All about Tea

Tea are packed for consumption or sale in many styles

ICED TEA

Use 50 percent more tea to allow for melting ice, the Tea Council of the USA recommends (three tea bags or spoonfuls for two glasses of iced tea). They give a recipe for two quarts:

Bring one quart(4 cups) of water to boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add 15 tea bags or 1/3 cup loose tea. Stir, let stand five minutes. Keep at room temperature and pour over ice when ready to serve.

The Tea Council also offers a cold water method for a quart of "clear, cloudless iced tea":

Soak 8 or 10 tea bags 6 hours or overnight in a quart of cold tap water (in room or refrigerator). Then remove the bags and squeeze them against the sides of the container. To serve, pour into ice-filled glasses. No information is available on the chemical content of glass of tea made this way. We prefer to sacrifice clear tea to safe tea and a guarantee of conventional flavor.

INSTANT TEA

Being instant is definitely this tea's advantage. The Tea Council advises following directions on the label, or in general, one level teaspoon instant tea to a teacup of boiling water, and 2 level tablespoons for each quart in a pot. For instant iced, 1 rounded teaspoon for a glass (6 - 8 ounces) of cold water or 2 rounded tablespoons for each quart of fresh cold water.

TEA BAGS

Most real tea connoisseurs won't touch a tea bag, feeling it's not the Real Thing. The tea inside the tea bags does not consist of leaves but of the finest siftings, called "dust," so that the infusion is prompt. We find them expensive and wasteful, for they may produce tea that is either too strong or too much, and keeping a tea bag around for reuse is a messy business. Fine tea goes further when you can control exactly how much. However, tea bags are convenient. Almost every kind of tea, including most Chinese varieties, is available in bags.

TEA IN CANS

Hot and thirst away from home? Why not reach for a can of tea instead of soda? Some Chinese teas now come packed in cans. At first we were not taken by the idea, but alongside sweet carbonated drinks, tea, even in cans, come out the winner. The chilled oolong or black tea is most refreshing when you lack facilities to brew your own. Widely available in tourist spots in China, canned tea is now being exported to the U.S. We have seen oolong, jasmine, chrysanthemum, and even pu-erh.

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