Here are the five simple steps to brew your own loose leaf tea.
If you've never experience a premium cup of tea, you may not know what you're missing. Many people who don't think they like tea, make the switch after brewing a batch of loose leaf tea on their own. Here's a simple guide to help make your tea experience simple and delicious!
What you'll need:
Your favorite mug.
One teaspoon of loose leaf tea per 8oz of water.
Tea strainer, tea ball, tea filter, or just a plain ol' fine mesh strainer. There are plenty of fancy gadgets on the market these days for brewing loose leaf tea..
Hot water (boiling for blacks and herbals, steaming for greens and oolongs). Whether you have a fancy stove top kettle, an electric kettle, or even just a saucepan to heat the water on the stove, it doesn’t matter as long as you bring it to the proper temperature.
A cozy spot to enjoy your brew! This is the most important thing right? Because everyone needs a quiet spot to savor your premium sips of tea.
Loose Leaf Tea Brewing Guide
Now that you have your supplies, you are ready to start brewing! Here are the basic steps I have mapped out for you to enjoy this premium tea experience.
Brewing Steps:
Heat your water. Check the back of your tea bag to find the correct water temperature for your particular tea, or follow the brew guide pictured above. You can use boiling water for black teas and herbal teas, but you want to use steaming water (around 160-180 degrees max) for green, white and oolong teas. The lower temperature of water is necessary for these more delicate tea leaves because they will get bitter if they are brewed in too hot of water. Have you ever tried a cup of green tea and thought "Why does anyone like drinking this?", well that is probably partially due to it being brewed with boiling water. It can definitely alter the flavor profile of a tea, so stick with the correct temperature.
Place tea leaves in your infuser. Follow the brew guide for the amount of tea leaves to use. The standard recommendation would be to use 1 teaspoon per 8oz of water. This way you can adjust it fairly easily for brewing large quantities! Make a whole 24 ounce tea pot to enjoy with friends and all you need to do is use 4 teaspoons.
Pour your hot water over the tea leaves and let it steep. Follow the brew guide for the amount of time to let the tea leaves set in the water. For green, black, white, and oolong teas you need to be careful to not over-steep and let it go too long or it will get bitter. But with herbals, the sky is the limit. You can let herbal tea blends go as long as you want and they do not get bitter. The flavor profile will change the longer the herbal teas brew, but ultimately it is better to let herbals brew longer because it extracts more of the medicinal properties out of the herbs and into the water.
Remove the infuser. This step is definitely the easiest.
Enjoy the flavor... Nope, this step is the easiest! All you have left to do is to sit back, relax, and enjoy your delicious cup of tea. But the fun doesn't stop there because with high grade loose leaf teas you can double and even triple brew. That's right, go back to step 2 using the same tea leaves. I remember when I first discovered that high grade loose leaf teas can be double or triple brewed. I felt like I won the lottery!
So there you have it, a simple step by step guide to brewing loose leaf tea. Now the adventure begins with narrowing down your favorites! As always, you can shop my tea blends of DELICIOUS wellness right here online.
Happy Tea Time,
Abby (Leaf Logic founder & owner)
