Page 3 - Tea Basics Brochure

THE ART OF TEA STEEPING
The finished tea will be only as good as the quality of the water source and tea used in the preparation. The Tea Association recommends water filtration of the incoming supply and proper cleaning of all equipment.
At 3 to 45 cents per serving, hot tea can be an excellent low cost/high profit beverage for the foodservice operator. You can realize even more profit from iced tea.
THE TEA STEEPING PROCESS
Heating the water
If you are preparing water for hot tea, you can heat it on the stove or use a hot water dispenser. Bring fresh cold water to the correct temperature for the type of tea being brewed. Never allow water to boil for a long period of time, because it will dissipate the air bubbles and “flatten” the beverage, adversely affecting the taste. Iced tea steep water should be at least 195°F (90.6°C).
Steeping the tea
For single-serve hot tea, if you use tea bags, add one tea bag for each cup of tea you expect to serve. If you are using loose tea, place 1 teaspoon per cup in an infuser.
Temperatures recommended by the Tea Association of the USA for each type of tea:
• Black tea – 3-5 minutes at 201-210°F (96.1 – 98.9°C)
• Darjeeling tea – 3 minutes at 190-195°F (87.8 – 90.6°C)
• Oolong tea –3-5 minutes at 175-195°F (79.4 – 90.6°C)
• Chinese green tea –1- 3 minutes at 170-180°F (76.7 – 82.2°C)
• Japanese green tea – 1 to 2 minutes at 160-175°F (71.1 – 79.4°C) • White tea – 3 to 4 minutes at about 185°F (85°C)
For iced tea, pour one quart of boiling water for each 1 ounce tea bag used over the tea and steep for 3-5 minutes. Minimally, tea leaves should be exposed to water at a temperature of 195 °F (90.6 °C) for approximately 5 minutes. Remove tea bag and add fresh, cold tap water to yield final quantity of iced tea.
If you are using an automatic iced tea brewer, place the tea into the steeping basket and start the steeping cycle. When steeping is finished, stir contents with a sanitized stirrer if steeping equipment is not equipped with an auto-blend feature.
For commercial purposes, “sun” tea is not an acceptable practice for steeping tea.
Serving
As with other beverages, merchandising tea is a vital step. Whether you choose to enhance your iced tea servers with colorful wraps or serve your hot tea in a porcelain teapot, your goal is to entice your customers to buy more of this beverage. An appropriate server also affects the flavor of the beverage. Hot tea should be kept hot and iced tea, cold.