Tea can be a confusing subject when you haven't grown up with it and are trying to understand it from advertising. As all of us from the Commonwealth would like to have a decent cup of tea when visiting the USA, and no doubt there are many Americans who could also benefit from a good cuppa, here is a brief guide to tea: What it is and how to make it.
The word "Tea" is used in three different ways. Tea is a plant - a bush native to Asia. The leaves of this plant are steeped in water to make the drink called "tea". And, just to be confusing, English-speaking people have then taken to calling anything made from some plant material steeped in water "tea", even if it has no actual tea in it. Even if you wouldn't drink it (compost tea...).
This final point is what makes tea appear confusing. If someone who is unfamiliar with tea goes shopping for tea, they are overwhelmed by the immense variety of things they could buy that are labelled "tea". Should I get rosehip-infused-lemon-balm tea, or maybe strawberry-and-guava tea? And the shop shelves, and websites, are full of this stuff. Some of it is good and well recognised tea that people actually drink regularly (e.g. Earl Grey, a venerable blend of tea and bergamot, I frequently drink it myself). Other stuff is just random herbs mixed together to see what people are crazy enough to pay money for, and might be nice but are not really tea. If you don't know tea you won't know the difference, and the best way to extract money from people is to sell them a "tea selection" containing a small amount of good tea and a load of different varieties of rubbish, so they only drink a small amount of what they bought and are back sooner to buy more of the one thing that was actually decent. Steer clear of these, someone's after your money.
Forget all this complexity. Tea is simple.
There are fundamentally only two types of tea: Black tea, and Green tea.
If you pluck leaves off the tea bush, and dry them in a very simple manner, you have "green tea" (or "white tea" which is essentially the same thing).
If these leaves are then cured following a more complex process to preserve them and alter the flavour, you have "black tea".
Traditionally, black tea was exported to England from Asia, because it stored better than green tea. So that's what English-speaking people got used to drinking. So, in English, if someone says "tea" they mean black tea. If they want "green tea", they'll say "green tea", as it's considered a speciality product. If they'd prefer "some weird herbal concoction" they'll say that too. If they just say "tea", they ALWAYS mean simply "black tea".
Buying black tea
To keep it really simple, here's some examples of what you should actually be able to find on the shelves at Walmart:
Good quality tea:
Twinings English Breakfast
Average quality tea:
Lipton Black Tea
Probably rubbish tea, but cheap (I've never drunk these but I'm assuming it's the same stuff that is in the store-label boxes here):
Great Value,
National Cup
The good tea will be made from younger leaves, while the cheap stuff will be old leaves and floor sweepings of dust that were rejected from all the named brands. Cheap tea will have a bitter taste, and if you broke open the teabags you'll find they'll be filled with more powder and fewer recognisable pieces of leaf.
If you're expecting guests, or trying tea for yourself, buy something that is decent quality. Twinings and Lipton are internationally recognised brands so should be readily available. Dilmah is even better, I just couldn't see it online at Walmart so didn't post a link. You can experiment with cheap tea later if you're going to be drinking a lot, to find what doesn't taste terrible.
Making black tea for a guest
This is very simple. Just stick to this order of steps, the order is important.
- Put tea bag in a cup or mug.
- Pour boiling water onto the tea bag until the cup is about 3/4 full.
- From this stage, each person has some slight variations in how they prefer their tea. So hand it over to your guest now to let them finish for themselves.
If at home: Show your guest where to find the milk, sugar and spoons, and let them finish it as they like it. They will probably leave the cup brewing for a few minutes before doing anything with it.
If in a restaurant setting: Serve the guest the cup of tea, a small jug of milk (2oz is more than enough), some sugar, and a small spoon they can use to mix it.
If preparing it for yourself: Leave the tea to brew until the water is all nicely golden (everyone has a different preference as to how long to brew it for, feel free to experiment). Remove the teabag. Optionally, add a small amount of milk (until it is a caramel colour) and/or 1-2 teaspoons of sugar to taste, and stir. The most common way for an English-speaking person to have tea is with some milk, but no sugar.
Making green tea for a guest
In the unlikely event that your guest wants to drink green tea rather than black tea, this is even simpler. Use a "
green tea" teabag. Follow steps 1 and 2 above, forget step 3 as nobody has milk in green tea. Just give it to them with the teabag in the cup, and a spoon. They'll remove the teabag when it's brewed to their satisfaction.
I hope this is useful to somebody.
