The best way to brew your cup of Ceylon black tea!

Brewing a cup of tea is an art, an art that we at Basilur believe should be mastered by all tea lovers out there! This blog is dedicated to helping you brew black Ceylon Tea so that you can enjoy a fresh cup, every time. At Basilur we have formulated all our blends to ensure that you can enjoy the same experience regardless of whether you choose our loose tea or the sachet form.

Brewing loose black Ceylon tea

For optimum results, these are the brewing instructions for Basilur’s black tea:

1. For best results, boil freshly drawn filtered or spring water to the boil. Ensure you never use mineral water.
2. Preheat your tea vessel with boiling water, and then discard the water. You could do this by pouring some boiling water into a teapot, and then pour water from the teapot to your teacups, and then discard this water.
3. Carefully measure your tea leaves, as we recommend using 1 teaspoon of loose tea to every 200 to 250 ml of water. If brewed in a teapot, the golden rule is one teaspoon for you and one for the pot!
4. Place your tea leaves in the teapot and then pour your water directly over the tea leaves. Close the lid.
5. After 2 minutes, open the lid and stir the tea leaves well so that they will have the optimum chance of brewing in the water. Close the lid.
6. Steep the leaves for a further 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Once you have steeped the leaves, place a strainer over the teacup and pour the tea to prevent any tea leaves from going into the cup. Do not leave the tea pot on a fire or a cooker
8. Once the full volume of brewed tea is served into cups, do the same process again if you wish to drink more cups as reusing already brewed tea leaves will not give you the same flavor and experience that is expected from a true cup of black tea. 
9. Serve and enjoy!

Water temperature

The temperature of the water you use can play a large role in the flavour you get from your Ceylon Tea. Ceylon black tea is usually brewed in order to bring out its assertive, robust and flavourful experience. Although we would recommend a lower temperature of water for green or oolong teas, black tea should be brewed just off the boil in order to ensure a deep extraction and complete steeping to produce those flavours. We would also recommend utilising a ceramic or porcelain tea set in order to retain the temperature of the water.

Personalising your Ceylon black tea

Customising the flavour of your tea is extremely simple. If you prefer a black tea with a stronger flavour, brew more tea leaves to give the cup a higher ratio of leaves to the water. Although we do not recommend steeping black tea for longer than 5 minutes, the longer you steep your tea, the more caffeinated it becomes. You could also add in other condiments such as honey, sugar or lemon for different flavour experiences.

Adding milk to black tea

Ceylon black tea pairs very well with milk and sugar. It is a very common combination in Asia, especially in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. If you are tasting Ceylon black tea for the first time, we would recommend you first try it as nature intended you to, without any additions. Following which you can begin to experiment and compares different flavours as you add in various condiments. Ultimately, your taste buds would decide what is best for you, so let your senses be your guide! However, ensure that you do not add milk or sweeteners before the tea is properly brewed.

If you have any questions or queries on brewing your cup of Basilur Tea, do not hesitate to reach out to us at info@basilurtea.com or via our official Facebook and Instagram channels, @basilurtea.global!