- Along with the description of the teas, we offer some recommendations for their preparation.
- These recommendations are only suggestions based on our experience. Certainly, every tea lover should prepare his/her favourite tea according to his/her personal taste.
- The basic rule for making tea: tea should be brewed with boiling water. Green tea and White tea, however, differ: the water should be brought to boil and then left to cool down to the appropriate temperature as stated in the recommendations.
- A general rule for caffeine-containing tea varieties: an infusion of up to 3 minutes has a stimulating effect, over 3 minutes a calming effect.
- After tea is brewed it should be poured through a strainer into a pre-heated teapot.
- Green tea can be infused several times; this reduces the bitterness of some varieties.
- Always use boiling hot water to prepare fruit, herbal and rooibos tea and let it brew for at least five to ten minutes. That is the only way to obtain a safe food.
Tea is traditionally being brewed by putting loose leaves into the teapot. Once the tea has steeped for the proper amount of time, the leaves have to be separated from the liquid. The use of sieves will avoid the need to filter the tea. You should however take into consideration that tea tends to absorb external smells and flavours. A cotton sieve will therefore very soon have taken in the aromatic mixture and colour of your favourite tea sorts. This is why we are recommending to use a separate cotton sieve for each tea family.
Stainless steel is a suitable material for sieves and tea eggs as stainless steel is flavourless and can easily be cleaned. They should be selected so large that the tea has sufficient space to swell. Only in this way the fine aromas develop properly.
Tea fans who love many different grades will best be served by paper filters. After steeping these can easily be disposed of into the compost together with the tea leaves.
No matter which option you will choose – be sure of always leaving enough room for the leaves to swell so that the flavours can develop to their best.
Preparing Tea – amount of leaves and infusion time
Tea can only unfold its full aroma with the right preparation. The variety of tea grades implies that there are quite a range of different ways to prepare tea. The correct water temperature, the exact amount of tea, water hardness and, not least, the infusion time, all play an important role. But you can do it just as well in a simple way and test out which amount of tea and steeping time you will need to obtain your individually favourite tea. And very soon you will know exactly how to prepare it. We want you to enjoy our teas to the fullest.
Find some basic information concerning the different tea grades here:
Black Tea
To prepare a Black Tea pour freshly boiled water over the leaves. The lighter the tea the shorter the infusion time. Darjeeling e. g. needs 2 to 4 minutes. Malty powerful Assam however will need easily 5 minutes to brew.
As a general rule: A shortly brewed black tea is stimulating because of the contained caffeine. After a longer infusion time the caffeine is more and more tied by the tannines and therefore less and less stimulating. After more than 5 minutes infusion time the tea can take in a bitter note.
Green Tea
For this tea we recommend a brewing temperature of 80° to 90°C, for some sorts (e. g. Sencha) even lower. Please boil the fresh water shortly and let it cool down before pouring it over the leaves. Infusion time is 1 to 3 minutes.
Green Tea can be brewed up to three times. You should however not let the leaves dry out in the meantime. As per the Japanese saying: "The first infusion is as bitter as life, the second one as strong as love and the third one as mild as seniority".
White Tea
White tea has an extremely delicate taste right from the beginning. It doesn’t get bitter, meaning it can be infused multiple times. The aroma and intensity change in the process. We recommend a brewing temperature of 70°C to 80°C for 2 to 4 minutes.
Oolong
Prepare an Oolong by shortly boiling the water and pouring it over the leaves as soon as the bubbling has stopped (corresponding to 75° to 90°C). Infuse 3 to 5 minutes.
Those tea fans wanting a perfect Oolong brewing will pour the non bubbling water over the loose tea leaves and then immediately pour off the water again. Then let the leaves rest for 1 minute and pour water once more. Infuse 2 to 4 minutes and filter the tea.
Matcha
You can vary the thickness and flavour intensity of your matcha to suit your taste.
Place approx. 2 grams of matcha into a cup or, better still, into a matcha bowl. Boil the water and let it cool down to 80°C. Pour about 80 ml and whisk with the traditional bamboo whisk for about 25 seconds using a rapid back and forth motion. This will produce no lumps and a fine froth will appear on the surface. Add the rest of the water - approx. 120 ml (about 60°C). ..and ENJOY! (If you like a thicker consistency, use more matcha)
There is no brewing time, as is usual with most teas, because the tea is drunk in its completeness, including the precious nutrients of the entire tea leaf.
Fruit Blend
Depending on the sort and your personal tasting preference infuse 5 to 10 minutes or even longer since it won't become bitter as it does not contain any tannins. After a longer infusion time some blends tend to turn slightly sour. Most of the time it tastes just as good cold as it does hot.
Herbal Tea
Herbal Tea is quite easy to prepare. Pour boiling water over the leaves and infuse 5 to 8 minutes. Cover the tea during infusion to keep the etheric oils inside and avoid letting them escape together with the water vapour.
Rooibos Tea
The brewing of Rooibos Tea is an easy one too. Use boiling water to brew and steep 7 to 10 minutes. As rooibos only has a low content of tannines it keeps its typical sweetness even after a longer infusion time. Drunk hot or cold, you will like its taste either way. It is thirst-quenching either way as well.