Tea Infuser Instructions

Use a tea infuser to add herbs or flavors to your tea.

To the discerning tea drinker, loose-leaf teas have greater flavor than tea bags and offer the flexibility to blend your own combinations of teas and herbs. Most tea bags hold fannings---the leftovers from tea processing---rather than whole tea leaves. Tea infusers, in contrast, contain the loose whole tea leaves and prevent them from floating in the tea while it steeps, removing the need to strain them out. Tea infusers have many different features, including ceramic or stainless-steel ball tea infusers, mesh tea infusers, stick infusers and tea infuser cups.

Things You'll Need

• Loose tea leaves
• Herbs
• Tea infuser
• Filtered or purified water
• Teapot
• Teacup and saucer
• Tray

Instructions

1. Fill the tea infuser with a blend of loose tea leaves, including a mixture of herbs for taste if desired, and place the infuser into a teapot or teacup. Fill the infuser only half full, as loose tea leaves will expand in the water and require additional space to allow the flavor to disseminate.

2. Heat the filtered or purified water to boiling. Remove the boiling water from the heat source and allow it to sit for 30 seconds before pouring over the tea infuser.

3. Allow the tea infuser to steep in the teacup or teapot for three to five minutes, which diffuses the tea's flavors into the water. Leaving the tea infuser for a greater length of time in the pot or cup will create a stronger brew as the leaves will continue to steep flavor into the water. Placing a teapot over a low-grade heat source such as a flat-top burner or a samovar that heats with steam will speed up the steeping process and develop stronger flavor. In general, allowing teas to steep longer than five minutes will cause bitterness due to increased exposure to the tannin in teas.

4. Remove the infuser from the brewed tea and pour the hot tea into a teacup if brewed in a teapot. Prepare a tea service by setting a serving tray with the teacups, cream, cinnamon sticks and sweeteners like honey or sugar.

Tips & Warnings

• Loose-leaf tea packages list directions specific to the type of tea---black teas brew differently than green or white teas, for example. Because Chinese whole-leaf teas expand more than the smaller-leafed black teas, choose a large-size infuser to brew whole-leaf oolong or green loose teas. Small-leaf teas or teas with broken leaves, like many black teas, brew better in a tea egg infuser as mesh may allow the tea leaves to escape into the tea.

References

• Tea Infuser: Many Infusers Can Create Great-Tasting Tea
• The Tea Chest: The Marvelous Tea Infuser -- Did It Ever Really Go Out of Style?