How to Brew Your Best Cup of Tea

Inspired by conversations on the Food52 Hotline, we're sharing tips and tricks that make navigating all of our kitchens easier and more fun. 

Today: Avoid over-steeped, bitter tea for good. Here's how to brew the perfect cup, whether green, black, or herbal is your tea of choice (or your cup of tea, if you will).

Exclusive Art et Manufacture tea cups, saucers, and dessert plates and King Arthur Flour's Never-Fail Biscuits

All of Edith Bourgault of Art et Manufacture's pieces are handmade in white porcelain and then detailed with cobalt blue designs. We planted our herbs in her flower pots, bake in her pie plates, and now, we want to drink tea from her delicate, gorgeous tea cups and saucers she created exclusively for our Shop. 

Thing is, her cups deserve only the best-brewed tea. Bitterness just doesn't fit into this scenario. Leaving leaves of black or green tea steeping and steeping isn't going to get you the cup you want—there's more of a science to it. The interaction between oxygen, water, and tea leaves isn't unlike the way ingredients in a cake come together like an edible science project. So if you spend a few minutes perfecting the procedure, tea time can be a relaxing part of your day.

First, choose the right teapot:
Picking the perfect pot matters. Different materials can influence the taste and affect heat retention, and you may not realize it, but some can even over-steep your tea. Each material has different pros and cons:

• Glass: Great for visibility but does not retain heat.
• Ceramic: Unlike glass, ceramic teapots retain heat; they also won’t absorb any flavor. You can brew various types of tea in a single ceramic pot without having to worry about the pot imparting flavor from your last batch of tea into another. 
• Porcelain: Similar to ceramic, it won’t absorb flavor. However, because it's typically thinner than a ceramic teapot, it will not hold in heat. It therefore is better suited to lighter teas like white or green, rather than black or a dark herbal tea. 
• Clay: Clay is known to draw in heat, but the porousness of this teapot will also draw in flavors. If you choose to use a clay pot, be sure to only use it for a single kind of tea.
• Cast Iron: The density of a cast iron pot means it retains heat very well, which is good for teas that require high temperatures (see below), but also means over-steeping is a big possibility. The pot may even leak some of the flavor from its enamel coating into your drink. On the upside, it is great for keeping a black or herbal tea hot for hours.

Pick the right tea:
Use high-quality tea bags or make your own. For 1 cup of tea, use a heaping teaspoon of loose-leaf tea. Some teapots come with built-in strainers, but you could also use tea bags to contain the leaves. Be sure to store tea in an airtight container at room temperature. If the tea aisle at your grocery store overwhelms you, uses these tasting notes as a guide:

• White: Subtle, light flavor, delicate, caffeinated
• Green: Complex flavor, herbaceous but caffeinated, wide range of variations from light to dark 
• Black: Full bodied, deep flavor, can be mellowed and sweetened by milk, lemon, honey, and/or sugar
• Oolong: Floral, smoky taste, caffeinated
• Rooibos: Red tea, light flavor, pairs well with sweet flavors like caramel or vanilla, caffeine-free
• Herbal: Made from flowers or dried fruit, sweeter than other teas, can be dark, heavy, or full-bodied depending on herbs used

More: Grow, make, and drink your own herbal tea.

Prepare the water:
Consider two things when readying your water for tea: quality and temperature.

• Quality: While filtered tap water is an option, fresh or spring water is best because it has plenty of oxygen and a clean taste. Having oxygen in your tea water is important because it stimulates or “energizes” the leaves to bring out flavor and character. 
• Temperature: Consider the type of tea you're brewing when thinking about the temperature of your water. Because they are more robust, black teas can handle higher temperatures, like 195° F. However, more delicate teas like white or green need to be steeped in cooler water—around 180° F. An easy way to get your water to the right temperature is, after the water comes to a boil, let it sit for 2 minutes if you want 195° F and for 3 to 5 minutes for 180° F. 

Steep your tea:
Once you've picked your teapot, prepared your tea leaves, and boiled the water, the only thing left to do is brew your tea. Place the tea leaves in the teapot and pour in the hot water. You'll need to steep the leaves for a different amount of time, depending on your choice of leaves. For every 1 teaspoon of leaves, brew as follows:

• White: 4 to 5 minutes
• Green: 45 seconds to 1 minute
• Black: 2 to 3 minutes
• Oolong: 3 minutes
• Rooibos: 5 to 6 minutes
• Herbal: 5 to 6 minutes

When brewing mixed loose-leaf teas (for example, jasmine with green), be sure to use the shortest steeping time from each set of instructions. And never reboil the water, as it will reduce oxygen and affect the flavor of the tea. It might be best to brew a new pot of tea instead.

Take the leaves out of the water, pour your tea into your cups, and enjoy. Sweets are a good idea, too (Edith's saucers double as dessert plates). 

Tangerine and Almond Shortbread Tart and Art et Manufacture dessert plates.

Photos by Mark Weinberg