Like most tea lovers, I used to make tea from tea bags when I want a cup of tea after lunch. It does not mean I did not appreciate a good cup of tea. However, I just found it very troublesome to make tea from loose leaves in an office setting. And unlike coffee, there is just no Starbucks equivalent around even if I am willing to drive down the street and pay $2 plus for a cup of tea. Most tea lovers associate enjoying good tea with making tea with gaiwan or yixing teapot from premium tea leaf at home. This is definitely true. June and I do that at home whenever we get a chance. After a couple years of trial and error, I finally figure out some ways to make good tea at work without spending too much time and without messing up my desk.

Before I go into the details of the technique that I use, let’s discuss why one does not want to drink tea made from tea bags. I bet most of the readers of this tea blog is sophisticated enough to figure that tea made from most tea bags taste horrible. This is mainly because tea leaves are all broken in tea bags. There are 2 problems with broken tea leaves. Broken tea leaves are generally low grade “tea dust” that is left behind after the bigger tea leaves are picked. In addition, much of the flavor in tea is from its oil on the tea leaves. Tea oil is easily dried up if the leaves are broken. There are some higher quality tea bags. Those higher quality tea bags use larger leaves with roomier tea bag and/or having individual tightly sealed packaging to avoid drying up of tea leaves. However, I have yet seen any decent quality tea bags for Chinese tea.

In the future blog, I will share with you more about what works and what doesn’t when coming to making tea at work.

David from www.just4tea.com

Posted by admin / Pratical tips