Off the Urban Grid

The Basics of Brewing Tea at Home

Brewing tea at home can be a wonderfully aromatic experience. Plus, you will ensure that the tea you’re drinking is organic and simply natural. However, before you start brewing, it’s beneficial to have some basics in place before you begin your homemade tea brewing journey.

First, it’s important to understand the temperature at which to steep your tea. The actual process of steeping tea is easy, because all you have to do is put the tea in hot water for a few minutes. Nonetheless, by steeping the tea for too long, it can become bitter. The steeping process is also dependent on whether you use loose tea or tea bags.

Next, it’s best to familiarize yourself with the varieties of teas you can drink. There is black, green, oolong and white. Which ones do you and your family prefer? Deciding this will help you better prepare your herbal tea garden.

Before you can start brewing, you need some equipment. Fortunately, you don’t need much to prepare tea. Water can be heated in a kettle or a pot, and if you’re using loose leaves, you will need some type of tea strainer—even cheese cloth would work.  

Once you get your basics, you can work on perfecting your recipes for hot, iced and herbal tea. The great thing about tea is that it’s pretty easy to customize it to your liking. If you grow fruits in your garden, add some dried strawberries, blueberries or other fruits to your loose leaf tea creations. Fruit can make the tea sweet enough so you don’t need to use sugar or a sugar alternative such as agave nectar.

The next step is learning how to properly dry your herbs and fruit so you can create delicious tea creations from scratch.

Tags: basics of brewing tea, brewing tea at home, brewing tea basics