I’ve been drinking iced Earl Grey with no sweetener for years. How do you do your brew?
I mostly drink Shan tea which has added toasted sticky rice flavour and a very strong black tea with milk and sugar, the way indians introduced back in colonial time.
Shan tea is simple. Just put it in a flask with hot water, wait a bit and drink slowly.
Black tea with milk has to be brewed hard though. Tannins are part of the flavour. I personally brew for about 15 to 30 mins. Actual tea stalls brew much longer, like hours long. Also tea leaves to water ratio is quite low as well. The tea needs to be fairly tart. Then we add evaporated milk and sweetener. A serving should be quite small because the tea is strong. May be around 100-150ml.
As a British person, I want to go mad with the downvotes here.
Wondering how it is done in Britain is a big part of what inspired this question. What would your say is the common method?
Tea bag in a mug. Boil the kettle. Pour boiling water into mug. Give it a little stir and leave it for a couple of minutes. Remove tea bag. Add sugar and milk to desired taste. I’d say that’s probably the way most brits make a cup of tea.
Whether or not you have sugar is quite controversial too. I was raised in a “look down on the sugar people” family. Some people are more live and let live. I think I try to be the latter but if you say you want 3 sugars I have my nans voice in my head going “If you hate the taste of tea that much just have something else”.
Whatever black tea steeped for slightly longer than whatever it says, teaspoon or two of sugar, and a splash of milk. I mostly drink black coffee though.
Water in the microwave. Cheap Lipton tea bag for five mins. A little cashew milk. It’s fine.
Three ways, depending on circumstances and need.
First is the fast cup. Nuke a cup with tea bags in for 2 and a half minutes, fuck around while walking when it beeps, mix it up. Drink. It gets the job done fine overall, but you lose spme of the delicate flavors from any tea.
Second is the almost as fast, but better. Nuke the water for three minutes, add preferred tea, wait four minutes and enjoy.
Third is more traditional and gives the best tea. Since I don’t have a kettle that will keep hot water ready, I bring the water to a boil in a pot. Loose tea only, no bags, in a steeper in the cup. Pour water over tea, wait four minutes, begin fixing.
I’m a sweet and milky guy. Two sugars, splash of milk for an 8 ounce mug. It’s almost always earl grey, though I will do chai. That being said, every now and then I have breakfast tea (English or Irish) with one sugar and lemon.
Iced tea I do southern style. Big pitcher, super strong, lots of sugar. Sometimes lemon, but usually not.
Electric kettle and french press.
- Add sweetener and vanilla extract to mug.
- Fill and start kettle.
- Add loose leaf Earl Grey and lavender to french press.
- Pour boiling water into french press.
- Steep for 3 minutes.
- Press and pour the tea into the mug.
- Add a splash of oat milk.
- Stir and enjoy.
It’s called a London Fog and it’s delicious.
Loose jasmine tea in a tea ball, boil water on the stove in a kettle, pour over the tea & steep 3 minutes (more than that and it goes bitter). Remove tea ball, add a small spash of milk & enjoy.
My mum uses tea bags and adds the milk right over the bag as it steeps. For some reason that enrages me, so I turn away when she’s up to that nonsense.
Cold brew over night, unsweetened
Big pinch from a cheap 1 kilo bag of black tea, in a pint glass, strain into other pint glass.
Mostly drink coffee, but some days I want something more relaxing.
We have a hot waterdispenser for tea, we drink tea day and night. It saves electricity over a normal watercooker and it is convenient.
Fresh mint or fennel, ginger, camille, or tea in a baggy, earl grey I like best
I put loose leaf tea (usually a blended black tea such as English breakfast) in a basket in my mug and then pour boiling water from my kettle over it and let it sit for about 3-4 minutes. Remove the tea and add a bit of sugar and milk, stir and enjoy. I’ve got one of those “smart” mugs so my tea stays hot for the entire time I’m drinking it.
Boiling water. Kettle at home and Kuereg with no pod at work. A half teaspoon of sugar. A bit of soy milk. And usually ice.
Edit: not as common, but 90 seconds in microwave works fine.
Just a green tea bag in a mug with hot water. I leave the tea bag in the whole time. No milk or sugar. Sometimes I’ll drink celestial herbal tea, but it’s very strong if you leave the tea bag in too long.
- Heat water to 70 degrees using electric kettle.
- Put loose leaf green tea in a strainer thingy. Leave room for it to expand 4 times as big
- Swoosh some of the 70 degree water around a glass kettle to heat it up, pour it out.
- Put strainer with tea in glass kettle.
- Pour water over tea.
- Let sit for a few minutes.
- Drink.
- Reuse the same leafs throughout the day using same steps.
I usually use unflavored green tea with decent quality. Very different from tea bags.
