I’ve been binge-watching British murder mysteries, so I’m seeing LOTS of tea being drunk.
Here’s what I can’t figure out: you put the loose tea in the pot and add boiling water and let the tea steep for x minutes. Then you pour out a cup. But the tea in the pot just sits there with the leaves, getting stronger and stronger. Or do the leaves sink to the bottom of the pot and just lie there, NOT making the tea any stronger? Or at least not so strong that it becomes undrinkable?
These are the things I wonder when I can’t sleep.
But it’s broad daylight in England now, so I shall eagerly await clarification.
The tea does keep on brewing, becoming darker and stronger. Reaching back to my childhood (the last time I regularly saw tea brewed) my mum would call it “stewed” when it had been sitting too long.
It gets stronger to a diminishing effect, and colder ( they used to cover the pot with something called a tea-cosy ); but one would continue to pour as wished, but topping up the cup with additional boiling water to maintain both ideal strength and heat.
In tea-shops or hotels etc., the waitress often brings a small metal jug with more hot water in it along with the initial tray with the teapot, milk, etc… If this gets cold, one could always ask for more hot water. Most other places they just serve a cup or mug of tea with water from a tea urn which boils water. These are best avoided.
Also, in general, if I’m having tea, I only put in enough leaves and water for the cups I’m going to serve right now, and make a fresh pot for the next lot.
As an aside, this is how a Russian samovar works. The tea is traditionally brewed in the pot until it’s very strong (one person told me it was actually boiled to produce almost an extract of tea), and hot water is added from the urn. In old (pre-electric) samovars, the water would be heated directly by charcoal burning in a vertical cylinder inside the urn, and the teapot would be placed on top of the smokestack to keep it warm.
When drinking English-style tea, you need a strainer to catch any leaves that may pour out of the pot. Some teapots have a strainer mounted in a little swinging basket at the tip of the snout. And you always pour the milk into the cup first; I was told this is (or originally was) to keep the hot tea from cracking the cup. (They must have been using really fine china!)
In some times and places this has been something of a shibboleth - with those who do not pour the milk in first looking down their noses at what they view as a “common” practice. You could describe someone as “rather MIF” meaning he inclined to membership of the social class who did pour Milk In First. (Don’t mind me. My maternal grandad used to tip his lunchtime tea into his saucer so it would cool down more quickly and he could get back from his lunch break in time. From that social stratum the distinction between those who do put the milk in their fine china first and those who do not is a rather fine one…)
Yes, it does keep getting stronger, colder and eventually - about half an hour - is “stewed” and best discarded. Even with a cosy for the pot, I usually find it’s too cold for my taste before the flavour is completely spoiled. Best practise is to make enough for 1 or 2 cups each, then a fresh pot if more is needed.
I think the use of teapots in the home is quite rare now but I always use one, even if it’s for 1 mug, though I do use bags not loose leaves (and strainer). A couple of years ago I needed a new tea cosy and it took a few tries to find a shop that had one.
Social convention and cracked cups notwithstanding, I always pour the milk in first simply because it’s easier to gauge the amount I like. I always use either whole milk (in Britain, I loved buying bottles of the stuff with the cream separated and then shaking them to mix the cream back into the milk) or evaporated milk. Homogenized whole milk just doesn’t give it the same texture as the bottled stuff.
When I was studying in Moscow, the nice lady who made our afternoon tea always had a can of sugared condensed milk waiting for me, but I suspect I’d find that a bit too sweet nowadays.
And I always use either brown or golden sugar at home. White sugar is just too sickeningly sweet for me now.
If you’re only making one cup at a time it makes more sense to me to do it right in the mug, I do it with a Finum basket style infuser…Upton Imports has a huge variety of teas, you can buy small sample packs for a dollar or so and try a few, I like their Russian Caravan and Baker Street blends.
While we’re on the subject, what is “builder’s tea”? The Two Fat Ladies (God rest both of them) used to talk about “good, strong builder’s tea” sometimes. Does that just mean tea that puts hair on your chest?
I’m going to pop in with a guess that it means tea that a construction worker would drink out of his thermos. Since he was a construction worker, it would be no-nonsense and very strong (cue stereotypes here).
For disposing of the tea leaves, I use one of these gadgets. You put in the tea, pour in the boiling water, and while it is brewing you pour the rest of the hot water into the pot to “hot the pot”. Just be sure to pour out the hot water before you decant the tea into the pot, which you do by just placing the gadget on top of the pot, which releases a valve and the tea flows through a filter directly into the pot. The gadget is easy to clean too, the filter comes out if you need to clean that separately. You can also make just a cup’s worth and then release the tea directly into a cup.
Usually, I just decant the tea after brewing into a small thermos. My GF is sensitive to overly bitter tea, so leaving it in the pot is a nonstarter. They make strainers that fit over the top of a cup or thermos, which work pretty well. I have pretty delicate china that we use for tea and haven’t ever had an issue with milk in last or first.