One important aspect in tea brewing that a lot of people don't pay attention to is the water. You want to be sure to use the best water you can as even the finest tea can be ruined by water that is heavily chlorinated. Water can also get “stale” meaning that it will absorb odors from the air around it. Certainly you don't want to use stale or chemical laden water for your fine brew.



Another thing to watch out for is calcium carbonate. If you notice a white powder build up around your spout or drains then you probably have this in your water. Don't worry, it's not harmful but it can make your tea darker. Iron is another mineral you might have in your water that isn't anything to worry about but it can affect the taste of your tea giving it somewhat of a metallic twang.

The next thing in learning how to brew loose tea is the temperature of the water. You probably just put the kettle on to boil and dumped the water into your cup when it whistled, right? Well the truth is that boiling water can be too “aggressive” for tea. You want to use water that is a bit less then boiling - water that is too hot can turn green tea bitter but is OK for black tea. Oolong likes a lower temperature as does white. For your herbals, you'll have to experiment to see which temperature yields best results.

Next, you need to figure out exactly how much tea to put in the cup. You'll probably have to experiment with this too. Start with 1 teaspoon per cup and add or take away as needed.

You should steep your tea for between 2 and 3 minutes. The longer you steep it, the more caffeine, tannins and color you will get. But some teas will become bitter if steeped too long due to the added tannins. If you like milk in your tea, you can steep it a little longer but be warned that tannins can get in the way of your mineral absorption so you might be negating some of the health benefits of tea if you steep it for too long.

One of the biggest questions about how to brew loose tea is how to avoid getting a lot of leaves and sticks in your drink!. This has an easy answer. You can buy a little strainer that looks like a puffed out double sided teaspoon with holes in it and put your loose tea inside, then dip it in the hot water in your cup and swirl until you feel it has steeped enough! Then simply enjoy!