This may seem a strange, or perhaps a boring, topic, but to me it is essential to making the perfect cup of tea.
Those of you who buy loose leaf tea, and I dearly hope that includes EVERYONE, will notice you purchase your tea not by volume, but by weight. In the US you purchase by ounce (oz) and in Canada by gram (g).
Any credible source on tea will tell you that to make a great cup of tea you should be WEIGHING your tea for your cup or pot, not scooping it by volume, ie; using a spoon for every type of tea equally. A good rule of thumb is 2-5 g of tea per cup.
But seriously, who wants to get out a tiny, precise kitchen scale and weigh out their tea every time they want to steep a cup. I sure don't. A spoon is a lot easier, even though it measures volume. So here are my tricks!
Firstly, see how big your bag of tea is compared to other bags by the same mass. Some weightier teas hardly take up any room at all! See below. Pineapple Orange Cooler, a Fruit Tea, is much smaller at 100g than Fine and Dandy, an Herbal Infusion of the same mass.
So what?
Plainly, this means you should not be scooping so much of the weightier tea into your cup as you should the tea that takes up more room.
Therefore, using your spoon, scoop out LESS of the weightier/denser teas for a cup; scoop out MORE of the puffier, less dense teas. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THEY COMPARE BY EQUAL WEIGHT.
So unless you want to weigh your teas, or unless you want to measure by volume, this is a great and easy shortcut. It will also help you get the most bang for your buck, and those denser teas will last longer.
Happy Sipping!!
