Six Well-tried Rules for Making Tea

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 30, 5 February 1937, Page 11

Six Well-tried Rules for Making Tea

An “Essay upon Tea,” which has been addressed to the medical profession of Great Britain by the Empire Tea Market Expansion Board, contains much that is of general interest. The essay is divided into three parts; the first is historical, the second is devoted to the effects of tea on the human frame, and the third gives rules for “choosing and serving what is best.” Many hundreds of years ago, it is stated, the Chinese laid down the laws of tea-making and laid them well. „ In the great warehouse of city merchants the tea-taster of the twentieth century, tasting tea for his livelihood, follows these very same rules with perfect safety. They are simple: Use good quality leaf, use tho right quantity, infuse a short time. Tea made on this basis is perfectly healthful. The following directions—worked out as a result of generations of experience' in toa-making—provide a delicious and wholesome brew. 1. Use a really good quality tea—for flavour, licalthfulness and economy. Use only freshly-drawn water. Very hard water should be avoided if possible. 3. Be sure the water is boiling liercelv, and has not been previously boiled. If the water in the kettle has been boiling over and simmering sometime, the brew will be stale and flat. 4. Rinse the teapot with boiling water to heat as thoroughly as possible before putting in the dry leaf. 5. Use a teaspoonful of tea for every person, and one extra for tho pot. G. Infuse not more than live minutes.