How Do You Make Tea

How Do I Make Tea

So you've hit this site, and you're like...dang how do you make tea? Then you see me, and I'm like...dang I'll show you how you make tea. You know it can't be rocket science. Like me, you've tried searching everywhere for some answers. And like me, you're probably not going to succeed with all of those crazy, cash-hungry idiots out there.

In my culture (try guessing where Kew comes from!), tea is everything. I really don't know which teas people serve in restaurants and stuff, but we just do. We don't drink water, we drink tea. And when I was young, I'd ask my mom some questions like, say, "Why do we drink tea?" and "How do you make tea?". See? I ask the same questions. My mom would just reply in her native tongue, "Child, you put this in there, the water in there, and wait". Doesn't that sound so simple? Was that how to make all teas? To make green tea, to make iced tea, to make bubble tea, to make chai tea, and to make sun tea, you just "put this in there, the water in there, and wait"? It must have been so much more complicated, but what did I know as a kid? I brushed off the skeptic side of me and tried to do what my mom instructed. Result? Some bitter, COLD water, and wet tea leaves and bags. What a waste of time.

If you want to know how to make a cup of tea, apparently you have to know that the water has to be boiling first. Man, if only I knew that earlier. It turns out that, for every tea, there's a 'perfect temperature' for the water. Apparently you also have to know that you can't put 120 C water into every single tea out there. It's not extremely specific, however. They might vary by 10-20 degrees centigrade but definitely not by 2-3.

How do you choose a tea? Well it depends on what you want. Rumor has it that there are green tea health benefits, there are some herbal teas that cure the 'bad stuff' in your body, and there are some that just relax you. In any health class you might take in your life, the teachers there will feed you some weird sentences like "tea and coffee are bad for you". Coffee I can understand, but tea depends on which tea you're freaking drinking. Digression mode on.

Let's move back, how about...4700 years back into history. That's when the first tea was discovered or brewed. The Chinese emperor first discovered a tea in the 2700 BC. The Chinese people have been drinking tea since then. Why the hell would you argue that making a simple tea would be bad for you? I argued that point directly a few years back at one of those cheesy health conferences. They were discussing the various effects of alcohol, then suddenly segued into the topic of coffee, and eventually tea. They passed around a few organic loose leaf teas, like black and white tea leaves, and continued to bash the idea of drinking tea.

You know what I did? Acted like a student, and raised my hand. "My grandparents, my parents, and I drink tea every single night. They took me through the tea making process when I was young, and I've been showing people simply how to make a cup of tea ever since. My grandparents are past 100 years old now, and my parents look 20 years younger than their age. How is drinking tea a bad thing? I even heard that there are green tea health benefits."

You know how they responded to that? "Maybe they drink it to relax, which is quite similar to alcohol's effects." BULL. CRAP. Those overrated, undereducated, uncultured lecturers don't know what they're talking about. They're comparing tea to alcohol? Nonsense. The art of tea making is nothing but gold, and drinking tea shouldn't ever be a problem. If you don't know how to make a cup of tea, you're missing out on one of the best opportunities in your life. The sheer diversity of the different teas (don't mind the genetically modified) can demonstrate the thousands of years of history behind a simple plant that has been a staple in everything in the world. Random fact: did you know that one of the major trade products since the 1600s is tea? Remember? The Boston Tea Party... digression mode off.

Now, you might be wondering about the detailed process in making tea. To make a cup of tea, you'll obviously need a teapot. For any university dorm I'd head to the local import store and grab one for about $5. I've used the same one since I graduated and it hasn't broken or given me any problems yet. Put some water on to boil (you can invest in a water boiler if you really want) and wait. Once the water is boiling, you can go ahead and put the tea leaves in the middle of the tea pot (there should be a designated compartment) and pour the water in. You'll have to wait anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes, depending on your tea. Go too long and you'll have some pretty bitter tea. Don't wait long enough and you have flavored water. Green tea? Try 2-3 minutes. Black tea? Try 3-5 minutes.

And, well, there you have it! How do you make tea? THAT'S how you do it. Now please note that you don't have to through your loose tea leaves away if you used loose leaves. I sometimes make/drink enough tea using one set of tea leaves so that the end product is colored water and I don't really taste much anymore. Really though it doesn't matter. I just do it cause I'm not quite ready to get another set of leaves. If you have tea bags, I'd stick with 2-3 runs with each set pair/set of bags. Those things aren't too good. When you're done, though, you can use that kind of stuff for skin care. It's pretty cool.

When you run out of tea leaves you gotta know where to get good ones right? If you're on the go, eh, just stick with tea bags. Tea leaves require extra hardware for storage. To really make the tea nice and solid, you might want to head to the local tea shop. Or you can head to a local Asian supermarket. I'm not being racist (hey I'm Asian...). They have some really good tea selections there. A third option is to buy tea online. While I really don't like this method because I've gotten some bad tea leaves before, the selection is absolutely wonderful. I simply cannot deny that. It's not just about green tea, white tea, black tea, sun tea, and chai tea anymore. You have apple, chocolate, vanilla, lemon, strawberry, and orange now! It's just really cool. I bought some vanilla tea leaves online once. Picked out the bad ones, threw them away, and proceeded to brew, steep, and drink. Tasted like freaking ice cream tea. It's so awesome. But again, if you don't want to deal with having to pick out bad tea leaves, especially if you don't know the difference, you'll just want to head to the tea shop. They're just as good.

So now, you can make your own tea. Now, you can make spearmint tea, make black tea, make white tea, make green tea, make chai tea, make sun tea, make thai tea, make strong tea, make the best tea!