The Tea Experience

There is no drink as wholesome as a cup of tea. In fact, there is nothing which a steaming cup of tea can’t fix! Tea has been used as a healthy brew across the world since centuries. It helps people relax, feel invigorated and restored. Therefore, it is no wonder that with ever-growing consumption of tea around the globe has led the United Nations to designate May 21 as the International Tea Day.

Even in the coffee loving country like Australia, tea is gaining immense popularity, with people favouring it as a preferred hot drink at home and also consuming more for numerous health benefits associated especially with green teas . On the other hand, tea drinkers imbibe 100 million cups every day in the United Kingdom and according to the country's Tea Advisory Panel, the beverage is much part of the national psyche. As tea keeps garnering more and more popularity, researchers are delving deeper into the physiological as well as psychological impact of the beverage on drinkers. Studies are being conducted to study how tea affects mood and cognition. 

Tea is a versatile drink; for all times and seasons and there are various ways of making a delicious cuppa with the help of loose tea leaves and different herbs and spices. In the words of Yorkshire Tea's senior tea buyer Suzy Garraghan, ‘milky or black, with sugar or without, to dunk biscuits or not – it's up to you.’ Generally speaking, there aren’t any fixed rules as how to make and drink one’s tea; rather it is best left to one’s personal taste and indiscretions.

 

It is not far-fetched to say that after water, tea is the second most taken beverage worldwide and it does taste better when it is prepared and savoured in a certain way. Tea bags are most preferred across the world due to their convenience in preparing strong brews and infusions.

 

Here is a step-by-step overview of the method to brew a perfect cup of tea:

The first golden rule of a perky brew is to always use fresh water for making tea because stale water means flat dull tea. Draw cool water from tap since it has more oxygen and fewer impurities in comparison to re-boiled water; thus giving you a tea which is brighter and delicious.

Tea is all about brewing it for a specified time – it’s not just about dunking and dumping the tea bag for fleeting seconds. Different timings have to be followed for different types of teas. For black tea, steeping tea bag for two minutes is quite sufficient while on the other hand, milk tea requires tea leaves to be brewed for more time so as to bring out the intensity of tea leaves after adding milk or cream. You may reuse your teabags in case of green tea since it requires more subtle delicate flavour but black tea and milk tea will lack body if not brewed with fresh dose of leaves.

For those who relish milk tea, drinking tea is an exhilarating experience which draws upon the finer nuances of tea leaves without being subdued by the creamy addition of milk. It is best to brew leaves at full scalding temperatures in plain water and then add milk to it so that both flavour and aroma of leaves is maintained.