Measure Tea Density

Series Summary

Tea is characterized as the most mystical and healing of all the beverages. With the variety of flavors, tea seems to perfect drink for any occasion. As Chinese legend describes, tea originated by divine intervention. A legendary emperor was sitting in the grass sometime around 2737 B.C. As he was pondering life, he drank a bowl of boiling water when all of a sudden leaves blew into his bowl. When he looked down, he noticed that the water had started to change color. The ever inquisitive and curious monarch took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and its restorative properties. However, due to the desire that tea arouses, one creation myth can not possibly be enough to explain the beginnings of tea. Another legend claims that the founder of the Zen school of Buddhism discovered the beverage. Regardless of truth to these myths, tea has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative and a symbol of status. Learn all about the basics of tea from a tea lounge owner in this free video series. Learn how to measure tea density for the right taste, about tea shelf life, identify tea quality and about health benefits. She explains what Yerba Mate tea is and what the Camellia Sinensis is as well. You'll also get a short history lesson and information on different types of tea.

Video Transcript

"So once you purchased your tea and you put it in the right place, you have to know how much tea can you make before you have to go buy some more. Some teas are very dense. For example the masala chai is made of mainly herbs and it's black tea leaves that's a bit heavy, so when you scoop it out, it looks this little, but this brews a full 16 oz. cup of tea. So a 2 oz. cup, a 2 oz. container of tea will go a quite a long way, fifteen or twenty five cups of tea. And you might not realize this but loose leaf tea when it's high quality, you can get two, three, four, five infusions out of the same tea leaves. The oolong that I mentioned, that tea can go for about ten, fifteen brews. You get the best oolong, twenty five infusions. Not crazy? Well, you get a white tea that's volume ease and it's light, you're going to need a full tbsp. of tea, which means that the huge bag, that when you purchase it, it comes out to be this big, but you can only make the same amount of cups of tea, fifteen to twenty cups of tea. Just because it's denser, doesn't mean you have to use more tea."