How to make a perfect cup of tea

If anyone asks for a cup of tea, I always think of my mum. She loves her tea, and it's served her proud because she's now 82 years old and still going strong, bless her. "Ooh, that was a nice cup of tea" she often says after completing her beverage. My mum likes her tea hot (she has asbestos lips) and strong. She wouldn't like anything weak. If you served her a weak cup of tea, she would mostly say "That was as weak as p*ss". (Sorry mum, this is a clean website).

So it got me thinking (steady.., ed). What makes the perfect cup of tea? My research has yielded this seven stage process into guaranteeing the perfect cuppa:

1. Make sure that your kettle and teapot are scale free. The last thing you want are bits of calcium floating around in your cuppa.
2. Use fresh cold water and boil it in the kettle - do not reboil previously boiled water as this increases the concentration of impurities in the water.
3. Warm the teapot with some of the hot water from the kettle - then discard this water.
4. Use one tea bag or one teaspoon of loose tea per person. Ensure that you use a smaller teapot for just one person and a bigger one for two, as otherwise you risk the tea being too strong or weak.
5. Only add the water to the tea when it has just boiled and is still boiling.
6. Allow the tea to brew for between 2 and 5 minutes, depending upon how strong you like your tea to be. Make sure you stir the tea before pouring.
7. Put milk, sugar and / or sweeteners in the cup as required before adding the tea, then stir. If you are using loose tea, you will need to use a tea strainer to make sure tea leaves don't go into the cup - unless, of course, you are having your fortune told.

The health benefits of tea

Tea is a healthy beverage to drink, in spite of its caffeine content which is in any event lower than that of coffee. Some of the health benefits of tea include:

1. Tea is good for your teeth. Drinking tea is kind to teeth because it contains no sugar to decay them or acid to erode them, unlike the majority of fizzy drinks on sale today. Even the sugar free "diet" drinks contain large amounts of acid that can erode your teeth and your smile. The photo to the right is typical of the appearance of teeth that have been worn away by acid found in carbonated beverages.
   In addition, tea is also a natural source of fluoride. The benefits of fluoride where teeth are concerned have been well documented, and include less plaque on teeth, less dental decay and less gum disease. Over 80% of people in the UK suffer with some sort of gum disease which can lead to the loss of teeth in its final stages, even if the teeth themselves are healthy.
2. Tea is good for weight loss. Tea itself contains no calories at all. Even if you add a dash of skimmed milk (milk is an important food anyway when you're dieting) and an artificial sweetener, it is still a low calorie drink that should be taken advantage of.
3. Some of the latest scientific research has also indicated that regular tea drinkers may be less likely to suffer from heart disease, because there is evidence to suggest that tea lowers the LDL cholesterol level (LDL stands for low density lipoprotein and is commonly referred to as "bad" cholesterol). There is an indepth article about this by the American Heart Association.

For more information about tea in general, visit The Tea Council, a non profit making UK body set up to promote tea and tea drinking.

Cup of Tea
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