I love hot tea. For a l-o-n-g time now I've been preparing it by filling a mug with water, adding a tea bag, & nuking it for a couple of minutes. It had been forever (think years) since I'd actually boiled water on the stove & poured it over the bag in the old tried and true fashion.
Well, last weekend DH was working on the kitchen & had the microwave moved out to the back 40 somewhere so I resorted to boiling water to make the tea. Guess what? It tastes different!
When I lived in England the importance of starting with cold water, & bringing it to a rolling boil was really stressed. I couldn't really taste a difference when I started with warm water just to see what would happen (wild and crazy 18 year old that I was).
Several years after I moved back to the States my friend Peggy made me a cup of tea using the microwave. Since it was so quick and easy I started making it that way too, and have continued to do so ever since.
What I discovered on Saturday is that when boiling water is poured over the tea bag it really brings the flavor out. Earl Gray tastes like Earl Gray instead of Lipton's. English Breakfast Tea tastes like English Breakfast Tea instead of Lipton's... you get the drift!
Does this mean I'm abandoning microwave tea? Nope, as a matter of fact just this morning I nuked my tea. What it DOES mean is that if I have a special tea and want to see how it REALLY tastes, you'll find me huddled over the stove waiting for the water to boil in its slow, old-fashioned way! Now, where did I put that whistling tea kettle?
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4 comments:
Oh, cool, when did you live in England? For how long?
I love tea, but don't do it too often, and I usually nuke the water, and then dunk the bag in and out...
OR I use the stainless steel tea kettle my old principal bought for us as a wedding gift. We'd put it on the registry b/c it was stainless steel and we had decided to get stainless steel kitchen items. LOL Not so much b/c we thought we'd USE it!
But we do, quite a bit, so that's good, I guess. lol
I'm an herbal infusion girl myself. I've found the very best way, imho at least, is to get loose tea and use a french press. So yummy!!
I was in England for 2 years when my DH was stationed there with the Air Force. We lived off-base so I got to be totally immersed in the culture - it was GREAT!!
Cute that you asked for the kettle because of its color but ended up actually using it! :-)
Hi Cindy, I've heard of the French Press for tea but I've never used one - actually I've never even seen one! I may have to check that out though, now that I've discovered that the way you make tea really DOES make a difference!
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