Guide to Making Great Tea

Hey imgur, it's time to teach you how to make a proper cup of tea (or cuppa, for our friends across the pond). I'm talking real tea here, not that garbage bitter excuse for tea you've had before.

Most of you have probably only had tea from teabags. Your major tea distributors use crappy clippings instead of high quality tea leaves. The tea leaves on the left of the above image is what normally comes out of teabags. Compare that with the full leaves on the right from your standard loose leaf tea and the difference is pretty obvious. Additionally, loose leaf tea is much cheaper per cup of tea.
If you MUST use tea bags, at least follow the directions on the box. Tea bags should never be left to sit in your cup - most tea bags are meant to only be in your cup for 3-5 minutes. Any longer and the tea will turn bitter.

This adorable little sloth is what is called a steeper. Your loose tea leaves go inside and it's placed in the water for 1-6 minutes depending on the type of tea (more on that later). While this steeper is incredibly cute, it lacks proper volume for tea leaves to expand.

Here you can see the difference of dry tea leaves compared to steeped leaves. This difference in volume is why they need more room to expand - too small of a steeper (or a tea bag) and there isn't enough room for the leaves to move around after they've expanded.

Here's a much better example of a good steeper. This is for a single cup. Note the fine mesh that keeps the smaller leaves from ending up in your cup, the large volume that gives the tea leaves plenty of room, and as a bonus it's super easy to clean. This particular one can be found on Amazon for $8.95 - it is called "Finum Brewing Basket". It's the one that I use personally when I'm not sharing with guests.

On most days, even the biggest tea fanatics of us will drink tea out of a mug. But while talking about tea it's important to discuss the teacup. There's a reason why it's shaped the way it is - the wider shape lets it cool at a more even rate so you can enjoy it at that perfect temperature. Or at least that's what they say.

"Alright, ForTheSwarm, that's all good and well, but how do I actually make this amazing drink?" A fair question, imgurian. The chart above shows the average steeping time and temperature* for each type of tea, as well as the number of teaspoons of tea leaves for each 8oz of water. Simply heat up your water to approximately the right temperature and then put your steeper filled with tea leaves in for the appropriate time. For black tea, for example, bring your water to a boil and let it cool for a few seconds before steeping for about 2-3 minutes.
You can also re-use your leaves, as long as it's within a few hours. Black tea leaves can be resteeped 2-3 times, green tea can be steeped many more times (and many taste better with each steeping). Experiment with your favorite teas to see the best number of steeps.

*in celsius: Blooming Tea (82 degrees), White and Green Tea (79 degrees), Oolong (90.5) Black Tea and Herbal Teas (96-97 degrees)

You can find good loose leaf tea online, but I recommend finding a high quality tea shop in your area. They should let you sample the tea before you buy, and a good teashop will be able to guide you to tea you'll enjoy based on your existing preferences, teach you about how to make a proper cup, and so much more.

This is Terry Hathaway and his wife, former owners of JoyfulTea in Boise, Idaho in the states. Terry taught me everything I know about tea - and I still have much to learn. Sadly, they recently fell under financial troubles and the store had to close but they are trying to reopen. If you want to help out or just show your appreciation for the time taken to write up this guide, please donate to their GoFundMe. Even $1 can help! They're a wonderful couple and they deserve so much better than the hand they were dealt. I'll include the link in the comments.

And if you want to know more information about tea, please let me know in the comments. I'd happily do a part 2 and 3 if there's enough interest! I barely touched the surface with this guide.