All about tea preparation!

Tea preparation isn't hard at all. But there are a few things that you need to pay attention to in order to have a good quality tea. Follow these simple guidelines for your tea preparation and enjoy your tea!

Cleaning your teapot and tea cups.

Generally, when you clean your teapot, you rinse it out with cold water and set it to dry. There's nothing wrong with that, but do you think of cleaning your teapot before using it? What if it has been sitting on your shelf for a few days, do you clean it then?

You can quickly rinse your teapot with cold water from the sink, but the best way to make sure that it is clean and that all the bacteria have been killed is to boil water and then pour it in the teapot and tea cups.

Warning: This does not apply to porcelain or fine China teapots or tea cups, as if they become too hot, there is a chance that they could break because of the heat.

This has a three-fold effect.

1) It cleans your teapot and tea cups of all kinds of bacteria as they cannot survive in boiling hot water. (This should be done during the tea preparation.)

2) It helps wash away the smell of other teas.

3) This will help keep the tea warm in your teapot and tea cup.

Note: Never, never, never, wash your teapot and tea cups with soap. Not only does it leave the possibility of soap residue left over, but it could affect the taste of your tea and soapy tea has never and will never taste good!

The quality of the water and it's role in tea preparation.

The quality of the water you use for your tea plays an important part in your tea preparation as it will affect how the tea tastes. If you use hard water (that contains calcium, impurities, chlorine and other hard minerals), it will destroy the flavor of your tea. (Hard water will usually be found coming from your sink, unless you have a water softener.)

You can use water directly from your kitchen sink, but it might contain too many hard minerals, which will result in a poor tasting tea.

It is preferable to use bottled water unless you know for sure that your sink water is soft, meaning that it contains no or little hard minerals.

How to decaffeinate your tea.

To decaffeinate your tea, brew a cup of tea but do not drink this 1st brew. Throw it away. This 1st brew will contain most of the caffeine. The 2nd and 3rd brew, from the same tea leaves, will result in a tea that contains less caffeine.

However, the 2nd and 3rd brew might need longer to be thoroughly infused, so keep an eye on it.

How to brew your tea strong, light, hot, cold, or iced.

Whether your tea is strong or light depends on how long you infuse it for. Some teas do best when infused for 2 minutes and other teas need 5 minutes to infused properly. However, you can let your tea infuse to your taste. If you like your tea to be strong, you will want to let it infuse longer than usual. You know best for yourself.

Should you be offering tea to guests, brew it as it is recommended. You may like your tea strong, but not everyone might!

You also have the choice of drinking it hot, cold, or iced. This is up to you!

The 4 golden tea rules.

1) Rinse your teapot and tea cups with boiling water.

2) Boil fresh, or soft, water. As soon as it is boiling, pour it directly over the tea bag.

3) Let the tea infuse for 2-5 minutes.

4) Stir and serve.

Now that you know all about tea preparation, you can choose what tea you want to drink. Unless... you already know your favorite?

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