How to Drink Loose Leaf Tea

If you want to experience a higher grade of tea, you should look into brewing loose leaf teas. They come in many varieties, including fine organic loose leaf teas, from local growers. You can also get spiced loose leaf teas, or teas with flowers.

However, unless you want to do a little fortune telling by reading your tea leaves, you may not want peices of tea leaf floating in your cup. Fortuneately you can use tea infusers, or tea strainers of various kinds to keep your loose leaf tea clear.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• loose leaf tea
• tea infusers or
• tea strainers

1. Most people use a tea infuser, or tea ball, to make their loose leaf teas. This is a ball or spoon that contains a small amount of the tea, and you put it in your cup and pour tea over it. Holes in the infuser allow water to pass through and steep the tea.
   
   Tea infusers have a lot of advantages. They are convenient. You can make one cup at a time, as with tea bags. However, loose leaf teas tend to swell a lot, so you can't put a lot of tea in an infuser. If you try, the tea infuser will become so packed with the tea that water can't circulate. Also, most tea infusers are prone to bending and breaking. Still, tea infusers are inexpensive and often the best choice if you only want to make one cup at a time.

2. A tea strainer is often the best choice for those who like to make a pot of tea. Unlike an infuser, you don't use the strainer to steep the tea. You put the tea into the teapot loose, and pour over the hot water. When the tea has steeped to the proper strength, you put the strainer over your cup and pour the tea through it, to strain out the leaves. With a quick tap, you can then dump the leaves back into the teapot.
   
   The advantage of a strainer is that it allows you to let the tea float loose in the teapot. This is how tea was meant to be made. You can put a lot of tea in the pot, so it is suitable for every kind of tea. The only disadvantage is that you have to use a teapot.

3. Some teas have very large leaves, and with these, you can do without any sort of tea strainer or infuser. You can brew these in the cup, and sip without worrying about drinking up the leaves. (Or if you use a teapot, these often will stay in the pot.) The cool think about these teas is the fun factor: they start out as a little rolled up ball, and then slowly unfold into a dense forest.
   
   For medium sized leaves, you can get a Chinese style tea set, which has a little lid on the cup. The lid is for straining the leaves while you drink (rather like using a lid to keep the potatoes in a pan while pouring out the water).

4. Finally, remember that fine loose leaf teas require more care than the stuff they put in tea bags. Different teas should steep at different temperatures, and you should pay attention to the instructions. If you like the idea of playing around with fine teas, you might want to invest in an instant-read thermometer, at least until you get the hang of brewing your tea by feel.
   
   A quick reference, in case your tea didn't come with instructions: green and white teas should be steeped somewhere around 140 centigrate, and not more than 175 centigrade. Oolong, black and red teas can take higher temperatures, anything up to boiling. Asian cultures generally prefer that the water not be boiled. The English prefer to have the water fully boiling before you pour it.

Tips & Warnings

• Some brands of tea, such as tazo, actually include a special lid for their tins that will fit over the top of your cup and strain tea.
• A few companies have come up with re-usable fabric tea bags. These might be a good compromise for those who love tea bags. Just be sure not to pack it too tight!

[Kathymcbain]

on 3/8/2009 Nice article, I love loose leaf tea.

[PABechko]

on 3/5/2009 Great info for tea lovers.