To Make Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scald the teapot with boiling water.
Add the tea to the teapot.
Pour about 1 cup of boiling water over the tea.
Steep and serve
Place the teapot in a warm spot, keeping it hot but not boiling for 10 to 12 minutes.
Add more boiling water as needed before serving.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Tea
- Provides the main flavour and aroma as its compounds dissolve into the hot water.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavour from the tea leaves and sets the brewing strength.
The step that matters
Keep the water hot but not boiling while steeping. Water at a full boil can extract bitter compounds from tea leaves and over-brew the cup, while water that cools too much brews weakly and slowly. Holding it just below boiling gives a steady, balanced extraction.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More tea recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.