The Art of Tea

There's making tea ... and then there's making tea. My dad wins the academy award on complicating the process although I do have to acknowledge that's it's quite an excellent result. There was some obscure claim to be merely following directions, but this magical resource was left unshared.

First, the water. This is not splashing some water into a kettle and forgetting about it until you're ready. (The idea of heating water up in the microwave is completely off the table.) This is a specific spring water heating up to 175F. We'll get dramatic part of this recipe momentarily.

Second, the tea leaves. Note this is not any cup. It's a specific ceramic cup with the leaf holder that goes all the way down the cup for even steeping. Nor is this shaking leaves in unceremoniously. This is carefully measured .... alternated by layers German rock sugar. Questioning this resulted in a lecture on the evenness of the sweetness during steeping.

Here's the dramatic part. Just as I was trying to understand why there was a thermometer in the hot water at all, there was a panic that it was 20 degrees too hot. As I conjure up images where I was happy to simply get to the water before it completely boiled away and destroyed my kettle (on numerous occasions), there was a mad dash to the retrieve the special spring water. I verified that is the same spring water so there wouldn't be contamination, but my sarcasm was drowned in assurances that it was the same. There was also a suggestion that he was shocking the water with cold on hot water, but this theory was completely rejected as the water was nursed back to a perfect 175F.

Third, pouring the tea. This is less complicated, as the hot water is simply poured over the perfectly layered tea leaves.

Fourth, setting the timer. Estimating is not permitted. Again, my brain wandered back to the so many times where my tea bag (SHHHHHH ... I was desperate, OK?), was possibly standing up in the water because I had forgotten to remove it. Regardless, exactly two minutes later the steeper is removed and ....

.... out pops the strainer!!! WHAT? You had a steeper preventing it from getting in the tea, right?

Oh wait, I forgot. The perfect sized cup was whipped out with the ice loaded to the brim in it. It is important to note that the ice was not made from the same spring water, so I'm personally a bit let down about this.

Anyway, back to the strainer. The cup of tea is then poured over the strainer into the cup of ice.

Done.

All right, there is some minor admission that there was quite a bit of green leafy bits in the strainer. Also, it tastes really freaking good. But still. Wow.