YOUR CUP OF TEA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 121, 4 March 1939, Page 7

YOUR CUP OF TEA

HOW TO MAKE IT ;- : ! IVj* ANY women' never’ learn to Make. enough if their tea is as they like it, but often you find people who ' admit - that they really enjoy tea in some of ■ their friends’ houses much better than any they have at home, and yet‘ they do nothing about it! They assume there' is “just a knack” in tea-making, whereas actually the correct process does not allow of any individual artistry! In India, where we get tea direct from the plantations, we learn the importance of the water. The growers send, the blend best siiited for the water in the district, and there can be no question of the tea having lost its “goodness” through being kept too long in stock, as sometimes happens in the passage through wholesaler and retailer to the consumer at home. So when we don’t like a cup of tea in India, we know it has been badly made, probably with flat water. It is not just faddiness. The water must be aerated by being poured into the kettle held well below the tap, and it must be boiled at once. Women who refuse to use water that has been boiling for some time may make the mistake of using flat water that has been allowed to stand cold in the kettle. The teapot must be thoroughly hot and dry when the leaves are put into it, and it should be held low down for the boiling water to pour from a height without the kettle being removed from the heat. The right method is to pour in a little water first, and allow it to infuse for a minute before filling up the pot. It is essential to try various blends until you find the best for the water in your district. Sometimes the best you can get is one good cup, for the water brings out the tannin with a rank flavour in the second cup. A proportion of a quarter of China tea to a pound of Indian will often solve this problem. When the water is so. hard that no tea is successful, it can be corrected by a pinch of bicarbonate of soda added to the dry leaves for each infusion.