how to make loose leaf tea at work

Many of you may work in corporate offices or are perhaps otherwise chair bound in some way or another. With these hectic work schedules, it may be difficult to find time to have a good cup of tea. Some of you may even resort to using tea bags (gasp) or tea sachets (whew) to get your daily fix of tea. However, tea should never devolve into a daily "fix." It should be enjoyed like fine wine. In fact, hectic work schedules should demand a time during which you can slow down, de-stress, and have your favorite cup of tea. Brewing loose leaf at work may seem like too much of a chore to accomplish well, and to tell you the truth, it is a little bit of a chore. Sure it will take a couple of minutes longer than grabbing an insta-cup of coffee or dropping in a tea-bag with some flat hot water but trust me ... it is worth it. (However, it will take you less time and money to make tea than say, go out and grab $tarbuck$.)

What You Will Need




What's this? You say that that there are too many things to purchase? Nonsense, most of you should already have some of these items lying about at home if you drink tea. There are many substitutes to the items I use in the office. This was just what I could put together from my existing tea gear.

THE RUN DOWN

• steeping device: if you do not have one of these handy tea steepers then I would suggest you purchase them. They allow the tea to infuse in the chamber without any obstruction and when it is done, it filters and drains from the bottom using a handy removable mesh device. They cost around $20 and are WELL worth the money. If not, then you can just use any loose leaf brewing device you have ... I suppose. However, do not blame me if your steeping pot is a major inconvenience.
  
  Smart Tea Maker available here
  
  IngenuiTEA (similar product) available here


• pitcher: you will need this to transport water to your desk for brewing and to hold the waste water you use to warm your pots. Anything will do. Just make sure it holds over 1 liter. Mine is salvaged from an IKEA french press and it conveniently holds 34 oz.


• boiler: this may be one of the things that you might need to purchase. Lets face it, you can't have tea without hot water and a simple boiler is not very expensive or hard to find. I have found the hot water devices in the office to be lacking in that they either have over boiled the water unto flatness or do not have the capacity to deliver hot enough water. This is an easy solution.


• cooling pot: this little pot is not for brewing. I use it to control the water temperature so that I don't end up with bitter tea. Any teapot with decent heat retention will do. I find that leaving the water in the boiler allows the water to cool too fast. My tetsubin was born for this purpose (you will want a trivet of some sort especially if you have a wood desk table).


• beverage cup: really self-explanatory. Why "beverage cup" and not tea cup? That's a matter of semantics. Tea cups don't really hold over 8 oz of liquid. I drink about 16 oz in one sitting. Cappuccino mugs/Cafe au lait bowls work well for this purpose


• tea scoop: it scoops the tea. Unless you have really large leaves. Then I would just use my hands.


• thermometer: self-explanatory. see cooling pot.


• gram scale: i measure the amount of tea I use so that I get it right. You may be one of those people who can "eyeball" proportions with eagle accuracy. I am not. Very useful if you have various kinds of tea with different leaf styles.


• items not shown: you may want to have some cloth kitchen napkins/towels to dry your tea set. A coaster or something that functions like one is also recommended. To time the steeping process, I would suggest getting a tea timer for your office computer
  
  Windows timer is available here
  
  Macintosh timer is available here

THE PROCESS

The great thing about making tea this way is that you only have to leave your chair twice. Once to get the water, and once again later on to dump any excess water and clean your steeping device and cup.

First, fill your pitcher and boil half of the water (a little bit over 16 oz) to warm your steeper and your cooling pot.

Once you have split the water amongst the two devices, boil the remaining water.

Once the water is done boiling, dump the waste water from your cooling pot into the pitcher and fill with the newly boiled water.

Stick in the thermometer.

When the water begins to reach the appropriate temperature, empty your steeper into the pitcher. Weigh your tea and place it in the steeper.

Pour water on the tea and steep for an appropriate amount of time.

Drain the steeper and enjoy.

*one final note: for those of you that do not know, do not clean the tetsubin with soap. Just remove the lid and let it air-dry and wipe up the excess once the water has sufficiently evaporated. I personally just use hot water to clean the rest of my tea ware.

Questions? then leave a comment.