How could I have been such a knucklehead?
I recently discovered I’d been making tea wrong for more than five decades. (Insert gasp here.) You know: fill the perfectly selected tea-kettle, remove the tea-kettle when it sings and pour boiling water over the tea bag or fancy tea spoon filled with tea leaves.
My daughters and husband would say that I would let the tea-kettle “scream for help” on our gas stovetop for 15 minutes before rescuing it just to annoy them. I like to think that I am perfecting the art of multi-tasking.
I do admit that once in my 50-something years of life, I have had to replace a tea-kettle because I ignored the little screamer. Of course, not on purpose — the first time was in the 80’s when I had worked a full-day in the freezing weather and after turning on the tea kettle, I quickly sat down and fell asleep and boiled the water and bottom right off the metal tea kettle. I’ll only admit to one tea-kettle mistake.
When my youngest daughter Phoebe graduated last year from college, she would often bring up a tea-brewing product she raved about that belonged to her enlightened roommate. Not being a coffee-drinker, I had mentioned that I have always enjoyed the electric water kettles everywhere we stayed in India.
Phoebe continued to school me on the basics of tea-brewing: “Mom, you do understand that how much tea to use and how long to steep are relatively subjective decisions….but for the love of Lipton, proper water temperature varies tremendously with different teas.”
She tea-shamed me.
I later read “How to Make Tea — The Science Behind the Leaf” and learned that “the process of applying the water at the right temperature allows just the right amount of aromatic compounds, tannins, antioxidants and amino acids to be flushed from the leaves and grace your teapot or cup with sensory and cerebral satisfaction.”
I shudder to think of all the cups and years I’ve denied myself total sensory and cerebral satisfaction.
I most definitely did NOT inform my family when I read: “The goal for boiling water for black and oolong teas is to let the kettle reach a boil and then immediately pour it over the tea leaves, NEVER allowing the kettle to continue boiling for more than a FEW SECONDS.”
Then it said something about boiling water too much releases the oxygen, which plays a key role. .. blah, blah blah. And a prolonged period of boiling eventually “flattens” the water through distillation, which makes it dull and lifeless…blah, blah, blah.
I must admit I do love my new Cuisinart PerfecTemp Programmable Kettle — which I can set to 160° Delicate, 175° Green, 185° White, 190° Oolong, 200° French Press, or Boil for Black Tea. It automatically beeps and stops heating when it reached the perfect temperature.
My favorite feature, which obviously only came with my special kettle, is that it sings just ever-so-slightly when heating up.
As Phoebe noted: “My gosh, Mom, it figures, only yours would sing!”
Songs for Tea Sipping:
1935 “Everything Stops for Tea” performed by Jack Buchanan
1950: Tea for Two by Doris Day
1964: Tea Song by Michael Hurley
1971: Have A Cuppa Tea by The Kinks
1983: Tea in the Sahara with You by the band Police
2011: Blake Shelton sang “You’ll be my sugar, baby
I’ll be your sweet iced tea” in his song “Honey Bee.”
