It is no secret that we are a nation of tea drinkers, pretty much any time of the day or night! Taking a sip of this delicious beverage has been traditional for us since the days of the 7th Duchess of Bedford back in 1840 or thereabouts. Fact. The British became obsessed with tea because the British East India Company had a monopoly over the tea industry in England, and it became more popular than coffee, chocolate, and alcohol. Tea was seen as inherently British and encouraged by the British government because of the revenue gained from tea tax. So how to make the perfect cuppa? Water quality and temperature is key to a successful brew so here are some top tea tips to consider when making the office tea round

Top ten tea tips

  1. Use a good quality teabag or loose leaf tea.
  2. Store tea in a cool, dry place and avoid placing it next to strongly flavoured or perfumed foods.
  3. Always use freshly drawn water when preparing tea (or a herbal infusion); the hot water extracts all the character of the tea.
  4. In some parts of the UK the tap water is hard or soft and this can affect the taste of the tea, so consider using a water filter. With an instant boiling KettleTap, the inbuilt filter takes care of scale.
  5. As a guide the water temperature for black tea should be 90 to 98oC and for green tea around 80oC.
  6. In order to draw the best flavour out of the tea the water must contain oxygen, this is reduced if the water is boiled more than once and you waste energy! Only boil the amount you need. Again a KettleTap delivers water at the correct temperature and fully oxygenated removing the multiple boiling associated with a traditional kettle.
  7. Measure the tea carefully; use 1 tea bag or 1 rounded teaspoon of loose tea for each cup serving.
  8. Allow the tea to brew for the recommended time before pouring.
  9. Brewing tea from a bag then milk in last is best.
  10. We suggest you remove the bag after brewing, before adding the milk, so as to judge the ideal strength.
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How to dispose of teabags

Here is some sound advice from the UK Tea Association on how to best dispose of your teabags. They inform us that the vast majority of teabags in the UK are made from natural plant fibres. While it is true some of these teabags contain a very small amount of plastic, this enables their edges to be heat sealed and stops them falling apart in hot water. If you include the tea, typically about 1% of a tea bag’s total weight is plastic (around 0.04g) - 95% is tea and the rest is natural plant fibres, which are biodegradable. Increasingly polylactic acid (PLA) is used which is a renewable and sustainable bio-based plastic derived from plants and is biodegradable. The whole industry is working hard to move over to PLA, which is a non-permanent and biodegradable. ‘Biodegradable’ differs from ‘garden-compostable’. Although a biodegradable tea bag will eventually break down in compost, it can take a long time. This is because the compost heap is usually not the right temperature or doesn’t have the right mix of microorganisms to do the job. Some councils have industrial food waste systems (industrial composters) designed to allow the necessary micro-organisms needed to break down biodegradable materials, to thrive. If your local council collects food and/or garden waste, you can place a whole biodegradeable teabag in the appropriate bin for local council collection and composting. Teabags with plastic seals should be placed in your general waste bin. The Tea Association recommends that to put tea on your garden compost, you can speed up the process by ripping open the bags before placing the used tea leaves on your compost heap and disposing of the teabag paper separately in your bin.

Convenient hot taps make fast work of the tea round

Upgrade your kitchen at home and in the workplace to the latest kitchen-must have. Save time, money and energy costs with a KettleTap. Ditch the kettle, why wait to make the tea! An instant boiling KettleTap is the most effective and quickest way. Not only do you get your boiling water at the touch of a button you also save valuable time and energy! Fast and efficient, hot taps have the ability to handle the office footfall. KettleTaps give you boiling water instantly; cup after cup delivering over 130 cups of tea per hour without waiting time. Of course we also offer taps more suited in price and performance to the domestic environment. KettleTaps are environmentally friendly and make fast work of the tea round.