“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
Hippocrates or (460 BC – 370 BC)

Preparing the healthiest & finest cup of Black Tea

“Many admire, few know.”

The finest Black Tea of the world lands from the Central Highlands of beautiful tropical island of Sri Lanka: Ceylon Tea. This small & beautiful Indian Ocean Island produces Black Tea of delightful flavors & aromas.
Other varieties of unblended Black Tea include Black Tea from Assam, India & Black Tea from Yunnan, China. High-quality retail Black Tea is usually sold as loose tea (not in satchets) in tightly closed metal tins. Black Tea should be stored in a cool dry place. However Black Tea mustn’t be stored in a refrigerator since condensation of water would definitely ruin it. Then again if you wish to use a container other than the metal tin in which Black Tea is contained, make sure your new container is airtight, opaque & odorless.

Water, life giving water into a metal kettle
Water cannot get any better: it brings in the very life; it is organic; low in sugar & low in calories to the boot. To brew a cup of Black Tea, always start with fresh good tasting water: with lots of oxygen still dissolved. Oxygen in water helps develop the flavor of Black Tea: that leaves out distilled water as well as bottled water & lukewarm water. Since off taste hot water supplied by domestic geysers contain metallic residue such as lead at life threatening level, such hot water shouldn’t be taken. Well water & spring water would serve the purpose well. If you opt for pipe-borne water, let the water run for a few seconds to ensure water is aerated.
Though pipe-borne water is acceptable, if it is of a noticeable taste, you would like to have it filtered. But then again, make use of same immediately after it was filtered. Furthermore, by pouring water vigorously between two jugs, filtered water can be re-oxygenated.
Bring water in a kettle to a boil. Of course, the volume of water to boil depends on the number of cups of tea you need to make. For the preparation of Black Tea you should use hot water (95-100 degrees Celsius) to fully extract all the flavors from the leaves. Electric water kettle or a stovetop kettle or even a saucepan on a stovetop would do.

Warm up porcelain tea pot, cups & saucers
Porcelain tea pots do well in keeping the beverage hot longer than cast iron tea pots. Preheat the porcelain tea pot, cups & saucers with hot water prepared solely for this purpose. Refrain from taking the boiling water from the tea kettle since while you are at it, water in the tea kettle cools down.

Black Tea into the warmed-up porcelain tea pot
A teaspoonful of Black Tea for each cup of tea you need to make & one for the pot would suffice. Now you can pour boiling water from tea kettle into the tea pot. Stir & close the pot with the lid. Since Black Tea leaves need room to spread out after being stirred in the pot, you may refrain from making use of infuser of the dedicated tea pot. Black Tea leaves absorb water well. The infuser prevents Black Tea Leaves from absorbing water & swelling to the fullest capacity. Now you can even cover the tea pot with a tea cozy (fabric cover similar to an oven mitt) to keep the pot warmer although tea cozy is mainly used to keep the pot warm so that remaining beverage could still be poured hot following an interval. It’s economy again. Let Black Tea steep for 2-3 minutes.

Black Tea : drink without milk, without sugar

“Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.”

It’s Black Tea time: pour the beverage from the tea pot to tea cups using a strainer to get the tea leaves off. Ceylon Tea: reddish-brown liquor; brisk, full flavor. It’s health first: black tea without milk, without sugar retains the alkaline nature of the pure beverage which in turn keep the intestines healthy.
The human liver is unable to produce a good amount of bile more than thrice a day. Since tea combination of milk (Protein) & sugar (Carbohydrates) is recognized as food by the brain, liver is triggered to release bile to help digest the food. Now tea with milk & sugar, taken too often outside of the regular meal hours, would cause liver to overwork resulting in inadequate amount of bile. The undigested milk causes flatulence and formation of gas. Black Tea without milk & tea would cause no such harm.

If you would like to have some sweetness in your black tea, instead of chemically processed cane sugar, organic stuff such as Sri Lanka’s palm (Coconut & Kitul) Jaggery would do the trick.