As we are sure you can agree, there is nothing better than a nice cup of tea when you need a break.

Today, we’re going to look at different types of tea outside your regular builder’s brew. Rather than talking about green tea or herbal infusions, we’re going to try to focus on some of the more interesting ones.

Making Loose Leaf Tea

The following teas are all brewed as loose leaf. This means they don’t come in your regular tea bags.

To craft these excellent brews, you need a tea infuser or a teapot. An infuser is a tool that allows the loose leaves to sit within your teapot or cup and slowly brews over time.

Getting the correct water temperature and infusion time can be crucial to a perfect cup of these teas, so we have provided you with all the relevant information here!

Black Tea

No, we don’t just mean your standard brew without milk!

Black tea is a type that is completely oxidised, the expertly crafted ones are considered to be very highly prized. These can have tastes of chocolate and caramel or even be very floral, depending on the method.

When making Black tea it is first withered right after the harvest. From here, artisans employ one of two methods.

The first method is known as CTC (or cut, tear, curl) which was invented in 1930 by Mr William McKercher. This employs the use of a rotovane and specialised CTC machine to turn the tea leaves into ‘fine particles’.

The second method known as Orthodox may also employ the use of a rotovane, but is rolled either by hand or mechanically.

Tea leaves are pressed down onto a rigid table-top and the process produces a mixture of whole and broken tea leaves, as well as the particles mentioned in CTC.

Black teas are often brewed at 100°C and it is recommended to let them steep for around 3 minutes. You can leave them longer than this, but it should be no more than about 5 minutes.

Some famous black teas include bold Assam, fragrant Earl Grey, and the smoky Lapsang Souchong.

Oolong Tea

Hovering between the realms of black tea and green tea, Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea that has become widely available.

It can come in lighter or darker shades, which changes the flavour of the tea significantly. Lighter Oolong is often fruity, but the darker variety is roasted or nutty in taste.

This depends on how oxidised the tea is. Less oxidation is what leads to the light fruity flavours, and vice versa for the dark roasted flavours.

Oolong tea goes through a very strict process of craft, being one of the more difficult teas to get right. Teatulia go in-depth into how their Oolong tea is crafted, their process includes withering, cooling, oxidising, roasting, and drying.

Most Oolong teas are recommended to be brewed between 85°C and 95°C with a brewing time of 1-3 minutes. Flavoured Oolongs often take that little bit longer for the flavour to really kick in.

Pu’er Tea

Also traditionally from China, specifically the Yunnan province in the south-west.

Pu’er tea does not have a specific flavour to it either, making it the most versatile tea on our list today! The taste depends on some different factors including region, processing style, and age.

Pu’er tea is often bundled into bricks for storage and transportation. This is where the fermentation process then takes place.

This Maocha process has two sub-processes, depending on the type of tea you want to produce. These are to produce either green/raw Pu’er or dark/ripe Pu’er. Once these are completed, this is where we see the pressing and fermentation come in.

Pu’er Tea is brewed at 100°C and is often let to steep for 5 minutes.

If you would like to venture boldly into the great world of tea, we hope our list has helped you along!

Remember, all tea tastes better with clean and fresh water, so be sure to consider our water filters.

If you have any questions, give us a call on 01462 455772 – we would love to help!