More Information
How much tea should I use?
On average, a single cup of black tea is between 2.5grams - 3 grams of dry tea. That's about a heaped teaspoon, or a flat tablespoon. The beauty of loose tea is that you can adjust this to your taste. Use a bit more for a fuller flavour faster. Use a mite less if you prefer things a little more subtle.
It will also depend on how heavy the blend is. Fruit teas are often differently weighted due to their ingredients, but a similar volume should still make a great cup. For example, a flat tablespoon of Chamomile is grand for a single cup, but is nowhere near 2.5grams.
How long should I brew?
We recommend at least 3 minutes for black teas, up to 5 minutes for fruit and herbal teas, and up to 7 minutes for greens and whites. This very much depends on your taste, and you will very quickly get used to how long you like each blend to steep for. Our wooden tea timers can help you stick to a minimum time if you need some sandy patience. An electronic timer can help you maintain a very accurate idea of your preferences for different blends.
Should I add milk? What teas are good with/without milk?
You can add milk easily to any of our black teas. In fact, Chai Melange is excellent made with milk instead of water. Contrariwise, Afternoon Peach is actually also great without milk. In the main we've tried to keep the strong tanin aftertaste out of our teas so that you can enjoy them without milk more easily.
Our fruit, herbal, green and white blends are usually better without it - occasionally, strong brews of these teas can curdle the milk. If you're a real dairy fan you might just get away with it if you're careful - nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation!
Should I add sugar? What teas are good with sugar?
Sugar is always to taste, and can be added to any of our teas if you want, although we like to allow the tea to be the over-riding flavour. However, there are a few blends whose tastes are definitely enhanced by a little bit of the white stuff.
- Chai Melange is traditionally served sweet, so adding sugar will give a more authentic experience
- Mint Humbug will taste more like the traditional boiled sweet if you add sugar
- Warm Gingerbread will taste more like an actual gingerbread biscuit if you add sugar
- Lady Marmalade tastes like oranges, but adding a bit of sugar will get you an authentic marmalade taste, which goes exceptionally well with buttered toast.
I'm getting pieces of herb leaf and/or fruit in the cup, what should I do?
Our blends are replete with completely natural fruits, herbs and bark and sometimes these break down into finer pieces and you can find small bits in the cup after pouring. Swallowing a piece of natural fruit or herb will most likely be good for you, however, it may not be the experience you want, and it's easily remedied:
- Our Empress Tea Strainers and Antique Copper French Presses are especially selected by us for their super fine mesh, which avoids this problem.
- Our Fillable Tea Bags are fine enough to trap anything; just pop in a spoonful, fold over the top, and use as a normal teabag.
- Alternatively, we carry a small range of our blends in prefilled boidegradable soilon teabags. You can choose from Heritage Breakfast, Mint Humbug and Goblin Market.
Teapot Information
All our glass teapots are made from borosilicate glass. This means it's pretty sturdy, and can withstand use in the dishwasher, microwave (with metal filter removed, if applicable) and even on the hob as long as there is liquid in it.
It's super easy to clean, though, so the main advantage is that you can easily tap your used tealeaves out over a bin without fear of breakage, and then it just needs a quick rinse.
The wire and glass filters are fine enough to trap our beautiful full tea leaves, but large enough to easily rinse them out when you're done.
If you have further questions please feel free to contact us at hello@missmckeowns.com.