Tried some loose tea...is it supposed to leave grit in the pot?

Cafe Society
1

I finally decided to take the next step into tea snobbery and try brewing some loose tea. I went to a local British import shop (which is the only place I’ve found to get loose tea locally, except for the local upscale supermarket which sells Republic of Tea stuff), and picked up a package of Taylors of Harrogate Pure Assam.

I needed to have the proper equipment, so I also picked up a simple ceramic teapot from Bed Bath and Beyond, and this infuser from that snooty market. I thought the fine mesh basket would be better, because I used a tea ball once and didn’t care for it.

So with everything in place, it was time to experience the sheer orgasmic thrill I was promised when I tasted properly made tea for the first time. I measured out my tea into the basket, put the basket in the warmed pot, assded boing water and 4 minutes later poured a piping cup of beautiful brown liquor. Then when I got to the bottom of that first tasty cup, I was taken aback by an odd sensation. “Is that…grit in my cup?” I looked at the bottom of the pot, and there was a layer of tiny black specks covering it.

Now, the holes in this basket are wee tiny…not like the huge, gaping orifices in a tea ball. But some of my tea must be smaller still. Upon further inspection, there appeared to be a noticeable amount of dust in my tin, amongst the generally much larger pieces. Okay, so I bought a tea that had some dust, and that probably has something to do with not paying enough for it, as opposed to some fancy-ass FTGFOP somethingorother. I can live with that…except that what I learned next didn’t make any sense at all.

I decided to get somewhat experimental and decided I could sieve out the dust. I put a spoonful of tea into my brew basket, then I shook it gently over some paper and watched the dust settle out. There wasn’t a much, but enough to cause that grit in my cup. I continued to shake it until nothing more came out. Satisfied that everything that could fit through the filter had ample opportunity to do so, I brewed a cup directly in the mug. Pulled out the basket, and still more grit! Pretty much the same amount as before. Now where did that come from? I got it all out, dammit!

So, someone help me out here. Did I just get some substandard schwag? I’m not up for gambling $20 to find out if a pricier batch would prevent this problem, especially if it’s supposed to behave this way.

Maybe it doesn’t like having the water poured through it it forcefully. The basket enables (and somewhat encourages) you to put the full force of the water falling form the kettle into the leaves. Could this be enough to quite literally knock the crap out of my tea?

In short, is this expected behavior? Or have I done (or purchased) something wrong?

Thanks for paying attention through this ramble. I owe you a cup of tea once I learn to make it properly.

2

sounds normal to me, when i brew up some loose-leaf stuff there’s usually some “grit” in the bottom of the cup

if you want a quick-and-dirty method that keeps the solids out (and may offend tea snobs, so much the better… :wink: ), i’ve found that putting the tea leaves in a paper coffee filter and using the coffee machine to make tea works well, if you want to make sure that most of the coffee flavor is out of the machine, run a pot of water thru the machine first (with no filter), should wash away most of the coffee residue

i found this works great for a quick cup of tea, run it thru the coffee machine, i actually have a small 4-cup coffee machine that i use for the sole purpose of making tea

3

This is expected behavior. It’s perfectly normal to have a bit of sediment in the bottom of your tea cup, just as it is when making coffee with a French press.

4

Yep, that’s normal. With loose leaf tea, there will be some pieces that a strainer can’t filter out.

5

Oh…why didn’t anyone tell me it was supposed to do that? I typed a novel for no good reason, it seems.

But I feel better knowing it’s part of the experience, as it were. The trio of quick responses is somewhat reassuring.

Thanks guys!

6

Errr…I gotta say that hasn’t been my experience. I’ve never run into grit. I vote for substandard schwag. To old and dried out. Try a different tea. Doesn’t have to be incredbily expensive.

7

American southerner chiming in here.

We do iced tea, not hot tea, traditionally speaking. The loose tea is tossed into a ceramic pot of water which has been brought to a boil —generally about 4 tbsp, — and left to steep in the water, which has been removed from the flame, for 4-5 minutes — and then the results (highly concentrated, very strong very dark tea) poured into the waiting pitcher, which has been prefilled with a layer of water to keep the pitcher from cracking from the influx of excessively hot beverage, Sugar (no real US Southerner drinks unsweetened tea; and you can’t add it later, it won’t dissolve) is added at this point, measured in cups (you’ll know you’ve got it right when the tea-taste is not bitter)/ and then additional water is added until the desired dilution is obtained.

This beverage, lukewarm, is then poured into tall glassed totally crammed with all the ice you can stuff into them, which will melt extensively and further dilute the iced tea, which should still be significantly stronger than tea you would voluntarily drink hot, and quite sweet.

The last glasses poured (to get to the relevant point) will always have lots of dregs of tea-leaf detrtus. In fact, all glasses will have a bit of it but only the last few glasses from the pitcher will exhibit it in meaningful amounts.
Conclusion: yeah, that’s tea. If you don’t see it, you’re dealing with some lousy freeze-dried instant concoction. Real tea is made from leaves and they leave footprints.
And hail to our British cousins who taught us to drink tea even if they never lived in the right climate to discover iced tea.

8

I guess West Virginia isn’t Southern enough…because growing up there, we always made our iced tea with bags. Not exactly instant, but not loose leaf, either.

But at least it was sweet. =)

9

If you’re looking for a local loose tea connection try a food co-op, especially one that deals with “natural” foods. They usually sell bulk products like loose tea.

10

Of course it leaves residue. How else do you read the tea leaves?

My grandma used to read tea leaves. She’d make sure more leaves than usual got into the cup when it was poured so there would be plenty to spell out the future. Then you’d sit, and drink and concentrate on the questions in your mind. When you were done - cup almost empty, but not quite - she would take it, give it a bit of a swirl, close her eyes for a moment and then look deep into the cup…

“Ooh! A horsie!” she’d say. “And that looks a bit like a car, well if those leaf bits were rounder they’d look like wheels, see.”

My grandma was the world’s only tea leaf psychic trained by cloud watchers. She couldn’t predict the future but she could see pretty pictures in the leaves. :wink:

11

Well yeah…but she went out of her way to put them there :slight_smile: .

And yeah, as folks have said, loose tea will often leave…leaves. Loose bits. Some.

But the OP is talking about “grit” and “dust”. Grit? That’s not good. That sounds like bad tea to me. Grit is not good!

12

Well, I guess grit was a slight overstatement. I’m not talking sandy, dirty mess like when you don’t wash the lettuce. But it does seem esentially “gritty” when you get little pieces of insoluble tea flakes and dust in your cup. Especially when it’s the pieces which are small enought to find their way through the basket, and therefore small enough to remain somewhat suspended in the tea.

I made a pot this morning, but poured the water in the pot beside the infusing basket, instead of into it. It definitely made a noticeable reduction in the amount of sediment. I may have to do it that way from now on.

13

Use t-sacs and you need never see any grit again. I love them.