Help with suggestions for some tea!
Hey guys! Can anyone point me in the right direction for some awesome loose tea? I usually enjoy black tea but am very interested in some green or red tea. Also, how many grams of tea per 10oz cup? So far I’ve been using 3.75 grams and it seems… weak? I brew Twinings English breakfast and still seems weak. I boil water and pour it right over my Finum brew basket so I guess it must be the tea that is weak? Anyways let me know! Thanks!
Here is how I brew, please tell me if this sounds right. I first measure out my black tea leaves to 3.75 grams. I then boil up water in a variable kettle, as soon as it beeps I pour some into my mug to get it hot. I then put my basket in my cup and pour the rest of the water over the leaves. I then put a lid on and try to cover the mug so it doesn’t lose heat. Steep for 4 minutes, remove leaves, let cool stir and drink. Anything wrong here? Is my tea weak because I lose too much temp. during the steep? Maybe more tea all together? Or is Twinings North America just weak in general? Or MAYBE I don’t know what I am tasting for since I love a strong cup of iced tea as well….?
that should be plenty.
With 3g or black/red tea – something strong like dian hong or an assam,(closest I get to english breakfast nowadays) 4 minutes is wayyy too much for me and gets overbrewed.
English breakfast should be really strong for that amount..? Maybe you are Spartacus, not Spartcom?
Give a try to gong fu brewing. You can get a gaiwan on amazon for like 10$, so its super cheap. This doesnt mean you need to do the whole kit and kaboodle. Just use 1 gram per 15-20ml of water and steep it short, like 30 seconds. I had problems with weak tea, watery tea, lack of tasting the flavors till I switched.
Then pour the tea into the mug through the strainer basket to catch any particles that slip out of the gaiwan.
And yes switching to a better loose leaf tea might help, Verdant tea, Tevivre, The Tea Spot, even teavana has some good blacks. I havent personally tried Adiago or David’s tea.
Thanks Ken! I don’t think I am interested in gong fu style brewing yet… I just want to be able to take a big cup of tea and go sit down somewhere with it and not brew several times haha. I may try it over the summer when I have more time though! I will look at some of those teas for sure. I am going to a tea store in a few days. They apparently have some amazing black tea with orange and cinnamon and some pure roobois as well!
I just made a killer cup of Earl Grey, 4 grams of leaf, steep for 4 minutes in 10oz of water, lovely!
Thats the other way of doing it, just go western and add more tea leaf to get stronger brews.
> I usually enjoy black tea but am very interested in some green or red tea.
Red tea is a translation of the Chinese for what we English-speakers call “black tea.” What the Chinese call “black tea” we would call “compost.”
Your leaf ratio of 3.75g/300ml is in the ballpark (I’d usually just go with 4g/100ml, but you’re close). From your description it sounds like you’re basically brewing it right.
Twinings is not really great tea. You might want to try some of this: https://secure.uptontea.com/store/item.asp?from=catalog.asp&itemID=TB10 (seen on Steepster here: http://steepster.com/teas/upton-tea-imports/10283-bond-street-english-breakfast-blend-tb10#tasting-notes).
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