How to brew a flawless cup of tea: don’t use a teaspoon, free the leaves and sip with tranquillity

The flat white might be one of Australia’s most successful cultural exports, but that has not come at the expense of tea.

In public, Australians sip espresso-based coffees, while tea is a private matter – the quiet-achieving counterpart made for domestic, contemplative consumption. (That is, until it becomes the subject of a transatlantic brew-ha-ha.)

At home, many of us pop the kettle on rather than – you know – microwaving a mug of water. But from the water temperature to the teapot, how else can you ensure your tea is the best it can be?

We’ve asked three Australian experts to share their tips for a perfect serve of English Breakfast tea.

The tea: always choose loose-leaf

“If people want to drink tea they should drink the good stuff,” says Cara Chen, a Sydney-based tea ceremonialist and owner of Altitude Tea. Teabags, she says, were invented to turn “the bottom of the barrel” loose-leaf leftovers into a commodity. And that’s before you even think about the microplastic particles, which some teabags have been found to shed by the billion.

When it comes to loose-leaf, the smell is the first giveaway of quality – it should have a “roasted sweet-potato smell”, says Chen. Next, look at the shape of the leaves. Arthur Tong, co-founder of Sydney tea supplier Tea Craft, says English Breakfast blends typically feature “broken” Assam and Ceylon tea leaves. However a single-origin English Breakfast tea (that is, tea that has come from a single farm or estate) should have a consistent colour and size (Klik Here).

The water: fresh and 90C

If you’re tempted to reboil the water in your kettle, don’t. “The oxygen has all boiled out of the water and will affect the flavour of the tea,” says Lesley Pine, co-founder of Sydney wholesaler Pine Tea and Coffee.

Chen says the optimum water temperature for English Breakfast is 90C. If the water is at boiling point (100C), this “cooks” the leaves, bringing out tannins and bitter characteristics.

Tea aficionados might have a temperature-variable kettle; for those without, simply switch off the kettle just before it boils. If you forget, you can either add a splash of cold water to lower the temperature or wait a few minutes. Though Tong says he’d probably just use the 100C water anyway. “It’s not the end of the world.”