Like many things in life, you’d want to be prepared for what’s next to come right? Or maybe you like to live on the adventurous side and embrace what inevitably comes your way. If you’re the latter, this read might not be for you but stick around anyways, you might learn a lot here!
Now, as you can imagine, brewing tea at home might not be as difficult as you may think. And you’re absolutely correct! Brewing your favorite tea at home isn’t the hardest thing you can do at home but we want to make sure you’re set up for the best experience and delicious cup of tea you’ve ever made in your life!
Plus, what’s not to love about learning something new? If you’re thinking about creating a hobby around tea brewing at home, this might be the best article to start with! Before we dive into everything you need to brew tea at home, let’s begin with the simple process of brewing tea so we know what equipment we need.
What is the Process of Brewing Tea?
The process of brewing tea is quite simple and is complete with only a few steps. Seriously, it’s no longer than the amount of steps it takes to order your favorite boba drink. You know… choosing your go-to boba flavor, choosing the delicious toppings you want, paying and last but not least sipping!
Just like ordering your favorite bubble tea drink, brewing tea has 4 simple steps in the process too, without getting too caught up in the details of course.
Like any hot drink or beverage you’ll need to start with boiling water. Using the stove in your kitchen to boil a pot filled with water or an electric water kettle will both work like a charm. After reaching a boiling point for your water you’ll have to steep your preferred loose leaf tea. (You can use tea bags too but if we’re talking about brewing tea, loose leaf tea is the best route!) We usually like using a great loose leaf black tea to get us started. Once the tea has steeped for a few minutes based on your liking, you’ll need to strain the tea with a mess like strainer similar to this (no one likes those bits and pieces in their tea right?) And finally the very last step (the delicious step) in the brewing process of any loose leaf tea is to serve.
Now that we know the very simple process of brewing tea at home, what exactly are the best supplies or equipment for each step?
3 of the Best Water Kettles for Boiling Water
Stone Finish Poliviar Tea Kettle
Being a traditional stove top water kettle, this Poliviar tea kettle doesn’t have as many cool features as other electric water kettles might have, but we figured the design and well built quality of this one is worth adding to the list. We might just have to get this for the team just so for the aesthetics!
With its heat resistant handle and stainless steel construction, without a doubt this can withstand heat really well. Being stainless steel, not only will it not rust as easily as other brands or water kettles, it is a great conductor of heat. What does that mean exactly? Your boiling process will be highly efficient, with other kettles it might take a long time for your water to actual reach a boil but with this construction your water will reach boiling points fairly quick. Plus, it will also contain the heat really well if you decide you want to use the water a bit later.
The really cool part about this water kettle is that it’s designed in such a way that the whistling pitch compared to traditional water kettles is heightened. It’s almost as if it plays a melody for you when reaching a boiling point!
Stainless Steel Cuisinart CPK-17 Electric Kettle
With over 4000 reviews it only made sense that we added this electric water kettle to the list. The CPK-17 electric water kettle has the typical features you would find in any other water kettle but there are definitely some features that make it unique.
For one, there is a memory feature that allows you to keep a consistent water temperature when you the kettle off it’s home base and put it back on later. No need for kitchen thermometer readers like this anymore! How crazy is that? Another amazing feature, especially for tea brewing, is that it has preset temperature controls. There is a total of 7 different temperature controls so that any tea brewing connoisseur can easily bring the water to the exact temperature they’d desire. So if you want to have an exact temperature for your oolong tea or black tea, this might be the best kettle for that!
Amazon Basics Stainless Steel Electric Kettle
It wouldn’t be a proper “best of list” if there wasn’t any amazon related items right? This one isn’t like any other, though very basic in its construction, the reviews (2000+) sell it well for anyone interested in a simple electric water kettle.
Made with stainless steel for the best construction and durability, this electric kettle is very simple and easy to use. You might not want all the fancy features that the CPK-17 might have and only want something that is user friendly to start with. If that’s you, this is definitely the water kettle you’d want to get. To paint the picture of how easy it is to use, all you have to do is press the button once and it automatically shuts off once it hits the boiling point. This allows you to walk away without having to keep a close eye on it. Simplicity is key right?
2 of the Best Steeping Bowls or Pots
Purple Clay Gaiwan Tea Cup
You’ve seen these before right? These types of bowls if you will, have been used in traditional tea brewing or making amongst the Chinese for centuries. Made complete with 3 parts: the lid, the bowl and the saucer plate, Gaiwan tea cups or bowls help tremendously with the aromatics of any tea.
If you claim to be a tea connoisseur you’d have to have one of these in your home to brew your favorite tea. You might taste and smell a difference in the aroma of your tea as well! If the Chinese used this centuries ago and are still using it today, there has to be a good reason why. Take a look at the purple clay Gaiwan tea cup for yourself, you might find that you really need something like this for your home tea brewing rather than a generic porcelain bowl or cup.
Sweese 2307 Porcelain Tea Pot
Perfect for many use cases whether it’s coffee or tea, this porcelain made tea pot is great for doing two things at once. You may steep your favorite tea in here for 5-7 minutes like with the Gaiwan tea cup above, but you can also use this as a strainer.
The craft of the tea pot inside has a stainless steel infuser with a built in strainer so that you won’t have to use anything else for straining your delicious homemade tea. Simply steep the tea and it’s ready to pour when you want to serve, that’s it!
The best part about this tea pot is its beautiful and elegant design. As much as the functionality is great, which it is, we really do like the aesthetics that come into play with a tea pot like this. With it’s vintage style and intentional curvature, we’re going to have to gift this to someone on the team so that we can all share this!
2 of the Best Strainers for Tea
Extra Fine Mesh Tea Strainer from House Again
Working like a charm, this finely meshed strainer is easy to use and clean! No one wants bits and pieces of loose tea leaves in their brewed tea right? Using this strainer from House Again is perfect for home tea brewing in any normal sized tea cup.
Not only does this tea strainer have a nicely sized basket perfect for your loose leaf tea, it also folding handles used for propping up on the lip of your tea cup. With these functional handles you won’t have to worry if the basket will fall deep into the water while steeping, ensuring that no bits and pieces of loose leaf sneak into your freshly brewed tea. On top of that, it’s just super inexpensive too!
Cheese Cloth Strainer
Cheese cloth for straining tea? Yep, that’s exactly what we’re talking about! Fine cheese cloth is just as good as your metal mesh tea strainer, plus it’s very inexpensive too. Didn’t you know, milk tea had the nickname panty hose tea before? How about that for a fun fact! Just like panty hose, cheese cloth can be used to filter and strain tea leaves very well just like the above mesh tea strainer we mentioned.
The benefit of the cheese cloth is that you can completely customize the size of it to fit your personal cup. If you have a big cup, the handles of the above mesh tea strainer may not be wide enough to do its job properly. With a cheese cloth, you can simply cut up a section of your yards of cheese cloth in order to fit your cup perfectly. It’s what we experiment with, why don’t you give it a try too?
Think you’re ready to make some delicious home brewed tea now? We think so! We hope these supplies and tea equipment helped make your decisions on what to get for brewing tea at home a bit easier. There really isn’t that much more to home tea brewing as this. The next step is really deciding on what tea you like to craft up for yourself, you can find some amazing boba flavors here to start!
Let us know if we missed anything important that you think should be added here. Thanks for reading with us and like always just talk about boba, duh! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter for new boba flavors, secret giveaways and more or simply join 42,000+ boba connoisseurs here.
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