… this is what it seems to take to get me going these days, as I slog through a never-ending project that sometimes I seem to be making such slow progress on, I wonder if I’m moving backwards.
So I get up, make a large pot of strong black tea that I share with my husband, walk him to the subway to get moving, and then when I get home either make myself a pot of Earl Grey, or make myself a cup of black coffee and THEN make myself a pot of Earl Grey. Later in the afternoon, when it's time for my gingerbread cookie (I've become addicted to "Contessa" cookies by Bahlsen, the illustrious maker of Choco-Leibnitz cookies, which are like a better version of the LU Little Schoolboys), I make ANOTHER pot of tea, though sometimes decaffeinated English Breakfast. Yes, I drink a lot of tea these days - A LOT of tea. In fact, when I walk past cafes, and feel like having a nice cup of something and then tell myself I shouldn't spend $4.00 on a beverage because I am an economical girl, I think, "I know, I'll just go home and make tea!" and then I drink some more.
Now, I've always been rather proud that I know how to make tea. "But everyone knows how to make tea!" you might say. "Just take hot water and pour it over a tea bag!"
Mais non! I have encountered many people (even very nice people who I like very much) who have the alarming habit of heating their tea water in the microwave, which I think is really reprehensible because the tea tastes off - weird, stale, no matter how horribly hot the water is. And I also know nice people who just pour hot water from an urn over a teabag. Of course that'll do if that's the only way to get a tea fix, but it's definitely not how tea should be made.
So, here is how my mother taught me to make tea:
- you bring a kettle of water to a FULL BOIL - big, lively bubbles!
- when the water is at a rolling boil, it's ready to be used immediately (don't just let it sit there, boiling and boiling, or the tea won't taste as nice)
- splash a bit of this boiling water at the bottom of the tea pot to warm it, then dump that
- pour the boiling water over the tea bag(s) (or if you are fancy over a suitable amount of tea leaves)
- Allow to steep somewhere up to five minutes, depending on how strong you like it, otherwise it gets quite bitter (though I often end up drinking it like that anyway)
My husband had the nerve to ask me WHY the water shouldn't sit on the heat and boil and boil and boil, and all I could say is that the water then tastes weirdly flat. Unlike me, he has a scientific mind, so after some thought he suggested that perhaps it was because as the water boils, it loses oxygen. So I ran to the internet and looked it up and discovered that I've underestimated my husband, he is actually a genius, because he was right!
But I also learned something else from the internet: little did I know it, but I could be making tea MUCH BETTER.
I could be making tea using an ELECTRIC KETTLE. To think that after all these years of considering myself a superior tea-maker, many people might look down on my approach with the same disdain that I look down on heating water in the microwave!!
The advantage of an electric kettle is that you can pour your boiling water over the tea WHILE IT IS STILL BOILING, whereas when you heat water on the stovetop, it stops boiling as soon as you remove it from the heat.
I told myself, "Well, you have been enjoying your tea all these years with no electric kettle - in fact, mankind has been enjoying tea for most of its existence with no electric kettles... surely you do not need an electric kettle now, just because the internet has put this idea into your head?
But the idea is there! The tea could be better! I hate gadgets but I am beginning to be tempted ... I can just picture myself, pouring bubbling, boiling water out of one of these sleek devices...
The dangers of google...
P.S. No, this picture has nothing to do with tea, I just was amused by all the things popping up over the hedges (the roses, then the heads of the statues). Also the gray sky suggests a day when an extra cup of tea would be very welcome.
P.P.S. I don't drink much green tea, but I read somewhere that green tea, like coffee, should be made with water that's scalding-hot but not quite boiling
Comments