Tea For Two. Review on Tata Tetley

In days of old people knew how to make a really good cup of tea and for that purpose they used a huge variety of tea leaves to suit their own individual tastes.

In the past to make a “proper” cup of tea, the teapot had to be warmed and only water that was actually boiling was to be used. After a quick stir the tea was left to brew for a few minutes, at the end of which the liquid was given another quick stir and poured through a tea strainer into a cup, which already had the right amount of milk in it. That was the way to make a good cup of tea. If the family wanted more tea, rather than brewing a new pot full mother would just add boiling water to the remnants. The second cup never tasted as good as the first, did it? But what if you just wanted a single cup of tea? The answer was to place one quarter of a level teaspoon of tea leaves in a very fine mesh tea strainer place it over the cup and slowly pour boiling water over it until the cup was full. Leave the strainer in place for a minute or so and remove to add milk and sugar to taste. A great cup of tea, that also removes the myth of milk in the cup first to make a better brew.

Then came the “tea bag” which was made so that people could brew an individual mug of tea as well as making a teapot full. That was the claim but in producing individual tea bags the manufacturers were dictating to the public how much tea they should use to make a cup of tea. You could try cutting a tea bag in half but all you get is a mouthful of finely ground tea leaves. Off course the contents of one tea bag can make two very nice mugs of tea if done properly. But most people use one bag per mug and are thus using twice as much tea as they need to and it is costing them twice as much and the manufacturer is getting twice as much profit.

We started with a square tea bag, followed by a round one and now even a pyramid shaped tea bag. But out of all the brands to choose from I have settled on Tetley, which had nothing to do with Sidney and the gaffer and Co or the shape of the tea bag. It just made a great mug of tea.

For more years than I care to remember I used Fresh Brew then it suddenly disappeared off the shelves and as it came in packets of 240 I looked around to find that at that time there was only Tetley who did the same. At £3.79 for 240 tea bags this was comparable to my previous choice so I still got my mug of tea for one and a half pence. (plus milk and sugar and gas for heating)

Today it is not necessary to go through the tea brewing ritual as the contents of a tea bag are akin to a powder and thus diffuse much more readily. But in order to get the full flavour without the “stewed” tea taste you still have to use boiling water and pour it directly onto the tea bag slowly so that the tea can brew quickly.

Many people having heard somewhere in the past that the milk should go in first just pour some milk into the mug, chuck in a tea bag and slosh in the water. The water may well have boiled and they turn off the gas, or electric, and then get the pots out and get them ready. Of course by this time the water has cooled a little, not enough not to scald your hand should you spill some, but enough to not brew the tea. Then because the tea hasn’t really brewed they end up with a cup of hot milky looking fluid with a hint of tea colour in it. So they take a spoon stir the cup and squeeze the tea bag against the side of the cup until the colour comes out and blends with the milky fluid making what looks like a nice cup of tea and tastes awful. It taste awful because the tannin has been squeezed into the drink in the same way that a refilled teapot with already brewed leaves in releases the tannin at the second brewing. That’s why the second cup was never as good as the first.

The right way is to pour the boiling water over the tea bag slowly and once the mug is full you should just about be able to see the spoon in the bottom of the mug. Take the tea bag out but do not squeeze it, then add milk and sugar to taste.

Finally if brewing tea using tea bags in a teapot, once the tea has been brewed take out the tea bags to prevent that stewed tea taste.