In Episode 5, Dr. Tea answers viewer emails about tea preparation and ice teas. Find out what not to get bogged down with when making a healthy pot of tea.

Video Transcription

Dr. Tea: Welcome to tea tips with me, Dr. Tea, and today we are going to talk about all the misnomers about tea and specially those questions that had been coming in from our podcast from all you listeners out there. Today, we are going to talk about the misnomers about tea and some of the emails that you have been sending in. I have to tell you our tea tips section has just been phenomenal and the questions coming in are equally phenomenal. So I think most of the questions we are going to able to answer by brewing a pot of tea. Let's start with number one. You take out your vessel. Add a little bit of hot water and that prepares the vessel for the tea that we are going to add, and one of the questions that came in was, how much tea do I use Dr. Tea, when preparing a pot of tea? And the answer is, two, take your pot and always coat the bottom of the vessel with a thin line of tea. I am using a green tea here with dried pineapple, and that smells incredible, and that's it. A very thin line of tea, all the way across the bottom and that's the proper measure. So we are going to add our hot water to the tea, and another question that came in was, what about the water temperature Dr. Tea? I keep hearing about different water temperatures, but what I tell everybody is, if you're just starting out making your teas, don't get consumed with the water temperature as of yet. Bring your water to a boil, take it off the stove, use that boiled water to prepare your vessel and by the time you're ready to prepare your tea, the water temperature has come down sufficiently. Also, all the caffeine is in the first steep of the tea. So if you do not want caffeine in your tea, all you have to do is, steep it 30 seconds to a minute, pour this liquid out, re-steep the leaves. Another question that came in was, Dr. Tea, how can I re-steep those leaves? Well, you leave the leaves in your pot and just add hot water again. You will still get all the health benefits of your tea, but without the caffeine. You know one of the most frequently asked questions I get from the podcasts are, you know Dr. Tea, I love iced tea. Is it have the same amount of health benefits as hot tea, and the answer is, it absolutely does. But when you take your hot tea and you add ice to it, you are diluting it. So when you are making iced tea, make sure you steep your tea for an extra minute in order for you to get all those wonderful antioxidants, L-theanine and the caffeine out, so you can get all the health benefits. Remember, if you're going from the pot and pouring it over with ice, steep in an additional minute. Stay tuned next week, when we are going to talk about Matcha, mat ground cha tea and we are going to start to make some frosTeas for the summer.