Dried Jasmine Flowers Herbal Tea

1. The water quality

It is essential to choose fresh water with a low mineral content. The ideal is to use spring water or perhaps filtered water. It is also best to boil it in a kettle, because water heated in a pan can easily be tainted by the taste of the food previously cooked in this receptacle.

2. The water temperature

The golden rule about water temperature is never use boiling water on the tea, whatever kind of tea you are making.

Green Teas require water at 70°C and black teas require water at 85-90°C.

These days you can get kettles which enable you to choose your water temperature.

3. The teapot

If you are making your tea in a teapot, it is advisable to scald it first, i.e. pour boiling water into the pot, rinse it and throw the water away.

There are two kinds of teapots:

1. Terracotta teapots which are said to have a "memory" because they retain the flavour of the tea already made in them. It's best to have a different teapot for each kind of tea, so that you don't mix up the flavours. After use, the teapot should merely be rinsed out, without scrubbing it or using any detergent, and then left to dry with the lid off. This kind of teapot is very suitable for black teas and Oolong teas.

2. Ceramic, metal, porcelain teapots, which can be washed in hot water (without detergent). These are more versatile because they don't absorb the flavours of the teas.