Seven

How to Brew Tea

This chapter discusses how to brew medicinal and beverage teas and herbal teas. Items needed to brew both single cups and pots of tea are covered as well as additives such as sugar, lemon, and milk. Storage tips are offered. The chapter ends with a discussion of how to brew herbal infusions and decoctions.

Items Required

You do not have to lay out a substantial monetary investment to become a skilled tea steeper. You have already learned the hard part, which is choosing the appropriate teas. Now all you need is water, a pot for heating it, a teapot for steeping the brew, a cup, a saucer, a spoon, a napkin to catch spills, and an infuser. And of course you will need a heat source—that goes without saying. Here are the basics.

Water

Cold, filtered tap water makes the best cup of tea. Experts agree that bottled water, because it is less oxygenated, can cause a brew to taste flat. The oxygen contained in filtered tap water makes the tea taste sweeter and more flavorful, especially if you are brewing a white, yellow, or green variety.

There is also a controversy surrounding bottled water. You may have heard how landfills are overflowing with nonrecyclable plastic bottles. Thousand of tons of these containers end up in the oceans every year, polluting the water and endangering marine life. Worse, many of these bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate, PETE or PET for short, as the bottles containing these substances are required to be labeled. PETE relates to bisphenol A, phtalates, and antimony (a component of flame retardants and batteries). What do these big words mean to the bottled water drinker?

Over time, the chemicals in the packaging can leach into the liquids contained in the bottles, especially acidic liquids such as orange juice and tea. The chemicals can disturb the body’s endocrine system, disrupt hormones like testosterone and estrogen, and cause fertility problems. They can increase levels of blood cholesterol and contribute to neurological, behavioral, and immune system disorders. Health-aware bottling companies have switched to safe plastic or gone back to glass, but such manufacturers are few and far between.

Bottled water usually comes from municipal systems anyway. So consumers pay many times more for something they could have gotten free from the tap. Worse, when bottled water has been tested, some of it has been found to contain carcinogens, bacteria, and chemicals. For all these reasons, properly filtered, cold (not hot from the tap), oxygenated tap water seems to be the most wholesome, flavorful, and cheapest choice.

Vessel

Next you will need a heat-proof vessel in which to heat the water. The top choice is an old-fashioned teakettle. A wide-mouthed pot will do in a pinch, but you will probably end up spilling a lot of water. The only kinds of pots not recommended are those made from aluminum or with Teflon coating on the inside. Both can leach into the water and affect the taste and your health. Do not reboil old water left over in the pot as it makes the tea taste lifeless and a bit tinny. And remember to keep your vessel in good repair.

Cup

Any kind of cup will do except those made from plastic. Some tea drinkers also dislike Styrofoam. However, tea tastes equally delectable sipped from a porcelain cup or quaffed from a mug.

The small glazed bowls used in Asia are perfect for enjoying multiple steepings of tea. Some drinkers prefer glass mugs because they like to watch what tea masters call “the agony of the leaves”; that is, the process whereby the leaves unfurl and move around in the cup, ever changing color until just the right hue is achieved. The appropriate hue, as you have learned, is important for color healing.

Saucer

One addition you might consider, even if you are drinking from a mug and not from a teacup, is a saucer. Place it on top of the cup or mug to condense the tea’s essential oils back into the cup. This is especially important when you brew herbal botanicals other than Camellia sinensis for medicinal purposes. Saucers are practical, too, in that they catch spills. For the same reason, you may want to keep a napkin within reach and a spoon as well, especially if you add sweetener, lemon, or milk.

Teapot

A short answer to the best kind of pot for steeping is to use whatever is available. Even dunking a teabag in a mug makes a fast way of preparation. It might taste like an astringent stew and certainly lacks panache, but sometimes the quickest way suffices. Besides, as Edward Bramah, world-renowned tea expert and founder of the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum in London, once said, today’s average teabag is designed to infuse in less than fifty seconds, so teabags make good choices for people on the go.

Of course the finest receptacle for steeping tea is a proper teapot. Some beautiful teapots of all shapes and sizes are available. Some are square, others round, oblong, large, small, multi-colored, embossed, plain, thematic, made from porcelain, clay, wood, glass, and other materials. Each individual pot enhances the tea’s flavor in a different way and adds to the wonder and delight of taking tea. As with teacups, avoid plastic and aluminum both for the strange taste they impart to the tea and for the carcinogens that may leak into the brew.

When shopping for a basic teapot, here are some points to consider. First and foremost, pick up the pot. While the store clerk probably will not let you brew tea in it, you can mimic pouring. Judge how the pot feels in your hand. Is the handle big enough to fit several fingers comfortably around it? Does the lid fit snugly over the opening so you will not need to hold it in place while you pour?

As to the opening, is it wide enough to hold an infusion basket and to insert a brush or sponge to clean inside? A high spout is a plus because it enables you to fill the pot to the top. Now check the base. A wide base will keep a pot stable no matter where you set it.

Glass teapots are interesting. As with glass mugs, they allow you to monitor the tea’s strength and watch the mesmerizing color intensify as the leaves steep. You will know right away when the tea is steeped just the way you like it by observing the pot.

Yixing teapots, fabricated from special Zisha clay, are deemed by many tea masters to be the most perfect tea brewing vessels in the world. They come from the Yixing region of China northwest of Shanghai and are cherished by collectors for their simplicity and beauty. You may recognize Yixing pots as the ones traditionally used in to prepare tea the Chinese Gung Fu way. Their reputation is due to the fact that these pots retain heat well and do not expand during firing. If you purchase Yixing, you will need a separate pot for each type of tea, as the porous clay cures after repeated use, and seasons each successive pot of tea with accumulated flavor.

Although Yixing pots are simply styled, they are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, including round and square. Often they sport animal designs, the most popular being a dragon. You can find a turtle, phoenix, or tall dragon among other critter varieties. Most Asian or Eastern teapots are small, holding only up to ten ounces of water.

Another Chinese invention, the gaiwan, has remained popular since the sixteenth century. This versatile tool can be used as a teapot, tea taster’s cup, teacup, or even as a saucer. The porcelain comes in various sizes, with the smallest holding a mere three to five ounces.

Colorful tetsubin Japanese teapots are cast iron pots ideal for brewing green teas. They retain more heat longer than any other kind of teapot. Because the inside is enameled, they are easy to clean. Since the Tetsubin are Asian- or Eastern-style pots, sizes are fairly small. A typical pot holds eleven ounces, but a sixteen-ounce size is also available (if not a bit heavy). Colors include red, green, blue, and black, and each comes with a stainless steel infuser.

For a more English-style teapot, you might like a Chatsford. This glazed earthenware pot stands somewhat taller than a Japanese pot, and comes in white, brown, blue, green, and yellow. You can purchase a small pot that holds two cups or a larger four-cup version. Chatsfords usually are provided with a removable mesh infuser.

Of all English-style teapots, undoubtedly the most beloved is the legendary Brown Betty. Its rise to fame came about because of three simultaneous and related occurrences along with a fourth, ineffable factor. Back in the mid-eighteenth century, the earls of Fitzwilliam, the Rockinghams, who were giants of industry, rolled out a new line of earthenware pottery. This pottery was characterized by a distinctive glossy brown glaze, whose chemical formula consisted, in part, of manganese and iron.

At the same time, a new type of teapot, round and stout and made from red clay, was being manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent, the pottery capital of England. The stylish shape, coupled with the Rockingham brown glaze, came along at the time when tea-drinking was spreading throughout Britain and Ireland. The Brown Betty, as this teapot was called, became fashionable. It got an even more regal nod later from Queen Victoria, who declared that this type of pot made the very “best cup of tea.” This last phrase encompasses the fourth factor that characterizes the Brown Betty. To this day, many British swear that the Brown Betty, indeed, produces the very finest and healthiest cup of tea. Certainly the trace amounts of manganese and iron that come from the pot’s material provide additional minerals to the tea. Good source for purchasing teapots include: www.teavana.com/tea-products/teapots-teapot-sets and www.republicoftea.com/teapots/c/52/.

Infuser

You will need an infuser or strainer to hold the loose leaves so they do not escape into the cup. The best infusers are made from metal mesh or are bamboo baskets. Other choices include tea balls, fabric tea socks, and paper filters. Never pack leaves tightly into the infuser. You want to leave room for them to unfurl and move freely through the water. One infuser to avoid is the kind designed for a single cup of tea shaped like two half-teaspoons and wired so that they open and close. This type of infuser does not allow enough room for the leaves to unwind and so produces an inferior-tasting cup of tea.

Tea Cozy

A tea cozy (also spelled “cosy”) makes a nice but unnecessary addition. It is like a small quilted jacket that keeps a teapot and the tea inside warm.

How to Prepare a Beverage Infusion

Most experts agree that the best way to enjoy a fine cup of tea is to prepare an infusion. Although a beverage infusion differs from a medicinal infusion in that it is often brewed for less time, you can still derive benefits for healthy living from a beverage in fusion. In short, preparing a beverage infusion consists of boiling one cupful of water, pouring it over one teaspoonful of fresh leaves, and steeping the brew for up to five minutes. If you steep it in a pot, add an extra teaspoonful “for the pot” and pour into teacups. Add sweetener and milk or lemon, if desired. Stir once, and drink immediately. The foregoing is the short answer to brewing a beverage infusion, and if you are satisfied with it, move on to the section on sweeteners. For those who wish more precise instructions, continue reading.

Two basic methods for steeping tea depend on whether you take your tea Asian or Eastern or Western style. In Asia, the teapot and cups are small, but many more leaves are used. This is because the steeping time is quite short—generally thirty seconds to one minute, and the leaves are meant to be resteeped up to eight times.

How to Prepare a Single Cup of Tea

In contemporary Western societies, most people do not have time to prepare a big pot of tea to enjoy at their leisure. They prefer to take their tea by the single cupful or, more likely, by the mug. Following are some suggestions for how to prepare a first-rate single cup of tea.

Some tea masters recommend that you never bring the water to a full boil. They tell you to heat the water until it begins to form bubbles, and if it comes to a boil by mistake, let the water cool for one minute before pouring it over the leaves. Otherwise you risk scorching the leaves and ending up with a dull-tasting brew. Others instruct to bring the pot to a gentle boil, especially for the stronger blacks and puerhs. Following this section is a table of recommended water temperatures and steeping times for all kinds of teas. You will find a range of temperatures and brewing times. In the end, it all boils down (ha) to individual taste.

Besides arguing over temperatures and brewing times, some tea masters cannot even seem to agree on how to pour the water. Most advocate pouring it directly over the leaves. They warn against sprinkling leaves into a cup already full of hot water because the leaves will tend to float on top and not infuse properly. A few renegades give the opposite recommendation and insist that you should place the leaves or teabag into the hot water after it is poured.

Figuring out how long to steep your cup of tea can be equally confusing. A sure way to demystify this conundrum is to read the directions on the side of the package. If none exist, ask a knowledgeable salesperson where you bought the tea. If you still cannot find an answer, consult the following chart that has been culled from various sources.

For each cup of tea or beverage herbal tea, use half a teaspoon of dried leaves or one level teaspoon of fresh leaves. If the tea leaves are quite large, as in some whole leaf teas, you might want to use a heaping teaspoonful. Splash hot water into the cup or mug and drain it to warm the cup before pouring your tea. This procedure holds true for a teapot as well.

Recommended Water Temperatures and Steeping Times

Kind of Tea

Amount of Tea per Cup

Water Temperature

Steeping Time

White

1 tsp.

175-180 or 185 F

1-2 min.

(80-85 C)

or 7–9 min.

Yellow

1 tsp.

195 F (90 C)

1-2 or 3 min.

Green

1 tsp.

150-160 or 175 F

1-2 min.

(65-80 C)

2 ½-3 min.

or 3-4 min.

Oolong

1⁄2 tsp.

190 or 195 F

2-4 min.

(86-90 C)

or 3 min. exactly.

or 3-6 min.

Black

1⁄2 tsp.

205 or 212 F

3-5 min.

(96 or 100 C)

Puerh

1⁄2 tsp.

205 F (96 C)

3-4 min.

or 5-8 min.

Some people complain about green tea having a bitter taste. People may get this idea because they brew it incorrectly. Green tea can be something of a prima donna, no doubt, but when it is brewed correctly, it is considered to taste grassy, slightly sweet, pliable on the tongue, delicious, and healthy. Experiment by first covering the cup, and then brewing for half of the recommended time. Taste the tea and steep a little longer until you get the flavor you like best.

Brewing Iced Tea

To make iced tea, prepare a double strength infusion according to the table on the previous page. Double-strength is recommended because the tea will be diluted by the ice. Strain away the leaves and cool the tea to room temperature. Pour over ice cubes in glasses, and serve. Sprigs of mint, lavender, lemon balm or a lemon slice make refreshing garnishes. The ice cubes should be made from pure, filtered tap water like the tea.

Teabag Tea

Most tea histories will tell you that the teabag was invented in 1908 by tea merchant William Sullivan. To sell more tea, he packaged samples in small silk bags. Matrons of the city’s bourgeoisie were so enchanted by the little bags that they clamored to have all of their tea orders filled in that way. Today some gourmet tea companies like Mighty Leaf still offer teabags in little silk sacks.

Nobody really knows who first dunked a bag of botanicals into hot water and drank the end result, but many claim the honor. For example, in another legend, the Chippewa are said to have invented the teabag by placing herbs on very thin strips of bark and tying them up before immersing the bark bags in the boiling water.

In Britain, teabags rose to popularity after World War II. Before the war, the British infused loose, rolled-leaf tea. After the war, coffee producers introduced soluble coffee powder to the market so consumers could make coffee instantly. The tea trade responded to this coffee challenge by using CTC (cut, tear, and curl) machines instead of rollers to produce a granulated tea that would infuse as quickly as coffee. No matter what tea purists may feel, today most of the tea sold in Britain (and in the US, for that matter), is the bagged variety.

The very smallest leaves and tiniest broken bits left over from the manufacturing process are called fannings and dust. Though the term “dust” may sound unappetizing, you can rest assured that the manufacturers do not scoop dust from the factory floor and spoon it into teabags. Many of these small leaves can be quite palatable. In fact, this is probably the kind of tea with which you are most familiar because fannings and dust are usually reserved for teabags. Some tea drinkers prefer bagged tea because it infuses rapidly with no fuss and has a bracing flavor. However, because teabag tea uses CTC leaves, some health benefits are lost.

To steep bagged tea, pour hot water over the bag and let it steep for two to five minutes only, depending on the kind of tea you are drinking and the strength you desire. For white tea, two minutes is suggested, for green tea, three minutes, and for black tea, four to five. Steeping times are very much up to individual taste, so it is suggested you experiment and choose the steeping times you like best. Remove the bag—never squeeze it to wring out the last of the acerbic-tasting tea—and add lemon or sweetener or milk. Stir once, and your tea is ready to drink.

As tea rises to prominence in the beverage industry, it comes as no surprise that resourceful entrepreneurs are inventing ingenious teabag sidelines. One such businessman is Barry Cooper, founder of Cooper’s Tea Company. His latest invention is a tea pod that will fit inside a Melitta One:One coffee filtering machine. Pop one of his tea pods into the top of a One:One machine and a 12- or 16-ounce glass of hot tea shoots out the bottom in around half a minute. Cooper sells his pods to a company that supplies Bed Bath & Beyond, JC Penney, Sears, and Target. If you do not have a Melitta One:One machine you can also get tea in Keurig K-cups. They can be used in Keurigs or other machines that use K-cups. There are K-cups that you can fill with your own coffee, and presumably with your own loose leaf tea.

Bagging Your Own

There are some good reasons to occasionally bag your own tea. In the first place, when you do, you will know that the tea is as fresh as possible, and freshness equates to healthy living. Also when you make your own tea, especially your own herbal blends stored in containers, the heavier ingredients will invariably accumulate in the bottom of the jar. Filling a bag will ensure that all of the ingredients make it into the packet. Pop the filled bags back into the containers where the blend came from and they will stay fresh and ready to use.

You can buy empty teabags for pennies at most tea emporiums and online. Place one teaspoonful of your
personal recipe (no more, for you want to give the leaves room to unfurl) into the little porous paper sack and seal it shut with a hot iron. You do not even need to use an iron if you do not mind the tea occasionally leaking out. Just fold over the bag, and your personal teabag is ready for action.

Storing Tea

Tea leaves are a delicate commodity. This distinction gives them the elusive, subtle aroma and flavor so loved by tea enthusiasts. It also means that tea leaves readily absorb aromas from whatever happens to be hanging around their vicinity, good or bad. To avoid contaminating your tea leaves, do not store tea near your spice rack, and if possible keep them away from light, heat, and moisture. It goes without saying that you should never freeze or refrigerate the fragile leaves because tea does not tolerate temperature extremes. On the other hand, some fresh herbs freeze well. Basil is an example; dill, another, and most seeds can be frozen, too.

No matter what kind of tea or herb you purchase and whether you buy it bagged or loose, always store your tea in an airtight container to preserve freshness. Ceramic or classic tea tins work well. A traditional way to store tea is in a small wooden tea chest. In centuries gone by, tea was a rare and precious commodity. The lady of the house always locked up her tea in one of these chests so as not to tempt servants. If you are lucky enough to find one of these old chests at an antiques fair, perhaps the wood will still retain some of the aroma of tea leaves past and impart its light scent of yesteryear to your treasured tea leaves.

If you store tea properly, it will last for a fairly long time. Some tea masters recommend keeping white, yellow, and green teas for no longer than three to six months, oolongs for six to nine months, and black teas for no more than one year before you toss it. If your tea goes stale sooner and you wish to revive it, spread a thin layer of it on a sheet of paper for a few hours in a well-aired room.

Sweeteners

Sugar

As you read in chapter 1 about sweet tea and bubble tea, many tea drinkers like to add sweetener to every type of tea. Sugar is usually the favorite. Most table sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beets. Cane sugar probably originated in South and East Asia, where it has been cultivated since at least 1000 BCE. Europeans came late to the game and did not start using it until after the Middle Ages. Until then, their major sweetener was honey. For them and others, sources of sweetness were found in malt, milk, sorghum grass, maple, palm trees, grapes, and other fruit.

Types of sugar you are likely to find on your supermarket shelves include:

Sugar makes much of what people eat and drink taste better and certainly provides energy in the form of carbohydrates. But as is the case of salt, it turns out to be too much of a good thing. The average American consumes 21 to 22 teaspoonfuls of sugar daily, adding 320 to 350 calories to our diets. No wonder Americans are packing on the pounds! You might not think you eat very much sugar, but it sneaks into much of your food as an additive you might not even taste.

Besides contributing to obesity, sugar can cause all kinds of health problems such as hyperactivity in children, allergies, eczema, low human growth hormone levels (a factor in premature aging), osteoporosis, diabetes, lessened protein absorption, high LDL (bad) cholesterol, vaginal yeast infections, and lowered resistance to bacterial infections.

Even though there is a downside to sugar, there is an upside, too. Besides giving you energy, sugar is a good substance to eat to bulk up if you are on the undernourished side. You can also enjoy tea-infused sugars that will provide some of the nutrition found in regular tea. Tea sugars make tasty treats, summer or winter, and can be added to tea hot or cold. Or you can use them to impart a tea-like flavor to other drinks, dessert dishes, and marinades.

You can infuse sugar with any kind of dried tea leaf. Black tea works best because it has the spiciest flavor, and the taste you get with an infused sugar will always be mild, at best. You can also create infusions using herbal tea botanicals. Popular flavors include jasmine flowers, rose petals and buds, lavender, rosemary, anise, lemon balm, cinnamon, and a variety of citrus peels such as orange, lemon, tangerine, and lime. One appropriate tea to infuse into sugar is Constant Comment because of the tangy aroma of the spicy peels.

Making tea-infused sugars is easy. Use demerara sugar because the crystals are large, the sugar is less processed, and the taste is good. Granulated organic sugar is also a good choice. You can infuse any kind of sugar except the powdered variety, which is quite messy.

Pour one cup of sugar into an airtight container, such as a tin or Mason jar. Take a small muslin bag and fill it with at least two tablespoons of dried tea and/or dried herbs, flowers, seeds, or peels. The purpose of the muslin bag is to prevent bits of organic material from leaking into the sugar.

Put the filled bag into the sugar and use a mortar and pestle to release the essences. Cover with some of the sugar, and grind some more. Now close the container and wait. Stir the sugar and sample it every day until you obtain the flavor and strength you desire—usually around one week. When the sugar tastes just right to you, remove the teabag and fertilize your azaleas and camellias with the spent leaves.

Honey

Some people prefer to add honey to their tea. This natural product of bees has been a favored sweetener, probably since the first human worked up the courage to stick a hand into a hive. The viscous and ethereally fragrant substance can be yellow, white, brown, orange, green, purple—even black—thick or thin, strong or mild, depending on which flowers the bees have visited. If you have a chance to visit a gourmet store, try honey made from orange blossoms, raspberries, sage, eucalyptus, rosemary, or heather. Be aware that some honeys can be poisonous or narcotic, depending on the flowers from which the nectar is gathered. Oleander honey, for example, falls under the deadly poisonous category. Also a lot of honey these days comes from China, where foodstuffs are not always monitored as carefully as in the US.

In the health department, honey is better for you than sugar, but only marginally. It contains approximately the same amount of fructose and glucose, so it is not a good choice for diabetics. Also some vegans tend to reject honey because they abhor the mistreatment of bees. The calories are more or less the same, too, so honey will not help you lose weight. The best that can be said for it is that it is a less processed product. Honey also has some antioxidant properties that fight bacteria, and you can drink it in tea with lemon to suppress a cough or ease a sore throat.

Clover honey is one of the most readily available and better-tasting choices for tea. It does not quite substitute for sugar, though, because of its consistency, but it is worth taking time to experiment.

Agave Nectar

Here is another sweetener that some health gurus tout as a healthy alternative to sugar. Agave sap is extracted from the core of the Blue Agave, a spiky Mexican succulent that looks something like an aloe vera or yucca plant. The core, which is called a “pineapple,” is huge, weighing between fifty and a hundred pounds. After harvesting, it is then filtered and heated to produce the nectar, or syrup. Because low temperatures (under 118 degrees) are used to extract the nectar, many natural food fans consider agave a raw food. Those same vegans who do not wish to harm bees by disturbing their nests accept agave as a number one alternative to honey. They also point to the fact that agave ranks fairly low on the glycemic index, meaning that it does not readily raise blood sugar levels.

What agave enthusiasts do not mention is that the reason it does not raise blood sugar levels is because of its high fructose content. Agave is higher in fructose than the much maligned corn syrup, and it is not easily metabolized. Overconsumption of fructose can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cancer. Although agave nectar is sweeter than sugar or honey, and so you use less, it also contains a lot of calories, so it is of little use to dieters. You are probably better off using sugar.

Molasses and Maple Syrup

Molasses is the by-product of refining sugar cane to produce sugar crystals. Until the end of World War I when the price of refined sugar dropped dramatically, it was America’s sweetener of choice. Maple syrup is tapped from sugar and black maple trees. Americans have been using maple syrup to sweeten all kinds of dishes since Colonial Times, when Native Americans showed the settlers how to tap the sap from trees. Molasses is full of vitamins and minerals (B6, magnesium, manganese, and potassium). Maple syrup is relatively low in fructose. Both are high in calories and both have distinctive tastes. Molasses is thickly bittersweet, and maple syrup tastes exactly like what you are probably used to pouring over your Sunday pancakes.

Stevia

A promising sweetener that has recently become widely available in the US is stevia. Also known as sweetleaf, stevia is extracted from the leaves of an herb native to Paraguay and Brazil. Advocates point to the fact that although it is 150 to 400 times sweeter than sugar (claims vary), it contains no calories and has a glycemic index of zero.

One reason stevia has not been used more often in the food industry is that it was kept off the US market by non-nutritive sweetener lobbyists who persuaded the FDA to ban the competition. A few years ago, the European Union approved this natural sweetener as a sugar substitute, and the US soon followed suit.

Now stevia is grown in the US, mostly in California, as well as in other countries around the world, Japan being a major producer. You can even find the live plants for sale at your gardening center and in seed catalogs if you are interested in growing your own.

You may wonder why, even with the ban being lifted, the food industry and consumers still have not warmly embraced stevia. Besides the time it takes for consumers to hear about it and try it for themselves and then decide to like it, stevia may be more or less another case of “too good to be true.” One problem is that although it tastes sweet initially, after a few bites the sweetness does not retain the same staying power as sugar. Others claim that some stevia brands have a lingering acrid taste. When used in cooking, stevia can turn some dishes an unappetizing brown color. Makers of stevia have been working on these issues, so in the next couple of years these glitches will probably be resolved.

If you are interested in giving sweetleaf a try, many consumers agree that the Trader Joe’s brand seems to taste better than most. The Truvía brand is also popular. One difference between stevia and processed sugar is that the granules seem more powdery. Stevia certainly dissolves in hot or cold tea as rapidly as processed sugar and better than the other sweeteners mentioned.

Other Herbal Sweeteners

If none of the above options appeal to you, you can try sweetening your tea naturally with botanicals. Classic choices include cardamom, cinnamon, elderberry flowers, hibiscus flowers, licorice root, dried orange and tangerine peels, and sliced fruit such as blueberries, strawberries, or apples. Your tea will not taste sugary sweet, and you will add a new dimension. Remember you can always scent your tea, too.

Lemon and Milk

Lemon goes well with black or green China teas and can improve the flavor of some herbal teas markedly. No matter which tea you choose to drink with lemon, remember that a little goes a long way, and a lot of lemon is as overpowering as adding too much salt to a dish. The sweet-sour citrus taste of lemon is due to the proportion of citric acid and natural sugar in the fruit. Immature fruit will be more acidic. The sweeter taste evolves as the fruit matures and continues to ripen after it is picked. To gauge the sweetness of a lemon or lime, pick it up in your hand and gently roll it between your fingers. The skin will give somewhat and you will feel the juice inside. If the skin is rock-hard, the fruit is not yet ripe.

If you enjoy adding milk to your tea, know that it tastes especially good in classic robust black teas such as Assam, Ceylon, English breakfast, or Irish breakfast. Many tea lovers will tell you that milk does not taste as good in green and white teas. However, milk provides added calcium and vitamin D. When it comes to additives, it is advised not to add both milk and lemon to your tea or the milk will curdle in the hot water.

How to Prepare Medicinal Herbal Teas

Medicinal brews probably have been concocted ever since humans walked the earth. Medicinal infusions and decoctions take longer to make than a beverage tea, but many alternative health practitioners insist that they are worth the effort of choosing a collection of fresh herbs, cleaning and chopping them, and bruising the roots and seeds. Herbalists claim that most commercial herbal teabags lack the brightness, verve, and strength of high-quality fresh or dried botanicals. Consequently, the therapeutic action of your own preparations is probably better than buying an herbal teabag.

You already have been brewing herbal infusions for enjoyment by steeping herbs for up to five minutes. This generates a light, palatable tisane. For beverage infusions, you do not necessarily bring the water to a rolling boil nor pay strict attention to an exact brewing time; you simply infuse for taste.

With medicinal infusions, things work slightly differently. First, you usually use only the flowers, leaves, and soft stems. Always boil the water (approximately one teaspoon dried or one tablespoon of fresh herbs to one cup of water) before pouring it over the ingredients, and cover the brew while steeping. This ensures that the essential oils, which contain many of the healthful ingredients, do not evaporate. Steeping time is ten to fifteen minutes, which results in a more concentrated, bitter infusion than for a beverage herbal tea. Always steep in an enamel, nonmetal, or stainless steel teapot.

Strain away the plant material, and your drink is ready to be taken hot immediately or cold later. The average dose is two to four cups per day, depending on the affliction you wish to affect. Infusions are often ingested to flush toxins from the system or to cool body temperature by inducing a sweat. To preserve the nutrients and not let the infusion spoil, place the preparation in a lidded-glass container and store in the refrigerator for up to a few days. If you need to drink the infusion hot to bring down a fever for example, you can steep and store it in a thermos. As the thermos is airtight, it will keep the infusion hot for several hours.

Cold Infusions

Herbalists prepare an infusion in cold water when they wish to extract the essence from a mucilaginous plant or when the essential oil to be extracted is quite volatile. The term “mucilaginous” means that the nutritive part of the plant to be extracted is slimy or gummy. Althea root (marshmallow root) and flaxseed are examples. Rather than make a decoction from roots, some herbalists prepare a cold infusion, especially if the product is to be applied externally.

To put together a cold infusion, lightly pack the bo-tanical(s) into a lidded, nonmetal container like a quart jar and fill it with cold water. Refrigerate overnight. In the morning, pour the liquid through a sieve and discard the plant matter. Your cold infusion is ready to use.

Decoctions

Herbalists generally prepare decoctions from the tougher materials of the plants, those parts that do not give up their essential oils easily. Usually you will make a decoction from the roots, barks, large seeds, and/or berries, or when you want to extract the maximum amount of essential oils from lighter materials.

Before you begin, you might want to bruise or mash the materials using a mortar and pestle to facilitate the release of the essential oils. In an enamel, nonmetal or stainless steel pot, bring the water to a rolling boil. Use one tablespoon of seeds and berries or one-half ounce of dried roots to two cups of water. After the water reaches a rolling boil, add the plant materials, cover, and simmer gently for twenty minutes to one hour. At the end of the process, approximately half of the water will be lost, so it is customary to add enough cold water to make up the original volume. Because decoctions take more time and effort to produce, typically enough is made to store in the refrigerator in a lidded glass container. The brew will remain stable for at least one week.

Infusions and decoctions can be prepared from single plants or from more than one, three being a round number of plants that many herbalists like to use. You can even mix together both types of preparations. To accomplish this task, prepare the decoction, and add the lighter materials during the last ten to fifteen minutes of steeping time. Decoctions are stronger than infusions, so to diffuse the bitter taste put one to two tablespoons of the liquid in the cup and fill the rest with hot or cold water.

How to Brew a Beverage Herbal Tea

There are many ways to brew a superior-tasting herbal beverage. Here is one method. Start with one cup of natural, filtered tap water. You might want to boil the water, although some herbalists recommend you do not let the water reach the boiling point. If it does, cool it for a minute or two before adding the herbs. If you live at an altitude above 5,000 feet where water boils at a lower temperature, boiling or not boiling the water probably does not make a difference as to the taste and health benefits of the finished brew.

While the water is heating, chop one teaspoon of fresh leaves, tender stems, flowers, and/or crushed seeds. A variety of fresh herbs is not always available, especially in winter, so you can measure one-half teaspoon of dried leaves, either single botanicals or combinations. A half teaspoon of dried botanicals equals one teaspoon of fresh herb. Place the material in a nonmetal container.

When the water is ready, pour it over the herbs and cover the container with a lid. This keeps important essential oils from evaporating. Steep the brew for no more than five minutes. Finally, strain the tisane either through a piece of cheesecloth, mesh, or a coffee filter (metal tea strainers do not always retain every bit of herb), and pour the liquid into a teacup. If you care for sweetener, add sugar, honey, agave, or stevia now. Stir once, and drink while hot.

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