A Newbie's Guide to Tea: Getting Started

This is a request from a reader:

A Newbie's Guide to Tea

So you want to drink tea but don't know where to start.

Let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A - B - C. When you brew you begin with.... well, this blog post. (My apologies to The Sound of Music...)



Things you will need: 
- Something to heat water with. (I prefer using a kettle, but you could use a pot of water on the stove, or the microwave if you're really desperate)
- Mug (if you're using the microwave to heat your water, make sure it is microwaveable and NOT METAL)
- Tea (in a bag if you don't want to get fancy)
- Spoon (optional, for stirring in sweetner, or removing your tea bag once it has finished steeping to your liking, if the tea bag has no string)
- Sweetener (optional)

Now, when it comes to choosing tea, it TOTALLY DEPENDS on what you like.

If you want to go to the grocery store and pick up some tea just to try it out, that's totally fine. You don't have to be all finicky about your tea, or spend tons of money on loose-leaf tea. BUT, this is what I have to recommend: you have to start with a flavour you like. The Hubby says, "If you don't like mint, you're not going to like mint tea, whether it's green, oolong or some specialty mint-flavoured whatever."

Good Starter Teas:
- Fruit teas - come in many flavours, and they're often not as strong.
- Herbal teas - mint and chamomile are probably the two most popular. Rooibos is also considered an herbal tea, because it's not made from tea leaves (camellia senensis plant).
- Orange Pekoe - one of the most popular straight black teas

Acquired Taste Teas:
- Earl Grey - black tea with bergamot flavouring. Can be considered perfume-y
- English or Irish Breakfast - more robust than orange pekoe
- Masala Chai - spiced tea, traditional in India
- Maté - very strong South American tea

You could start with a box of mixed flavours (for example, Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea Sampler, or if you're adventurous and would like to try DAVIDsTEA [DO IT!! DO IT!!], the 12 Sachet Box or the Starter Kit) and try them to see which one you like. Use that as a base to build your tea collection.

I will write another blog post on different types of tea, and why the difference matters (fueled by information from Wikipedia). But in the meantime, let's get brewing.

Steps to making tea:
1) Choose your tea bag.
2) Put water in your kettle.
3) Plug in your kettle.
4) Turn it on.
5) Get your mug.
6) Put your tea bag in your mug.
7) Wait until the water is boiling. Turn off the kettle (or wait until it turns off on its own)
8) Let it sit for a second.
9) Pour boiling water over the tea bag. If it has a string, hold on to the string. BE CAREFUL YOU DO NOT POUR BOILING WATER OVER YOUR HAND. THIS IS BAD.
10) Let it sit for between 3 & 5 minutes, depending on how strong you like your tea. You can jiggle the teabag up and down, or you can just let it sit.
11) (optional) Remove tea bag.
12) (optional) Add sweetener, if desired. Stir gently.
13) Sip carefully. The water-that-has-become-tea is still hot.

Let me know what you think of this guide! Was it helpful?

Upcoming installments:
- A Newbie's Guide to Tea: Types of Tea and Why It Matters
- A Newbie's Guide to Tea: Terminology
- Your suggestions/ questions of what to cover next