Brewing tea

[crankin]

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with brewing their tea with tea leaves and not bags. I recently bought a tea infuser and I'm a little annoyed that no matter what I do, no matter what type of tea leaves I use, I always end up with dust at the bottom of the cup from tea that escaped the infuser. I bought one with the smallest holes / mesh I could find (link below). Is there any way to avoid having this happen?

Amazon.com: swissgold® TF 200 Tea Ball: Home & Garden

 

[GB]

I brew loose leaf tea almost every day. The first thing I will tell you is get rid of the infuser. The tea leaves should go directly in the pot and the water poured directly on the leaves. Those leaves need room to expand. Depending on what type of tea you are brewing they can expand quite a lot.

Where are you getting your tea? That might help answer your question.

 

[crankin]

I have tried teas from Teavana, Mighty Leaf, and Adiago. I like Teavana's best so far.

If you just let the leaves go straight into the pot how do you ever strain it out so that the water is not full of tea leaves? Or do you just not mind having some of it in your cup? I don't like getting to the bottom and having a bunch of stuff there.

 

[GB]

Teavana is my favorite as well. You may want to try their "perfect tea maker". I have one at home (the large one) and the small one at the office. It makes making tea very easy.

If you don't use something like the perfect tea maker and you are just using a pot then you just place a strainer in your tea cup when you pour the tea in. The cast iron pot I have has a mesh strainer that sits in the pot. It is designed for you to put the strainer in the pot and put the leaves in and brew it that way, but I found that there is not enough room for the leaves to expand that way so I just take the strainer out and use it in my cup when I pour the tea.

I can't recommend the perfect tea maker enough though. You can find it here.

 

[VeraBlue]

First, warm your teapot with warmed water as you boil the water for your pot.

Then, put the tea leaves in the tea pot (not not not the kettle). Put a strainer over your cup (think colander...only pretty) After they have steeped a sufficient amount of time, pour the tea from the pot into your cup. The strainer will catch almost all of the leaves. The tiniest dust of leaves should remain at the bottom of the tea pot.

Three of Cups in New Orleans has a magnificent variety of teas.