Nouvelles

News and Opinion from Anne Barone to Keep You Chic & Slim

|| 27 May 2018

A Quick Break Tea — with green tea

An elegant afternoon tea with sparkling china and gleaming silver is always lovely. But sometimes you are busy doing chores. You just need a short, reviving break. Then, you want to plop a tea bag in a cup, pour on the hot water — and sit down and relax for a few minutes with the tea.

covered tea mug with tea bag in tea bag holder and a magazine on a bistro table top

For these quick break teas I like to make tea in my little covered tea mug, my tee pott, that my brother and sister-in-law brought me from a visit to Germany. Warm weather I will frequently drink green tea. Two green teas in tea bags that make good quick break teas I like are Uncle Lee’s Organic Green Tea — and for decaf, Triple Leaf Tea’s Decaf Green Tea. These bagged teas are found in many supermarkets and natural food stores.

In the photo you see my cup of Uncle Lee’s and its tea bag in the little tea bag holder. For this break I had time to read a short article in the 2018 Victoria Special French Issue. (You can read my Nouvelles about that Victoria issue.)

Anne seated at bistro table with tea mug and magazine.

When you don’t have much time for your tea break, green tea is a good choice because most green teas require only “briskly steaming,” not boiling, water (180 degrees F. is the usual temperature for green). I find Uncle Lee’s has the taste I like at 2 minutes steeping.

Even though most green teas will be astringent if brewed with boiling water, the Triple Leaf Decaf Green Tea instructs to pour “boiling water” over the tea bag and steep for 3 - 5 minutes, the usual instructions for black tea. Perhaps because it has undergone the decaffeination process, the Triple Leaf Decaf tastes good when brewed with the boiling water. Better than when brewed with only “briskly steaming” water. But I pour the water as soon as it is barely boiling. No rolling boil as is suggested for many black teas.

But tea tastes and water vary greatly. So whenever you try a tea you have not previously drunk, you can follow the recommendations on the package for the first cup. If you don’t like the taste, you can vary water temperature and steeping times until you find the taste that best suits you.

A tea that tastes "right" will be the most enjoyable — and the most reviving. Naturally.

be chic, stay slim — Anne Barone