I love a cup of custom herbal blended tea. Until I bought my first pack, I’d only had tea that was pre-ground and pre-bagged. When my Naturopath said I should try a new nutritive blend, I was intimidated by brewing loose tea. Once I got the hang of it, I rarely bought another box of pre-bagged tea.
There are different options and materials available, including tea balls, press and brew bags, basket strainers, some nifty kettle my husband used back in England; but if you don’t have any of the above, here’s a tutorial using items almost every gal has in her kitchen:
- a sieve
- a glass jar
- a glass measuring cup
- a saucepan
- a measuring spoon
1) I put 3 teaspoons of loose tea (I like a good, strong flavored tea) into a pint size glass jar. You can use less or more, depending on your tastes. A pint will fill one of my large mugs. Today I’m making a cup of the Creamy Pumpkin Pie Tea from Bulk Herb Store.
2) While not nearly as lovely as my sage green whistling tea kettle, which recently broke (I have a reputation for being hard on my appliances), this simple saucepan will do the trick! Start boiling up a few cups of water.
3) Pour the boiled water over the loose tea. This usually looks prettier when one isn’t trying to take pictures with one hand, while using the other to pour hot boiling water into a jar!
4) I loosely set the lid on top of the jar and let it steep for about 10 minutes or so.
5) Meanwhile, I set up my sieve. I’m using a small one today and it’s atop a regular Pyrex measuring cup. You can use a regular size sieve, if you’d like, it’ll still work. 🙂
6) I pour the jar of steeped tea (loose tea and all) into the sieve. Loose tea leaves stay in the sieve. Beautiful herbal tea is perfectly strained into the Pyrex cup.
7) And there you have it! Simple. The tea balls and other items listed above are definitely less of a process, but even if you only have a sieve, large glass cup, and a sauce pan, you can brew and enjoy loose tea. 🙂
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Great minds think alike! I was talking about this too 🙂 I will have to show my husband the pumpkin pie tea..he loves pumpkin pie.
Add some cream to it, and it does taste just like pumpkin pie. 🙂 I love it, especially around late summer and early fall. 🙂
When you’re willing to use loose tea, you generally have access to a better product. Like you, we like to use a sieve — we brew the whole thing in an old coffee carafe and pour the steeped tea into the tea pot. When the tea is still in the pot, it keeps steeping and steeping and can be a bit too strong by the time you get to the bottom!
I love tea.
That’s a great idea, Carolyn!!
(And I love tea, too. 🙂 )