Tea Bags - A Beginner's Guide

No, really. It's a serious question.

Most people that I see making tea with a tea bag could vastly improve the quality of their cuppa by following a few simple rules. And it won't take any longer than it already does. Well, OK, not much longer.

Now, it's just you, me and the computer screen, so there's no need to feel embarrassed. Naturally I'm talking about everyone else. And if you happen to recognise yourself in any of these comments, well, you're in good company. Remember, most people do not make tea as well as they could. OK, here goes.

1. Understand how a teabag works.

What is the difference between teabags and loose-leaf tea? Primarily time. The most impatient teapot man still expects his tea to take a few minutes to brew. The tea bag user (and that means all of us) expects to get a full-flavoured cup of tea after a couple of seconds exposure to hot water.

That means that tea bags have to do a lot of work very quickly. They have to produce colour, so that you know you're drinking tea and it looks right with milk in. They have to give good strength in double quick time. And they need richness and proper tea flavour.

These things happen over time, in roughly that order. Furthermore, the cheapest teas will give reasonable colour, most teas will give some strength, but only the better teas will give good tea flavour and richness. Don't believe me? Look on your supermarket shelf. The more expensive teas are advertised as having a "rich flavour". The cheapest teas are advertised as "quick-brewing". That is because they are mostly colour, which comes quickly out of the tea, with little flavour, which takes a bit longer.

So the tea bag manufacturer must choose his teas with care and having regard to the price he is going to charge. Expensive tea bags can afford to have flavour. Cheap tea bags cannot.

Secondly, a fine grade of tea is required. It has a large surface-area-to-volume ratio so will brew quickly. This means using grades such as CTC, Dust and Fannings.

2. Buy good quality teabags.

Taking all that into account, it makes sense to buy a good quality teabag. That means paying a little more, or going direct to the manufacturer so that the tiny profit margin is not split between numerous middle-men. (... All About Tea makes its own teabags, excellent quality, sensible prices...)

Most of the value of tea arises from transport, warehousing, packing into teabags, distribution and ultimate sale in supermarkets. Precious little is for the tea itself. The extra elements are more or less fixed. So a few pence extra spent on teabags actually means 100% or 200% better tea.

I know I've said this before - but your tea should have flavour. If it doesn't - change it. You are missing out.

3. Use soft or filtered water.

Soft water makes much better tea than hard water. So if you live in a hard water area, such as London (or Portsmouth, where All About Tea is based), then a water softener or at least a filter will make a big difference. You can buy special blends for hard water - such as All About Tea's "Blend W".

4. Boil the water.

Not hot, boiling. (except for green and white tea, which need cooler water). Boiling. Yes, it matters.

And if you have time, rinse the mugs/teapot with hot water first to warm them up (so they don't cool the boiling water).

5. Leave the teabag in for as long as possible.

Planning helps. Get the milk and sugar ready, or find the tray, while the tea is brewing. Go to the loo! Anything, just do something useful while the tea is brewing such that you can leave the teabag in for a minute or two without fretting impatiently. Rule: the better the teabag, the longer you should leave it (because of Rule 1 - Flavour, above).

6. Remove the teabag, THEN add milk/sugar.

Under no circumstances should you add milk before removing the teabag. Sugar is not so bad. Adding the milk arrests the brewing process. It could be because it lowers the temperature, but I think not. Hot milk has the same effect. I believe that the fatty milk adheres to the tea molecules in such a way that it inhibits further brewing. I would welcome the contribution of a scientist on this matter.

7. Do not squeeze the bag with the spoon.

When removing the teabag, press it gently. Try not to squeeze the tea out of it. This tea will be very stewed and bitter. Instead, stir the tea bag round the mug gently a couple of times during brewing.

8. Put the teabag on the compost heap

This is the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of them, and they will do your garden good.