How to make a perfect cup of tea with tea bags

Tea is a healthy, delicious hot drink that can be enjoyed around the world. It is consumed by millions of people around the world every day. Tea is the most popular hot drink alongside coffee.

But unlike the caffeine drink it is very versatile and can be drunk regularly during the day, it is cheaper, and it also has many health-benefits. These key factors combine to make English tea an incredibly popular hot drink.

There are many different varieties of tea but the one we’re going to focus here on making is English tea. There are also a few different ways to make a cup of tea, such as by using teapots or brewing loose leaves. However, by far the quickest and most commonly used method is to simply drop a tea bag into a cup and add hot water. These are the steps in detail.

1. Making tea with teabags is by far the quickest and easiest way to make the drink. Teabags are available from the supermarket from a range of different manufacturers at varying prices. These brands include PG Tips, Tetleys, Yorkshire Tea and Ringtons among others.

2. Once you’ve bought the teabags simply take one from the box and drop it into a good-sized mug, not too small but also not too large. Boil water in a kettle. Now, here’s an important thing to remember. Never pour the water onto the tea the moment it has reached boiling point. This can scold the tea and sour the taste very slightly. Instead, allow a few seconds for the steam to subside and then pour the water on the tea. The water should change colour to a dark brown.

3. Give the tea bag a quick stir to ensure that all the tea is mixed with the water. Allow the cup to stand for a couple of minutes. But importantly during that time keep giving the tea bag a quick stir round. This prevents a thin brown film from building up around the sides of the mug where it meets the water.

4. Give the tea bag another stir and finally squeeze it gently against the side of the mug to drain the remaining tea flavour into the water. Remove the tea bag and put it either on a tea tray, or in the bin. Try to avoid leaving the tea bag on the kitchen work surface or next to the sink as this can be unhygienic and make the kitchen look messy.

5. With a mug full of black tea, as it is known, add to the cup the required amount of milk. Some people like skimmed milk, while others prefer full-fat. However, semi-skimmed milk is almost always the best compromise and the type of mile that is most commonly used.

6. For people who prefer strong tea that is dark in colour, simply add a small amount of milk. For other people who prefer weaker tea that is light in colour add slightly more milk. The colour of the tea whatever strength it is should always be brown in colour. The key thing to remember during this stage is to add small amounts of milk slowly. More milk can be added to the tea, but if there’s too much in there then the drink needs to be thrown away and all of the above steps repeated.

7. Once the milk has been added, give the cup of tea a good stir to ensure the liquids are mixed and that the taste is even. From here, some people – especially children - like to have sugar added to their tea to make it sweeter. However, many people complain that this detracts from the taste of the tea. It is all down to personal preference. With more practice it’s possible to change slightly the steps described here. But they are essentially the perfect template to make a quick cup of very tasty English tea.