In “A Nice Cup of Tea” (1946) Orwell gives his 11 golden rules for making a good, strong cup of tea. Here they are in short. I put the measurements into metric and added some Notes of my own along the way:
- Use tea from India or Ceylon (Sri Lanka), not China. Tea from China is cheaper and you can drink it without milk, but it is not as strong. It does not make you feel wiser, braver or more hopeful. Note: unless the box says otherwise, tea is a mix of different teas from both India and China as well as other parts of the world. English breakfast tea, however, is mostly Indian.
- Make tea in small quantities: a litre at a time in a teapot made of china or earthenware – not enamel or metal, not even silver (though pewter is not bad).
- Warm the teapot beforehand.
- Make the tea strong: use six rounded teaspoons of tea for a one-litre teapot. One strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. Note: Orwell says that two ounces of tea (60 grams) should make 20 good, strong cups of tea (5000 ml). That comes to 12 grams a litre or 3 grams a cup (250 ml). An American tea bag has 2 grams of tea. Orwell’s tea is a third stronger than what Americans are used to. Well, more than a third:
- Put the tea straight into the pot. No bags or anything to keep the tea from properly mixing into the water. Drinking in tea leaves will not hurt you.
- Pour in boiling water. Bring the teapot to the kettle and pour the water into the teapot.
- Give the pot a good shake – or at least stir it. Afterwards let the leaves settle to the bottom.
- Drink out of a good breakfast cup, not a tea cup. A breakfast cup has sides that go straight up and down. This makes it deeper and keeps the tea warm longer.
- Use milk, no cream.
- Pour the tea into the cup first, then add milk. This lets you put in the right amount of milk.
- Do not add sugar! It destroys the taste: you will be tasting sugar, not tea. Why not just drink hot water with sugar instead? Tea, like beer, is supposed to be bitter. That is its taste. If you think you do not like the taste of tea by itself, try it without sugar for two weeks and see. Then you will understand how sugar is destroying the taste and will probably not want to go back (I agree).
I tried making tea this way. It is much better and stronger than the sort of tea Americans are used to. It makes American tea seem like dirty dishwater.
Orwell’s tea has three times the kick of Coke and twice that of Mountain Dew, but without getting you hooked on it, like with coffee.
Postscript: You can get something pretty close to Orwell’s tea this way:
- Put a plain old bag of Lipton tea (2.0 g) in a covered tea cup (pictured).
- Fill it with water (230 ml).
- Microwave it as long as you can without it boiling over and making a mess. With the lid on, that might be like a minute and a half (two minutes with no lid).
- Add milk (10 ml), no sugar.
This is how I have made my tea since at least 2008.
Tip: Use a Chinese tea cup, one with a lid (pictured above). Your tea will stay hot way longer.
– Abagond, 2007, 2016.
See also:
I’ve been adding Sugar to my tea for a long time because I felt thats how it was since I’ve never met anyone since I was born who didn’t. I’ve always wondered if you were supposed to add Sugar since the Japanese don’t add Sugar to their Tea. Thanks for solving that mystery for me. Though where does one get Orwell Tea? I have a bunch of Boxes of Tea and they are all in the Bags that like you said “Limit” the Tea… I’m really interested in it now and I think I will give Tea a try without Sugar for 2 weeks as you suggest. ^_^ Thank you so much!
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I tried going without sugar and now I rarely put it in my tea. If the tea is stronger, like how Orwell drank it, then it is much better that way.
The closest thing in America to Orwell’s tea is Twinings English breakfast tea. You can buy it in a little red metal box where the tea is loose and not in bags. The tea itself comes from India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
The ghetto version of Orwell’s tea:
1. Put a plain old bag of Lipton tea in a tea cup.
2. Fill it with water.
3. Microwave it for two minutes or so (depending on how long you can go before it boils over and makes a huge mess).
4. Add milk, no sugar.
It comes out much stronger that way and is how I make my tea these days since Lipton is cheaper and more common than Twinings.
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I love this post!
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Sorry Abagond,
I take my tea the African way: two full teaspoons of sugar and milk; in a tall mug.
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Legion, I wanted to comment on this before, but my tastes diverge a bit where tea is concerned. But microwaved tea? Oh, dear.
I drink a lot of tea, every day, probably a litre and a half day, sometime more.
But I like variety, and crave different kinds of teas, as they are my main source of fluid intake.
As a rule, I don’t like sugary tea if doesn’t have spices in it.
My favourite tea is Indian Chai, aka Masala Chai. So soothing.
This kind of tea is is rich and aromatic, brewed in full-fat milk with herbs and spices like cardamom pods, fennel, cinnamon, ginger, perhaps a little nutmeg and black pepper, for extra warmth. Recipes vary, but the base is good black tea. How about this recipe from the nice lady here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWKnoO4iL8I)
Turkish Chai is much simpler — deep tasting and not too bitter. Always sipped from a dainty glass. About a dozen cups a day, truth be told.
At home, if If I have my tea with milk, I like it the German way, i.e.,never with a spoon and never stirred. The milk should be left to “marble” the tea. It always tastes better from a china cup.
The other way is tea with lemon, the way my Polish pals drink it.
The most addictive kind of tea is the tea with fresh mint, or “Moroccan” tea.
They drink it all day.
There are so many kinds of mint out there, but if I can get my hands on some fragrant, fresh bunches, there’s nothing that beats bruising the the stems lightly and then pouring boiling water on a small bunch, in a glass.
I love to watch the water turn a mild shade of green. Excellent for the digestion.
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There is a tea shop in the shopping mall called Teavanna, They have all the accessories to drink tea properly. I especially like one called youthberry.
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Bulanik,
What’s up…
No Earl Gray???
Or, Green Tea w/Pomecranate??
You’ve got some explaining to do!
: )))
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Matari, well. 😀
I had a bad batch of Earl Grey (without the bergamot infusion) and have been skipping it of late. The English brands are best. I’ve learned my lesson!
Green tea has been replaced by Melissa.
It really depends on the batch. The last Green tea I had, was just a little too stimulating.
I used to have a thing for South African Rooibos, finding it a restorative.
I should try it again.
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Ha ha, I love this post, and glad to find so many tea drinkers among us.
Have to agree with the others, Abagond. No microwaving! Part of the reason tea is so wonderful, is the ritual that goes into making it. The microwave detracts from that.
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Mr Orwell sounds like a made a proper, nice cuppa. He knows what he’s talking about.
But, he doesn’t make “working class” English tea because he doesn’t put the milk in FIRST. The English working class, as it used to be called, always threw the milk (with the tea bag, when it became the fashion) in the mug first.
Mr Orwell makes tea like a gentleman. One who really knows about tea and the preparation it requires. He doesn’t even sound particularly working clas or “English” in this display of know-how!
😀
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And, nor does he mention the good old tea cosy, beloved of many English working class dinner tables.
A tea cosy was a staple of soft furnishings – lol!
It became the stuff of jokes when the white English used to say that the tea cosy had been swiped by Rastafarians — that’s what they called the knitted tams some of the men wore.
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@ Bulanik @ Legion
I drink tea constantly, a cup every two hours or so. That comes to about two litres a day.
I have to microwave it unless I have no choice because I have ruined too many pots and kettles by absent-mindedly leaving them on the stove too long. Even those kettles with a whistle do not work for me.
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I’m not a tea drinker per se and the “ritual” part of making it probably the reason for it. Darjeeling; green tea; Earl Grey (bergamot flavored tea to which I would add light cream and sugar); rooibos ‘tea’; oolong; white tea; herbal tea et cetera, I’ve tried a wide variety. Ritual aside I’d still be more of a coffee person than actea person.
Coffee isn’t all dark roast Starbuck’s Colombian or whatever type that brand uses for its souped up lattes et cetera.Just as there is only one (true) tea plant, there is only one coffee plant; it is environment, handling and added flavorings etc.which make the difference between “types” of tea or coffee.
Yirgacheffe; Hararr; Sidamo; Sumatra; Mocha; Kenya; Jamaica Blue Mountain; and Kona are just a few of the varieties of coffee available (whole beans are best). Notes of spice, chocolate, citrus, flowers, wine, fruit, leather, pepper, smoke and earth are some of the nuances to be found in regional coffee varieties. I first tried Jamaica Blue Mountain @ $36 a pound back in the late ’90s, and was instantly hooked on its richness of flavor. I have savored many varieties of coffee since that time.
I have found it best to have these types of coffee solo, as drinking them as part of a meal diminishes their various ‘notes’. Yirgacheffe, for example, has notes of spicy but is mild in flavor; its quality was first revealed to me only when i drank it between meals.
Aw to convenience, a spice grinder (to grind whole bean coffee), boiling water, a French press and a coffee cup are all the accessories needed to have a great cup of coffee.
Sadly, though, as decaf is not easily found in varietal coffee, I rarely drink coffee anymore.
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MOVE THAT TEACUP IT NEEDS TO MAKE ROOM FOR MY COFFEE
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Whatever pleases you, V!
Nothing beats the aroma of coffee. Whenever I drink it, it gives me a headache.
Tried some South African Rooibos tea lately.
It has a rooty, almost cigarette-y taste with a great colour.
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drinking a cigarette? sheesh then i will never quit smoking, i better stay away from that one!
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Har har.
(It’s hard describing the taste of that tea…)
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“chock full o’ nuts” coffee is my favorite
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whole milk and no sugar in my coffee please, no artificial creamer
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• I’ve been going through my Yerba Mate painfully slowly. It’s loose leaf. I need to get a better pot for it. I hate the press thingy that I use, very messy clean up afterward.
• I’ve been a full on junkie for lemon-ginger tea for like two months now, I can not get enough of it. And in true drug addict fashion I’ve been cutting in all kinds of different variations. Lg tea with bourbon and fresh squeezed lemon, maple syrop to sweeten and sometimes some added licorice.
• As a kid I hated the Avocado; I eat it all the time now. (My family was not serving it properly all those years back.) Similarly, I believed with utter certainty that I can’t stand oolong tea –– too bitter and just unpleasant. But I was wrong. I had an unsettling day several weeks ago and thought I would have something sweet. Too much sweet is bad for you though and I decided to have oolong tea instead after years of never thinking about it. I figured oolong is like the anti-sweet, so do that instead. Well, it was different but enjoyable.
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Stress management
In a detailed study conducted at the Osaka Institute for Health Care Science in Japan, the experimental mice that ingested oolong tea showed a remarkable improvement in their stress levels by 10 to 18 %. The natural polyphenols in the oolong tea was cited as the main cause of it being such a stress-buster. Also, the L-theanine found in tea leaves is an amino acid that blocks L-glutamic acid to glutamate receptors in the brain. This would normally cause cortical neuron excitement, which leads to increased cognitive activity and neural stress responses. Since this amino acid binds to those sites, excitation doesn’t occur, and stress decreases because you are more able to keep your mind at rest.
from:
http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/beverage/health-benefits-of-oolong-tea.html
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