It's in the how!

There are, of course, many ways to steep tea depending on the tea itself and the tea ware you use. But there are some important things to pay attention to. The list below is created by me, but the underlying knowledge has, of course, evolved over many hundreds or even thousands of years by people who have loved and been experts in tea. They have perfected the art of handling and steeping tea from plant to cup. What I refer to below is tea from the plant Camellia sinensis and its subvarieties.

In the picture is one of the most famous green teas from Japan, Organic Sencha from the supplier Shimodozono.

Better three days without food,

than one day without tea.

-Asian proverb

• Prepare a place to steep your tea, even if it's only a tray where you have your tea utensils, but prepare a confined space only for tea. Make sure you have fresh, good-tasting, pH-neutral water, a kettle, and drainage close by.

• Center and ground yourself by taking a few deep breaths. You can use the breath affirmations from Thich Nhat Hanh if you like: Breathing in, I know I'm breathing in - Breathing out - I smile.

• Use the best, highest quality loose leaf tea you can possibly afford. Life is too short to drink bad tea. Make sure you can trust your supplier and the supply chain. Supermarkets will not (in general) have quality tea; purchase online as close to the plantation source as possible or from a trusted tea store.

• Prepare your tea utensils by heating them up in hot/boiling water. Use a teapot/tea steeping vessel with a lid, a pitcher, a tea sieve, and cups. You can use the utensils that suit you and your culture, but smaller-sized tea ware has the advantage of making the tea steeping easier and both more accurate and adjustable from steeping round to steeping round. Always make sure to maintain the heat in your steeping vessel and to use a lid. Without a lid, all the volatile aromas will escape from the tea.

Artisan Moonlight White Tea from Wild Tea Qi.

• Examine your tea, taking in all its features through your senses: the aroma, the look of the leaves, the evenness of the leaves, their color, and more. Take it all in and be grateful for having the opportunity to enjoy this nice tea. There is a lot of hard work and knowledge behind every great tea.

• Place your tea in the heated pot. It is best to let the leaves steep freely in the water. After all, tea is 99% water. The more freely the leaves are allowed to unfurl, the more of the nice aromas and flavors will be released.

• Rinse your tea by pouring hot water to cover the leaves, wait 3-5 seconds, and pour the water out. Post-fermented teas/aged teas can often need two rinses, especially if they are pressed into a cake or other form!

  
  

Many wonderful teas are high grown. Like the ones from Nepal and Darjeeling, India.

• Fill your pot with the correct water-to-tea ratio; a good rule is 4-6 g of tea per 160 ml of water. This is when you steep your tea several times on the same leaves (as you do in gong fu cha, literally Kung Fu Tea, and with most high-quality teas). If you steep the "old-fashioned" Western way, 1 teaspoon of tea per cup, and one extra for the pot and a longer steeping time is more common.

• Steep the tea leaves for the desired amount of time. Some of us like our tea strong, while others prefer a lighter tea. If you purchase your tea from a knowledgeable supplier, they will always provide steeping recommendations. Start there and then adjust to your own liking. Know that teas need a high enough temperature to release their good aromas and flavors, and they also need sufficient steeping time. With time, you will learn to prepare a nice cup again and again. Practice makes perfect! When you use teaware made out of glass, you will be able to see the leaves unfurl and the liquor deepen in color, which helps you determine when to stop the steeping.

• Know this: the more tea you take in relation to the amount of water, the stronger the tea will become. The longer you steep your tea and the higher the water temperature, the stronger and more bitter the tea becomes. So if you are sensitive to strong tea, take less tea, more water, decrease the temperature, and steep for a shorter time.

• To avoid over-steeping your tea and to aerate and mix the liquor, pour the tea from your pot into a pitcher and from there into the tea cups. This will make every cup taste the same. Never fill up the tea cups completely.

• Enjoy your tea and continue steeping several times with the same leaves. If you steep a white, green, or oolong tea, you can increase the water temperature a bit after the first steeping rounds. With all types of teas (yellow, white, green, oolong, black, and post-fermented), you increase the steeping time each round after the two to three initial ones.

Slottsholmen in Västervik, surronded by water.

Come and enjoy afternoon tea with me at the lovely Slottsholmen in Västervik on March 8th. A grand buffet and great teas are being prepared for you. There are only a few spots left! Secure your seat here!

Many poets and writers have written about their love for tea. One of them was George Orwell. He had very strong beliefs about which teas to drink and how to steep them. You can read about his eleven rules for perfect tea making here!

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