My mother is British and I should know this, I suppose. Anyway.
I am just about done drinking crappy coffee in the morning and I would really like to switch to tea. Besides, I think I’d have an easier time boiling water in an electric kettle in my classroom(I’m a teacher) than making coffee.
I really would like to make a kettle of tea instead of boiling water and pouring it over one bag in a cup. Is this possible? I know that boiling water is supposed to be poured over a teabag to get the best flavor, but don’t people boil water with tea bags in it to make a full kettle?
I’m pretty ignorant for the son of a British woman. I’m looking into a cheap kettle on Amazon. They have cheap plastic ones for $15 and a pretty reasonable glass one for $20. I glass better in any way?
I make almost nothing but tea in my Mr Coffee. I’ll put a shade less than one bag per cup (usually 9 or 10 for a 12 cup pot) in a paper filter in the basket and turn it on. Using a small 4 cup version at my old job I would use the full four. I’ve tried not using the filter and the tea comes out a little weaker; the paper seems to give it a more even flow and drip.
PS – I also use loose and brick/shaved tea and make it the same basic way. Judging the amount to use becomes a little bit of trial and error to taste. My rule is fault on the side of strong since I can always water it down a little if I can.
You can do this if you don’t boil tea bags. In other words boil water and add the tea and let it steep. Don’t put tea bags in water and boil it.
The tea kettle is used to heat the water. A tea pot to steep the tea. A cup to drink the tea.
If you want to use an electric kettle in your classroom making an entire kettle of tea it will be cold by the time you have finished your first cup. If you turn on the kettle containing tea and reheat it will soon be bitter.
We do this at home: an electric kettle we picked up at Walmart. We boil the water and pour it over a teabag and then steep. If you prefer loose tea, get either an infuser or fillable tea bags ( some supermarkets carry them).
I’ve only used electric kettles since childhood — excepting those off-periods when tried to heat a saucepan on coals because no electricity etc. — and I drink about 12 cups of tea a day, and I bought a new cheap emergency kettle for £8 3 days back.
I would never try and cook the tea inside any kettle. It would taste like old tar and mess with the element.
I cannot conceive of not using an electric kettle. Anything else is weird. Plus they were invented in England in the early 1890s because we need tea. So it is a sacred patriotic duty.
The best thing is that even the cheap electric kettles have more than one temperature setting - so if you feel like white or green tea, you can heat the water to 180 and have less bitter tea. Oolong likes 190. Black and most herbal teas like a full boil (not with the tea when boiling, but boiling water then poured into the teacup or teapot).
No. The kettle is for making hot water, which you then pour into a teapot with tea leaves in it. You don’t make tea in the kettle.
The key to good tea is the temperature of the hot water and the duration of steeping. For black tea, you want boiling water. For green tea, you want a much lower temperature, down to 60C for more delicate teas. The Japanese even have a special cup called a yuzamashi to let the hot water cool down.
Most types of teas are steeped for a couple of minutes. Too short and you don’t get much flavor. Too long, and it gets bitter. Which means you shouldn’t make a full pot, pour some out and let the rest sit in the pot with the tea leaves - either pour it all out or remove the tea leaves (easier with tea bags; impossible if you use loose tea leaves and the teapot doesn’t have a removable strainer, so don’t pour in too much hot water in the first place). You can add more hot water for an additional serving if you like (you can get two or three steeps out of the tea leaves usually).
Find a teapot at a yard sale, boil your water in whatever you want (even a microwave), and pour it over the tea. Or put the teabags into the electric kettle, I bet you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
I suppose you could make decent tea in the kettle if you let the water come to a boil first, then put some tea bags in, and remove the tea bags after a few minutes. I wouldn’t do it myself because it would tarnish the kettle. (Teapots are generally easier to clean than kettles.)
Well, then, the US has improved on the humble electric kettle! (Or more likely China has. I doubt my electric kettle was made in the US.) Mine, which is about 4 years old, goes in 10 degree (F) increments; newer ones I’ve seen have 5, 6, or even 11 heat settings.
The tea bags not in the boiling water thing was in response to the OP’s. “… don’t people boil water with tea bags in it to make a full kettle?” No, not unless they like bitter tea. HOWEVER, I’m gonna caveat myself on that. They are now making electric kettles with removable tea infusers. So one could, in an environment like a classroom where space and storage are tight, boil the water in the electric kettle and then add loose tea (or teabags, if one must) to the infuser and insert it into the electric kettle once it’s stopped heating. I wouldn’t serve it to the Queen, but for us mere mortals, it might be acceptable. But I’m a filthy American, so what do I know of tea?
Just try the difference between the two methods. Adding the tea to off-the-boil water just doesn’t taste strong enough. Some people might prefer that method, and it might be better for other sorts of tea than we’ve grown up with the UK and Ireland, but if you’re looking for “British penicillin” you put the boiling water to the tea.
Depends on the yard sale.
Still, why the fuck mess around with boiling water in a microwave when there’s a cheap dedicated implement that’s fast and pours immediately ?
I never get how teabags every make tea by steeping. When I boil water, pour it on a teabag, and wait, the teabag just sits on the top of the water, barely doing its job. Am I supposed to weigh it down with a spoon? I thought bobbing it up and down was considered wrong, too.
