Hence, you may by now have noticed that "six minutes" is not the time you spend drinking your tea. But, then, what does it refer to? Well, it is the time you brew your tea.
This may sound strange, since you've most certainly read on all tea packages you should "infuse for 3-4 minutes". However, after many years brewing tea and trying every amount of leaves and time of infusion, I can assure the perfect time is 6 minutes.
And the perfect amount? You should already know: one spoon for each cup and one for the pot. Now, to be more precise:
Consider a spoon to be a teaspoon filled 3/4 of it's length and 5-6mm high. This is a standard measure for Darjeeling or English Breakfast. You need, however, to consider the size of the leaves. Those which are very finely cut or rolled in little lie close to eachother, so you will need smaller measures. Those which are rolled as little tubes amount leaving great spaces among eachother, so your spoon will seem fuller. My advice is to always count the number of spoons according to the cups and change the size of this measure. Should you fill the spoon to the same degree but count less when the tea is cut finer, you will have no reference whatsoever.
Consider a cup to be about 1'5 or 2 small teacups, or 1/3 of an american mug. You can usually trust teapot specifications on how many cups they contain.
As you see, cups are not as simple as you may have thought. Our "cup" is bigger than the actual teacup we are drinking from, and less than a serving --wich means, never believe a 4 cup containing teapot will serve four guests! Most tea drinkers will have 1'5 or 2 cup measures, this is to say, 3 or 4 english teacups. Now, I will usually have 3 or 4 cup measures, wich means, should you share a pot for two with me, you may find the tea is all gone by the time you've had but two small cups! That is why I'd rather bring guests home and brew unlimited amounts of tea, instead of going to some tearoom or café.
I hope I haven't made the part of the cups too complicated. Now, to summarize it all: 2 teacups = 1 cup measure (which equals the amount of tea measures you need) = 1/2 serving.
And, how about that extra spoon for the pot? Well, you may have thought by now that it doesn't make much sense to add that one extra spoon should you be brewing two cups as well as eight. The truth is, this little extra is up to you to calculate, but I usually use one complete extra spoon for a 4 cup pot.
I hope you enjoy best tea from now on.
And, why is it this amount and six minutes?
Yes, it has an explanation. The amount of tea will influence taste and aroma, the time will influence body.
If you use too little tea, it will not have enough taste no matter how long you let it to infuse. If you use too much, it will soon become bitter, unless you infuse it for such a short time it will have no body at all and it will seem as you are drinking tea flavoured water rather than tea itself.
Six minutes is the perfect time for tea to have a good balance between taste and body. All the flavour is released, and body is just perfect to feel like tea but not to override the flavour. It is preferrable not to let it infuse much longer. However, tea doesn't change much after 8 minutes, so it won't work if you try to compensate a shortage of tea leaves by increasing the time.
Tea and muffins, dears.
No comments:
Post a Comment