Melissa’s Cozy Teacup

Where did the weekend go? I have home group tomorrow and I am not at all ready! Ack!

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Today, I’m going to give a little visual on some different cuts and types of tea.

In the above picture, the teas are as follows:

1. This is a ‘plain’ if you can call any tea plain, black tea from a round tea bag which is very popular in England (Tetley) and finds its way frequently into my cup. Notice how small the pieces of tea are? If you were to brew it for the same amount of time as say #s 3-7, using the same amount of water, you would end up with bitter tasting tea. BTW all ten numbers have roughly the same amount of tea-1 teaspoon. Remember that old teaser-which weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks? Well, of course they both weigh the same, but feathers are much less dense than bricks and therefore take up more space. Same idea with tea leaves. The smaller the leaf, the less steep time. The larger the leaf, typically, the longer the steep time. There are exceptions to almost every rule (except gravity-it’s the law!lol) and there are some exceptions to the steeping time of teas. I usually steep #1 for 5 minutes but it is in an 8 oz mug. I would not do so in a standard 6oz teacup.

Tea #2 is a grocery store tea bag of green and black jasmine tea, however, it has much more in it than just what I’ve mentioned so far. It also contains; green tea, black tea, natural citrus and jasmine flavor with other natural flavors, chamomile flowers, lemon grass, jasmine flowers and lemon peel. Quite diverse for a grocery store shelf.

Tea #3 is Monk’s Blend. Now we are getting into loose tea. See how much bigger the leaves are?

Tea #4 is called Victorian.

Tea #5 is a Chocolate with rose petals blend.

Tea #6 is a Banana flavored tea.

Tea #7 is Russian Caravan.

Tea #8 is not a tea but an herb called lavender. Herbal teas are called tisanes.

Tistane/Tea #9 is peppermint.

Tisane/Tea #10 is a blend of Chamomile and peppermint.

Steep times: tea bags 3-4 minutes depending on the size of the cut. Loose tea 5-7 minutes, sometimes even 10 but that is rare. Herbal teas and green teas use not such hot water (herbals less hot than greens) and again, depending on the cut steep for about 3-4 minutes.

Please post any questions you might have in comments.