Tea Preparation Matters!
Other than water, tea is the most frequently consumed beverage worldwide. Dating back almost 50 centuries, tea has held a special place in our diets for a long time. So it's no surprise why tea is still so popular and so prevalent today. However, its longstanding place in human history isn't the only reason why people drink tea. It's also because brewed tea has so many health benefits.
Dozens of studies (and thousands of years of anecdotal evidence) have found that antioxidant-rich tea has numerous beneficial effects on health, including the prevention of many diseases such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, and obesity.
According to Roy Morgan Research, 47.6% of Australians are tea drinkers. We thought it would be useful to share the most common mistakes people make when brewing tea. Making mistakes with your tea may not completely ruin the taste or neutralise the health benefits of your tea but they're certainly not doing anything to help you gain the most from this miracle drink. As you will read, common mistakes range from ruining flavour to preventing the extraction of the most beneficial compounds..
Is Your Water Too Hot?
You shouldn't be relying on your tea kettle to just provide you with boiled water. If you are, that means your water has come to a boil, and it's too hot. The heat can make those delicate tea leaves taste bitter and less sweet. Studies show that hot water can also destroy delicate, health-promoting compounds like catechins. For the perfect cup of tea, you want your water to be just under a rolling boil. For a visual reference you want to see small bubbles coming to the surface.
Now, there isn't one temperature that works for every tea, each blend is different. For example, green tea should be brewed between 75 and 80 degrees while the water for black tea should come to 90 to 100 degrees C. To be this precise, it might be worth investing in a tea kettle with a thermometer.
Are You Steeping For Too Long?
Don’t set it and forget it! Like temperature, the length of time you steep your tea for will vary based on the leaves. White teas should steep between one and three minutes, green for three minutes, and black for three to five minutes. Any longer and your tea will become bitter as it releases tannins. And, yes, tannins are the same compounds you find in wine.
Are You Not Steeping Long Enough?
As a rule of thumb, if your tea is too hot it will become bitter, too cold and you won't extract the right compounds. Depending on the chemical composition of the compounds locked in tea, they are released in specific stages in the steeping process, according to a Food Chemistry study. The first compounds that come through when you submerge those tea leaves in water are the chemicals that contribute to the tea's aroma and flavour profile. Following that, is when the beneficial micronutrients, the flavanols and polyphenols are released. Lastly, the heavier micronutrients and the bitter tannins are released. If you don't steep your tea long enough, you may be missing out on these beneficial compounds and you may not get as much caffeine as you wanted!
Are You Buying Supermarket Grade Tea in Tea Bags?
They may be convenient, but supermarket grade tea bags aren't the best way to reap the benefits of tea. Your standard supermarket tea bag contains the leftover, broken tea leaves, called dust & fanning. This is simply the leftover ground leaves that didn't qualify to be used as loose-leaf tea. These finely broken tea leaves have less essential oils and release more bitter tannins than whole leaf tea.
At Tea Now we only bag whole leaf tea. We also only bag specific quantities of each ingredient so we can make statements about the contents of each tea bag and the related health benefits. We prefer not to sell loose leaf tea as it becomes difficult to make specific wellness statements about the health benefits of a blend when we don’t control the quantity of each ingredient being brewed.
If you don't have the patience for loose leaf tea, no problem. Look for brands like Tea Now that are packaged in biodegradable pyramid tea bags. These are typically higher quality teas and the bag is specifically designed to allow for proper water flow. It also has a leg up on the traditional tea bags since those flat bags are often made from bleached paper, which can add chemicals and additional flavours to your tea.
Are You Reusing Your Tea Bags?
It's time we crush the myth that you shouldn't use the same tea bag twice. With high-quality teas like Tea Now’s, you'll actually experience unique flavours after two or three steeps. These are flavours that you wouldn't taste after just one steeping. In order to do this properly there is one rule: don't let your tea leaves stew once they have been infused. Make sure that when you remove the tea leaves from your cup, you let them drip dry. It will prevent the leaves from becoming bitter.
What Is The Quality Of Your Water Like?
For the absolute best cup of tea, you'll want to use filtered water. Tap water is disinfected with chlorine and may contain sediment, fluoride, and other minerals, many of these compounds that can contribute to off flavours in your tea. Bonus tip: if you need to use tap water, just make sure to use cool not hot water. While it's true that using hot water will bring the water up to a boil faster, it adds additional impurities from your home's water heater.
Are You Adding Milk & Sugar?
It won't necessarily reduce the health benefits of tea; however, it will affect the full flavour of the tea and will certainly increase the number of calories in your cup. According to a study published in Public Health, 33% of tea consumers drink tea with calorie add-ins. The most popular add-ins for tea are sugar or sugar substitute, honey, and whole or reduced-fat milk. This same study found that doctoring up your cup can add an additional 69 calories to your cup, which can add up quickly if you aren't paying attention. If you need to use add-ins, opt for healthier options like low-calorie milk alternatives and use small amounts of natural sweeteners like organic honey.
Do You Have The Right Cup?
Because you steep tea at a relatively high temperature, you'll want it to cool down before you drink it. The larger surface area of a wide-mouthed cup, as opposed to a standard small-mouthed and tall coffee cup, will allow the top of your tea to cool down enough so you can drink it. The shallowness of the cup will also limit how much tea you pour in at a time. That way, when your tea is at the right sipping temperature, the whole cup will be the right temperature throughout.
Keep these in mind the next time you put the kettle on, and if you needed any more convincing to order some delicious, organic tea from Tea Now, it might be worth taking a look at last week’s blog post, “Your Health & Tea”.
Kerri Imrie has a Diploma in Business Management and is the founder of Tea Now.
Kerri is passionate about holistic health. Her goal is to empower people to take control of their health and show that the quality of our lives is directly linked to how we treat our bodies and minds. You can follow her @teanow.au
Kerri is not a qualified health practitioner. Always consult a health professional before deciding if a health product is right for you.