Things to Avoid with Organic Tea

Avoid These Mistakes When Drinking Organic Tea

How to Prepare and Enjoy Your Favorite Tea from Organic Leaves

Choosing organic tea provides benefits for health and the environment. Tea grown practicing organic methods is likely higher in antioxidants and other beneficial compounds than conventional, given that it’s grown in healthier soil without the use of synthetic chemicals. However, it’s possible to compromise these benefits if you steep your tea incorrectly. There are several reasons why you might have a bad experience with organic tea:

1 – Using the Wrong Type of Water

Filtered or soft water is best for making tea. Hard water contains a variety of naturally occurring minerals while standard tap water often carries chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride. Minerals interfere with the natural taste of tea and can build up in your body over time, potentially causing health problems. Ingesting too many chemicals on a regular basis disrupts the natural rhythm of your body’s systems and compromises the benefits of drinking organic tea.

2 – Adding Milk and Lemon at the Wrong Time

With many blends, tradition states that milk should be placed in the cup before pouring the tea to avoid a bitter taste, and milk should be left out of Earl Grey tea entirely. Whether you use regular milk or a non-dairy alternative, adding it to organic tea with lemon juice causes the milk to curdle. Curdled milk tastes sour or even spoiled, which ruins the entire cup. You should never use milk with organic green tea and organic herbal tisanes.

3 – Using a Cold Pot and Cups

Pouring hot water into a cold teapot or hot tea into a cold teacup lowers the temperature of the infusion, negatively affecting the flavor. Since re-heating the tea to a boil can cause the flavor to lose its fullness, it’s best to rinse both pot and cups with hot water before serving tea to ensure consistent heat.

4 – Waiting Too Long to Re-Infuse

Many teas such as green, white and oolong can be infused multiple times. Each infusion tastes a little different than the one before. However, you shouldn’t wait to re-use the tea leaves. Leaving a tea bag or infuser full of loose organic tea to sit causes reactions with the oxygen in the air that lower the quality of the tea. These oxidation reactions can also create compounds that harm the body, thus compromising the health-promoting effects of the tea

5 – Failure to Read Instructions

All tea has an ideal ratio of leaves to water as well as a prescribed time for steeping and ideal water temperature . Infusing too little tea or not infusing it long enough results in a weak brew. Too much tea or too long a steeping time creates a bitter flavor that’s unpleasant to drink and can’t be corrected by adding milk or honey. And water that is too hot can also affect the end flavor.

Organic farming preserves the integrity of the soil and reduces farmer’s exposure to dangerous compounds used in modern agriculture. Purchasing any of Tea Forté’s organic blends supports this method of farming. Steep your tea with care and you’ll enjoy a perfectly flavored cup every time.