Tea is a beautiful and healthy beverage enjoyed all over the world. It is a privilege to live large in the United Kingdom, as well as countries such as Japan and China (where it comes from) even as far as North America and the Middle East. It's a fun way to party or just have a quiet moment.
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Method 1 of 3: Serving English Tea
Step 1. Prepare for your tea
You can simply pour boiling water into a cup and enjoy the tea that way, but if you really want to serve English tea, you have to know what tea is best, and what equipment you need to use to serve your tea..
- Black tea is one of the most popular types of tea worldwide, but there are so many different types of black tea that it can be confusing to know what to serve. This ultimately depends on personal choice. The most common British black teas are Darjeeling, Ceylon and Assamese. You'll have to experiment to find what you like best.
- Of course you can just serve tea in a cup, but if you want to feel the right atmosphere for serving English tea, you need the right equipment. You will need a teapot (porcelain or ceramic), a teacup with a saucer, a sugar bowl, creamer, a teapot, a dirt bowl, and a plate for food.
- Remember that English tea time is usually around 4 o'clock, but you can serve it between 2 and 5 o'clock.
Step 2. Get the right foods
Traditionally, English tea is served with savones (small sandwiches), scones, and pastry, in that order. Of course, you can add your own variety, or just have one meal or another. Likewise, you can make the food yourself, or you can buy it from the store.
- Remember that all the food you serve should be available in small bite portions so you don't need to use cutlery.
- There are many different options for small sandwiches, depending on the type of bread you're using (white, wheat, rye, etc.) and the shape of the cut (square, rectangle, triangle, circle). Make sure to cut the edges of the bread. You can use sliced cucumber and cream cheese (and maybe add smoked salmon!), or sliced tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and water celery. You can also make pesto and chicken sandwiches. You can always make a mix of different types of sandwiches.
- For the scones you can make regular ones, or you can fancy them and add chocolate chip, or citrus flavor, or make lemon poppy seeds. You can serve it with fresh frozen cream and jam.
- For pastries there are very many different types. You can serve lime cake, almond shortbread, cheesecake, macaroon, biscuit, banana bread.
Step 3. Make the tea
Making the perfect tea can seem like a complicated alchemical process, but it's actually very simple once you get used to it and is an important part of the tea-serving process (because these events are not called afternoon 'scones').
- Take your teapot and boil the water. While you are using this, rinse your teapot with warm water. You want the pot of tea warm before pouring the hot water.
- Add the tea leaves (or bags) and pour in the hot water. You want one teaspoon per person and one for the teapot. More to use tea leaves than tea bags, but if you are using tea bags use one tea bag per person and one for the teapot, same with the leaves.
- Although the infusion time depends on the different tea types, if you are using Assam, Ceylon, or Darjeeling the infusion time is between 3 and 5 minutes. Of course, if you prefer strong or light tea, you may want to adjust the timing.
Step 4. Serve milk, sugar and lime
People want different things in their tea. Some people like lime and sugar, some people like milk (don't put milk and lime together as lime will thicken the milk). Make sure you have options available.
- You can add hot water depending on your choice of adding milk before pouring the tea or adding it after pouring the tea. There's no particular reason to do so in any way, other than personal preference (the ancients used to pour milk first so the cup wouldn't crack, but now that's not a problem anymore).
- Try to provide alternative types of milk for people who cannot consume dairy, such as almond milk, soy milk, or coconut milk. Each milk has its own taste that must be adjusted. Some dairy-free alternatives to milk tea are almond milk, certain types of coconut milk, and rice milk.
- You may also want to try providing a different sugar alternative as not everyone can eat regular refined white sugar. Try offering alternatives such as agave syrup, sugar-free substitutes, or Stevia.
Step 5. Be creative
Although there are many rules and certain ways of preparing English tea, that doesn't mean you can't be creative and make it fun. There's no point in drinking tea if you don't enjoy it, so find something creative to make your tea experience more enjoyable!
- Serve outside. There's nothing more pleasant than enjoying a special tea in the garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon. But make sure you check the weather forecast before doing this. You don't want rain or wind to disturb your afternoon.
- Serve fruit instead of cake, or with cake. This is a great idea especially if it's fruit season and you can get fresh local fruit.
- Enjoy tea time. When your guest comes home give him a small tea packet, or make a small cloth tea pot, something that will remind him of your lovely afternoon, but not be too expensive or bulky.
Method 2 of 3: Serving Chinese Tea
Step 1. Learn the terminology
To properly serve and prepare Chinese tea, you need to understand the different types of tea and the different equipment you use for the tea-making process. Keep in mind the style of Chinese tea and western tea is very different.
- There are several different types of tea to choose from: red tea (in the western world it is called black tea), green tea, white tea, Oolong tea and Pu-erh tea. Pu-erh and red teas are the thickest teas (both fermented), where green tea is the least processed and contains the most vitamins. White tea (which is only slightly fermented) has a mild and mild taste and quality Oolong has many health benefits.
- A Chinese teapot (called a Yixing teapot) is smaller than a western teapot, enough for about 1 cup (236 ml) of tea. You will need to use a different teapot for certain types of tea, as the clay of the teapot absorbs some of the tea essence.
- Chinese teacups look more like small bowls, rather than what westerners think of as teacups. It is very small, short and shallow, providing only a few sips, emphasizing the quality of the Chinese tea focus over the quantity.
- The Chinese tea filter will make sure your tea is free of leaf particles when you drink it.
Step 2. Prepare the equipment
You will need to warm and sterilize your teapot, filter, and drinking cup with hot water. Pour hot water into the teapot until it overflows and pour it on the lid as well. Do the same with the filter and cup. Urinate.
Step 3. Rinse your tea leaves
Put the right number of leaves in a teapot and fill it with hot water. Let the water overflow on the edge of the teapot until the water is clear. Replace the cap and then drain the rinse water. Remember to open the lid afterwards to avoid cooking the leaves.
- Never use an iron or your hands when handling tea leaves. Only use bamboo or wood.
- Usually the pitcher is or 1/3 filled with tea leaves depending on the number of guests or the type of tea you are serving (more leaves for thinner teas like white tea and less for Pu-erh, for example).
Step 4. Prepare the tea
There is a proper procedure for preparing Chinese tea like there is a proper procedure for preparing English tea, or Japanese tea. To get the right flavor, you need to follow a procedure specific to your particular type of tea.
- You have to make sure that you have the right temperature for the type of tea you are using. For example, green tea should not be boiled. It is better to heat it just enough for small bubbles to emerge from under the teapot. For Oolong or Pu-erh bring water to a boil. White tea should be around 68 degrees Celsius.
- Tea needs oxygen to taste good and therefore requires a porous container such as a clay teapot, not iron or glass.
Step 5. Pour the tea
Immediately pour your boiling (or hot) water into the teapot and pour it into the cup. You won't drink the first time you pour the tea, because it's time to prepare the cup for the tea. It provides flavor and warms your teacup and prepares it for drinking.
- Refill your teapot and empty the teacup into the water in the first teapot filled with warm water. This helps the teapot stay warm and restores the clay of the teapot to make the tea taste better.
- Your teapot should only cook for 10-30 seconds, so that's basically the time it takes to pour the water from the cup into the teapot.
- Now is the time to serve. You will get 2-3 sips from the cup, so check your tea and drink slowly and carefully. Quality tea should produce 3 infusions, so you can follow the procedure of pouring more water later.
Method 3 of 3: Serving Tea from Around the World
Step 1. Make Moroccan tea, also called Maghrebi mint tea
It is a mint tea served in Morocco and is an important part of Moroccan culture. It is green tea mixed with mint and sugar (sometimes with pine nuts, or wormwood or lime Verbena to give it a lime flavor). It is served at mealtimes and throughout the day and is traditionally served to guests.
- Using a teapot, mix two teaspoons of tea leaves with boiling water. Let the tea soak for about 15 minutes. Strain the mixture into a separate pitcher (preferably stainless steel) to remove all traces and leaves.
- Add about 2-3 teaspoons of sugar (remember, it should be sweet!).
- Bring the mixture to a boil so that the sugar can hydrolyze and make it taste like real Maghrebi tea. Add mint leaves directly to the tea.
- Serve this tea 3 times, as the taste will change as the leaves have been soaking for that long.
Step 2. Making Yerba Mate
This tea drink from South Africa is usually drunk at social events, such as gatherings with friends or family. It is said to have health-enhancing ingredients. To make it the traditional way, you will need a “mate” (natural gourd) and a “bombilla” (a filter straw).
- Fill your gourd 2/3 full with yerba mate. Shake the gourd so that the yerba mate is gathered on one side and the leaves are spread out on the other. Add a little cold water to the empty area of the gourd, just enough so it doesn't dampen the top of the yerba mate. Let the gourd tilt until the yerba mate absorbs the water
- Cover the top of the bombilla with your thumb and slide the other end into the gourd so that it touches the bottom side with the water.
- Add hot water (about 150 degrees Fahrenheit) on the empty side of the gourd until it reaches the top of the yerba mate. Drink bombilla until the liquid is gone and refill. The taste is very strong for the first few drinks and you will want to thin it out.
- Share to your friends. Don't bother the yerba mate and only drink from the empty side of the gourd. You can recharge your gourd 15-20 times.
- You can cook yerba mate in the coffee maker just like you would make coffee, but this is not a traditional method.
Step 3. Make Make Indian milk tea
The common tea drunk in India is black tea with buffalo tea and sugar and served in small earthenware cups with chai wallah. You can also make masala chai, a very popular spiced chai.
- This masala chai recipe calls for 4 black peppercorns, 1 cinnamon stick, 6 green cardamom pods, 6 cloves, sliced and peeled ginger root, 1 teaspoon black tea (about 2 black tea bags), 3 cups (0.7 L) water and 1 cup (0.23 L) fresh milk, 2 tablespoons sugar (brown sugar works best).
- Mix the spices with water and bring to a boil. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let mixture infuse for about 10 minutes. Bring back to a boil, and transfer again. Add the sugar and let it soak between 3-5 minutes. Strain and return to the pan where you will add the sugar and milk and stir for about 1 minute on low.
Tips
- Make sure the tea is not cold. Warm or cold tea can spoil the taste and experience. Cold tea is fine if it deserves to be served that way. While hot tea is a normal choice for this type of party, that doesn't mean you can't serve iced tea as well.
- Choice means choice of tea too. Serve different flavored teas and/or different types, including Chamomile, herbal, Chai, black, green and flavored teas.
- There are many different tea cultures in the world, such as the Japanese tea ceremony. Try different types for a full tea experience!
Warning
- Don't make the tea too hot. It can burn your mouth if it gets too hot.
- When you're done soaking, make sure it's still a little too hot so you can add cream or milk and it's still at the correct temperature.
