Making tea is quite easy. You might be thinking what’s dubious about how to make tea in a teapot? Yea, it’s certainly simple. But a few things need to be considered to avoid ending up with bland tea. As there is no rocket science in it, so not following any particular process and making a pot of tea all by yourself would still give you a fine tea in the end, but considering all the right steps would give you better results, right?
Read the article below for brewing tea with the perfect blend of taste, aroma and flavor:
How To Choose The Best Teapot?
Prior to understanding how to brew a pot of tea, first, you need to select the most appropriate pot of tea. Teapots come in the following various materials:
- Ceramic
- Clay
- Glass
- Cast iron
- Porcelain
- Aluminum
- Silver or stainless steel
You need to select the one you like the most. Do consider the size you need before purchasing. We suggest preferring the ones having built-in infusers.
Glass teapots are great in this aspect because you’re able to see the changing of watercolor by adding the tea leaves inside. So, you can have the tea the moment you see your desired color is achieved.
Silver teapots are a big no for me as they are quite difficult to clean. Also, their luster is lost after some time. As for aluminum and steel pots, they have the downside that the water gets imparted with their metallic taste. The clay teapots add their flavor and aroma to the tea as well. Thus they should be used for one particular tea type only. The cast iron pot of tea retains the maximum heat inside it.
Image Source: Františka Ambrózyová
How To Make Tea In A Tea Pot Correctly?
The following steps would give you an insight into how to steep tea in a pot for getting the optimal flavor:
Boil Water
Start making tea by warming the water. For this, take fresh water (either bottled or tap water). Use filtered water if you find hard water in the tap. Magnesium and calcium found in the hard water bind with tannins in the tea (that are responsible for imparting color) and eventually form an oily layer. This layer affects the tea’s aroma and flavor. Thus, use filtered water if you find an oily film in your tea.
Thus, heat the water either in the electric kettle or stove-top, kettle. You can also use a saucepan if there’s no available kettle – as per your convenience, if you’re worried about how to make a pot of tea. Most kettles available in the market heat water till it’s boiled while few kettles come with temperature gauges or sensors that’re used to warm the water till a particular temperature.
Don’t microwave water – as it would result in a mixture of cold and hot water. Also, don’t re-boil and overboil the water as it might influence the tea taste. The oxygen level drops when the water over boils which changes the flavor. If you’ve overboiled the water, let it cool before steeping the tea.
The characteristic water temperature is quite vital before you step towards how to steep tea in a pot. The infusion is dependent on the provided temperature. It varies with different kinds of tea. Boiling water is mostly used for making herbal, black tea and fermented pu-erh tea while relatively cooler water is used for preparing light tea as traditional, Chinese tea i.e. oolong tea. Green tea also needs extremely boiling water – which releases more tannins which are responsible for its bitter, dry taste.
Besides, every tea type also has its water temperature on its packaging.
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Preheat Your Teapot
It’s an optional step. The pot should be warmed particularly if it’s made of heat-retention materials (such as iron). Preheating the pot of tea is done by adding warm water to the pot and then removing it after a few minutes – followed by making tea with the usual process. Warming pot of tea would help maintain the temperature of water, for longer spans and thus you’ll enjoy your mashing tea even more!
Add tea leaves:
Now, how to make a pot of tea with loose tea? For this first, you’ve to determine how many tea leaves you wanna add to your tea. Tea leaves are available in two forms, loose leaf tea or tea bags.
Tea bags or loose-leaf tea, which one should be preferred?
Unlike tea bags, tea leaves in loose-leaf tea aren’t placed in small packets. Thus the overall aroma and flavor remain intact in loose leaves – compared to the bagged ones.
If you’re behind the perfect taste, loose tea comes first. While convenience offered by the tea bags is unmatched.
For measuring the quantity of tea leaves, one teaspoon of loose tea is enough for one cup.
Next, these tea leaves are added to a strainer or infuser. Many teapots nowadays come with a built-in strainer (either ceramic or metallic). Use an external infuser if your pot doesn’t have it.
You can also directly add tea leaves in case the strainer isn’t available. Just filter them before pouring tea in the cups – in this case.
As for tea bags, one tea bag works well for one cup of tea. After adding tea leaves, add the boiled water from the kettle, to the teapot. Tea bags or loose-leaf tea mixed with hot water forms mashing tea.
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Steep Accurately
Steeping time is the time required for letting the tea leaves soak in the boiled water.
If the leaves are left in the water for longer than 5 minutes, they would cause bitterness. The reason is caffeine is extracted from the tea leaves – mainly in the first 60 seconds of steeping. Thus over-brewing won’t make tea stronger – but adding more tea leaves certainly would.
Finding the correct steeping time for your tea is the only critical task if you’re finding how to brew a pot of tea. Personally, I always go for the exact time given on the package for the first attempt. Then, after the first try, I adjust it according to my taste. It would also take you 2 to 3 tries to find the exact brewing time for your mashing tea.
The correct steeping time varies with each tea type and personal tastes.
- For green tea, the recommended steeping time is 1 minute at 82°C
- Black tea should be steeped for 2 to 3 minutes at 99°C
- For white tea, the recommended steeping time is 3 minutes at 82°C
- Herbal tea should be steeped for more than 5 minutes at 100°C
- For oolong tea, the recommended steeping time is 3 minutes at 93°C
Don’t forget to stir the pot well, twice or thrice so that the leaves are properly infused.
Take out the tea leaves
At this point, you need to remove tea leaves or tea bags from the pot of tea. This is because some tea leaves are strong enough that they keep on infusing as long as they remain in the water. It would cause your tea to become unbearably bitter.
If the pot of tea contains an infuser, pour your tea into the cup directly. Otherwise, use any external strainer for this purpose.
Savor your tea
When your tea is all ready, suppress the urge to sip it right away! Otherwise, it might burn your tongue.
Add milk, sugar, honey or any sweetener – based on the type of tea you’re having. It’s entirely based on your choice. Enjoy your moments with a hot cup of tea!
How To Make Tea In A Pot With Tea Bags?
Teapots are mostly used for loose tea. However, tea in a pot can be brewed by using tea bags also. Using a tea bag is pretty simple, therefore most of the instructions are provided for how to brew loose-leaf tea in a teapot. For teabags, we suggest you following the steps provided on the pack. Now, the question arises is how many teabags for a pot of tea are needed? Generally, one tea bag is sufficient for a single cup (that’s equivalent to 8 ounces).
But if you’re making it in a pot of tea, instead of direct cups, use one tea bag for one cup. Thus, for brewing 4 tea cups, you’re gonna use 4 tea bags. Using 3 teabags for 4 cups would give you a bit less strong tea, but it’s gonna work fine too.
Where Should The Tea Leaves Be Stored?
It doesn’t matter how much you master how to make tea in a tea pot – it’s not gonna turn out well if you don’t store tea bags or tea leaves properly. You should keep them in dark, cool and less humid places. UV rays and humidity are the two key parameters that badly influence stored tea.
Besides, the tea should be consumed within 12 months after opening the packet.
How To Make Tea In A Teapot On The Stove?
The stove can be used for boiling the water for brewing tea – the water can be boiled on the stove either onto the saucepan or stove-top kettle. If the electric kettle isn’t available, a stove can serve the purpose.
After this, the boiled water is then added to the pot of tea – followed by the teabag and is left to steep well.
Image Source: Gönül Atasayar
How Is Instant Pot Tea Prepared?
The instant pot or pressure cooker is filled with water followed by the tea bags. After this, the tea instant pot is set on for 3 to 4 minutes after putting its lid on. Let the pressure release from it naturally. After this, the pressure cooker tea is allowed to cool completely.
For instant pot iced tea, use the same instant pot tea procedure and add ice cubes to it – after cooling. Instant pot sweet tea is also quite common these days. For this, all you need to do is add any sweetener of your choice (like sugar or honey). Sweet syrup can be added also (that is made by boiling water and sugar together). For instant pot sweet tea, the syrup or sweetener should be added when the tea is hot – otherwise the sweetener won’t dissolve well in the instant pot tea.
Instant tea has a lot of health benefits over brewed tea as it contains lesser caffeine than regular brewed ones.
The brewed tea is made by steeping the tea bags or loose leaves in water – till all its constituents are completely infused in the liquid for at least 3 to 5 minutes. While instant tea is available in tea bags (prepared by removing liquid from leaves) containing the powder that’s mixed with milk or water to make instant pot tea.
How To Make A Teacup Planter?
Teacups and teapot flower pots are quite common in horticulture. It’s pretty easy and you can try it yourself at home. But how? Let’s find out:
All you’ll need are large tea cups, gravel, small stones, compost, a drilling machine, gloves and the flowers you wanna plant.
- First,drill tiny holes for drainage at the cup bottom. It’s important so water can easily move out of the cups.
- Next, add the soil essentials like compost and gravel to the tea cup plant pot. Gravel is small, rough, stone and rock pieces. Compost contains additives that function as fertilizers. Thus, adding compost to a DIY teapot planter is essential for enhancing the soil’s overall fertility. Compost is well covered with gravel.
- Lastly, plant your favorite flowers and plants inside the teacup planter. It’s the most crucial step. After this, fill more compost to make sure the plant is well-adjusted.
- Place this tea cup plant pot in a sunny, well-lit spot and remember to water it daily.
The brand Best damn tea gallon offers a variety of types, sweet as well as unsweet tea, all around the world.
Fortnum and mason, the departmental store chain, sells homeware accessories and food. Fortnum and mason tea are quite famous as they have all traditional tea types along with the new modern ones too like Gyokuro tea, Lapsang souchong tea, and Yunnan black tea.
Final Words
How to steep tea in a pot with loose leaves or tea bags or iced tea with various pot types: we’ve got these all covered in this article.
FAQs
Yes, making tea with coffee maker is possible. In the coffee maker, the tea is prepared following the exact method as the coffee is made. Just fill loose leaves (in place of coffee grounds) inside the coffee filter. Fill the reservoir with water. Lastly, keep the carafe pot onto the warmer and let it steep for making tea with coffee maker.