and a teabag into the mug, then boiling the kettle. We've been together 2 years, so I really can't tell him now that it's bad tea, but I spent most of the last couple of years trying to make the tea without him noticing I was trying to stop him from making it! Only now he's started going down to the kitchen and bringing me a cup of tea in bed first thing in the morning. It's really sweet of him, and I have to drink it, but how can I educate him now?

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sandra

26 January 2010, 3:58PM
sandra

If you want a really good drink of tea - come to Turkey. No milk, just tea and sugar if wanted. They know how to brew as it is the national drink (apart from Raki that is). So come on holiday and enjoy!!!

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James

26 January 2010, 9:57PM
James

I don't even trust myself to make cafetiere coffee - the best is made by my brother. No point drinking anyone else's. But I've discovered the stove-top espresso coffee pot since then and the battery milk whisk. Perfection. All other coffee becomes irrelevant. As for tea? Has to be loose leaf in an infuser - anything else as you say, is a wasted opportunity. Or a pot and tea strainer. Bags taste old and stale. So many varities to try. Russian caravan is a fave. Had real jasmine last yr - the flowers explode in the water. Amazing.

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James

26 January 2010, 10:00PM
James

Fresh mint from the garden? Grated ginger and lemon rind? Still want to try drying hibiscus too. Herbal teas are brought to life with a tea spoon of honey. Definitely when nettles start growing I'm going to try that too. Start with fresh ones. Fresh nettle and elderflower......

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James

26 January 2010, 10:02PM
James

or fresh wild nettles and blackberries - like the twinings one but real. If they grow together they go together.

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Lorna

28 January 2010, 10:14AM
Lorna

My boss comes into the office, and being the gentleman that he is, offers to make me, his secretary, a cup of tea. Everyday without fail this offer occurs, and everyday I think "no, why didn't I make myself a cup of tea before he got here!". It's not that I'm ungrateful but his tea is horrible - he is the type who indeed places the milk in the cup WITH the tea bag, and then removes the teabag. Oh it's horrible, not to my taste at all. Everyone likes how they make there own tea/coffee, and I'm sure that he therfore, most likely, doens't like the cup of tea that I make for him when I'm quick enough to get in first. But how am I to tell him that I don't like his tea - he's happy and proud to make me a cup of tea, and so I continue to drink his tea (slyly hiding my cup behind my filing trays, so he doesn's see that the cup is still 3/4 full!)

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Robert Wormald

28 February 2010, 6:38PM
Robert Wormald

Sandra, my wife is Turkish and so we also do tea the Turkish way (I'm very partial to "cay ve simit"). But again, it's made with loose leaf tea, although "poset cay" appears to be creeping into Turkish culture, regrettably. Afiyet olsun!

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