Tea Tips
When it comes to Tea, we've been there, done that, now serving 101 tips in 12 categories ranging from Books About Tea to Tea Pouches Versus Tea Bags.
Honey A Great Sweetener For Your Tea
Drinking tea is a wonderful past time for many people. However, some people will not realize they should have some form of a sweetener other then sugar or artificial items. This sweetener should be natural and not a leading cause of health problems, this item should be nothing more then honey. Here are some reasons to use honey as a sweetener for your teas.
1. Honey is a natural product. When you have a product which is natural, it will not cause your body any harm, but it also is closer to being straight from the source. So you will not have to be concerned about ingesting any of the chemicals or other by-products from the manufacturing of the sugars or artificial items you would use.
2. Honey can act as the sweetener without creating any of the gritty taste you get with some items. Since this is a form of a liquid, it will dissolve in your tea. So you will not have the granules left inside of your tea like you would have with the other products.
3. With honey in your tea, you will be ingesting quite a bit of antioxidants and natural items inside of your local area, if the honey is local. So you will not have to be concerned about being exposed to allergens.
Tea Pouch Spa Therapy
You're exhausted and achy and you need to take a nice long soak in the tub. The last thing you want to do is dig through the hall cupboard looking for bath salts, but it would be nice to smell a wonderful aroma as you soak. You finally give up on the bath salts because you are too sore to climb on the step stool to search the top shelf. On the way to the tub, you make a detour for a nice hot cup of green tea. It sure smells great. Maybe you should buy some tea bath products, but in the meantime, you're going to make do.
Since a tea pouch is made with a sturdy silk material and is sewn shut for added durability, it is sturdy enough to last in a tub, too. Simply hold the pouch under the hot water faucet as the tub fills and enjoy the aroma of your favorite freshly brewed tea blend filling the air.
Of course, since teas made for drinking are not designed for washing in, you should use some caution. Avoid using chamomile tea bags unless you are absolutely certain that you are not sensitive to ragweed, since chamomile is a member of the ragweed family. You don't want to end up with a bad case of hives after your leisurely soak.
Tea Bag Tag Art
As you brew a cup of your newest tea, you can't help noticing the pretty tag on the bag. It seems like a shame to throw it away, so you add it to your collection of stuff that is too cute to toss in the trash. Several months later, you realize that you have accumulated a worrying number of tea bag and tea pouch tags. You either need to do something with them or you will have to throw them away after all. Why not make some tea bag art with your collection?
One option is to make a mixed media art piece. These small tags would be perfect on inchie collages, which are pieces of art that are one square inch. They'd also be a nice addition to a mixed media piece that pays homage to the wonders of tea. Use the tags to create a border around the edges of a canvas and paint a tea pot inside it. If you aren't artistic, simply collage a group of tea related images from catalogs and tea boxes onto the canvas.
Another option is to make a bag tag placemat using clear contact paper or laminating film. Cut a piece of poster board down to placemat size and cover the surface of the poster board with tags. Allow the piece to dry and then carefully laminate both sides with the contact paper or film.
Using a Sealable Tea Pouch
You love the variety available when you shop for loose tea. The blends available seem to be almost limitless and just shopping for new tea seems like an adventure. You also love the beautiful tins that most loose teas come in. They seem to really keep the tea fresh and when the tins are empty they are a great way to organize small things, from craft supplies to a child's hair accessories. However, you also love the convenience of a tea bag, especially when you are on the go. It is a lot harder to tuck a tin of loose tea and an infuser in your briefcase or purse than it is to slip in a few tea bags. You're going to invent a way to put some of your loose tea in bags yourself.
Actually, someone has already invented a handy way to bag up loose tea. With a sealable tea pouch, you can quickly go from a tin of loose tea to a tin of bagged tea in minutes. T-Sac filter bags are sturdy, easy to use bags designed to hold loose tea for brewing.
For people who hate to use five or six bags in a single pot of tea, there is a handy pot size bag available, as well. Since the bags come in boxes of 100, you'll be able to make quite a dent in your loose tea collection before you need to place a new bag order.
Brewing the Perfect Cup With Tea Pouches
You know how to brew a great cup of tea with a tea bag. You drop a bag into the pot for each guest and add another bag for the host or hostess. However, tea pouches are much larger than tea bags, which makes you wonder if you should be doing things a bit differently.
Actually, when you use a tea pouch to brew your tea, you should still use one pouch per cup to get the perfect tea experience. The reason the pouch is larger has to do with the size of the tea leaves rather than the size of the tea pot. The oversize pouch has enough room to hold entire tea leaves instead of having to make do with chopped leaves. In fact, the pouch is so roomy that the leaves have the room they need when they swell up in the tea water.
To avoid using a large number of tea pouches or bags, you may want to look for loose tea and a tea pot size infuser instead. You can place a teaspoon of loose tea into the infuser for each guest and then you can simply place the entire infuser into the tea pot.
Create a Traveling Tea Kit With a Tea Pouch
You are exhausted after a long day of traveling and you can't wait to sit down to a nice cup of perfectly brewed tea. Unfortunately, you seem to have chosen a hotel managed by coffee drinkers, because your request for a pot of fresh tea is met with a cup of semi-hot water and an orange pekoe tea bag. You request hotter water and finally manage to actually brew a cup of tea, but it certainly doesn't taste like your usual blend. What you need is a traveling tea kit.
If you know you will be staying somewhere with access to hot water and tea pots, you can simply bring along tea pouches of some of your favorite tea blends. A tea pouch can easily be sealed in a small storage bag and tucked into a purse or briefcase for emergency tea breaks.
People who need tea breaks in areas without easy access to hot water will want to pack a bit more than a tea pouch or two. To be able to brew the perfect cup of tea, you'll need to put together a kit that includes a handy travel tea pot filled with fresh water and a water heating element.
