tea leaves meet water
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 | tags: taking tea |fourth in a brew-tea-full Thursday series about taking tiffin with (black) tea in the NW USA.
Thursday Tiffin #4: tea leaves meet water
So far we have established that there may not be an electric tea kettle, the tea may be made from a Tea bag possibly without the aid of a tea pot. Today we get to the part of the process where American’s appear to have developed practices substantially at odds with my understanding of how to make a good cup of tea. Brit’s take a deep breath before reading the next paragraph. These people haven’t received the rigorous training we have, they are a tad tea-niave.
What are the criteria for timing when the tea leaves meet the water? I am told that for coffee contact with boiling water can burn the coffee, ruining the flavour. Not so for tea. Quite the contrary. The water should, MUST, be boiling (98 degrees recommended) when it first touches the tea leaves to maximise the quality of the infusion’s flavour. This one point appears almost unknown in the NW of the USA, my friends and Chinese descendents and commonwealth natives obviously excepted. It makes taking tea in a NW US restaurant, cafe or diner an almost ubiquitously sub-par experience. The server will normally bring you a cup of hot water. Not boiling, hot. With a teabag, or selection of individually wrapped teabags in a basket. You then have to find the black tea bag, hastily unwrap it, place it in the warm-water as quick as possible in order to get a well brewed rather than stewed flavor. For this one reason I rarely, if ever, order tea when eating out in the US 
When taking tea in the NW US
do not assume that the water and the tea leaves will meet each other at the most opportune moment for fabulous flavour
