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PROPER ENGLISH TEA




Source of Recipe


Old English Customs






Recipe Introduction


My mother-in-law is a student of "Cha-No-yu" [CHAH-NO-YOU] the ages old practice of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, so my wife was very familiar with that. When we married, she was surprised to find that England also had a Tea Ceremony of its own. While not as involved and convoluted as Cha-No-Yo (did you know that, while drinking a cup of this ceremonial tea, you must always be certain that the most picturesque side of your cup is facing away from you so that your fellow embibers may contemplate its beauty rather than your slurrping?), the English version still has its do's and don't's.Following is a short course on the making of a nice Englsh "Cuppa", slang for their afternoon tea.





List of Ingredients



• Sufficient boiling, filtered, hot water to fill the brewing tea pot one-and-a-half times.
  
• 1 Rounded teaspoon (see note 1) of fresh, loose-leaf tea of your favorite flavor for each 8oz. cup capacity of the pot plus one more for the pot. Earl Grey is ours, but English/Irish Breakfast, Darjeeling, or a simple Orange-Pekoe is fine.
  
• 1 C. Chilled milk, evaporated (canned) milk, half-and-half cream, OR . . .
  
• 1/2 C. Chilled, evaporated milk fully stirred into 1/2 C. of chilled whipping cream.
  
• 1 Japanese tea-leaf "sock". (A preformed paper pocket designed to hold the loose tea leaves during brewing, so that you are not sucking them out of your teeth, and available in Japanese groceries.)
  
• 1 Large tea cozy with insulating trivet or hotpad.
  






Instructions



1. Note 1: The "teaspoon" referred to is NOT a "measuring teaspoon". It is the standard teaspoon that everyone uses to stir their tea in the cup. One rounded volume of tea leaves measured in this spoon is about equal to two measuring teaspoons. DO NOT use individual teabags. Their paper and strings will definitely favor the brewed tea. The paper of the Japanese "sock" is made to be totally flavorless.
   
2. Measure the required amount of loose tea (one spoon for each 8oz. cup plus one for the pot) into the Japanese tea sock or a large metal teaball. Set aside.
   
3. Pour whatever cream you plan to use into a creamer (pitcher) and chill. After sucking up thousands of cuppas since the age of seven and using all sorts of creams, I discovered the evaporated milk-whipping cream combo shown in the ingredients list. It is as good as it ever gets!
   
4. Into a well rised (see note 2), china, tea pot pour enough boiling water to fill it half full. Cover and swirl the pot in a horizontal circle to heat it completely through.
   
5. Quickly empty the water from the pot, drop in the tea leaf package, fill the pot with still boiling water, set it on the trivet or hotpad, and cover with the cozy. Allow to brew for about five minutes before pouring into serving cups. The idea of the cozy and insulated trivet is to keep the tea water as close to boilng (without acutally heating the filled pot) as possible during brewing.
   
6. Note 2: There is some differences of opinion about just how clean a teapot sould be before use. In my family and English friends we have always washed our pot with dishwashing soap, rinsing thouroughly with hot water afterwards and allowing it to air dry. My Aunt Millicent insisted on scrubbing her pot with a copper scrub pad after each use. Still, I have seen several others that insist on only rinsing the pot with hot water after each use and don't worry about any build-up of tea stains inside of it. Personally, I prefer not to have any taste of the tea I made at any previous time tainting my freshly made cuppa.
   






Final Comments


I know there will be those that are surprised at the fuss I make about the cream for my tea. I was probably twelve before I saw anybody drink hot tea without milk or cream. When I asked my family about it they just said that those drinkers were not very sophisicated. But, "To each his own.", said the farmer as he kissed his cow! So how you like your tea is your business. Nobuko likes her English tea without cream but with a squeeze of lemon (no sugar) or, even better, a teaspoon of brandy!But PLEASE, don't ever put any sugar or cream in a cup of Japanese Green Tea (O-cha [OH-CHAH])! It just is not done!Don't forget to serve your English Tea with some small cookies and cakes or crakers with jam or cheese. A tiny slice of pie from our "Banoffi Pie" recipe elsewhere in this recipe site will go great.