I make Chai from scratch decently often. I use whole spices, give them a couple cracks with a pestle and add them to a pot of boiling water along with loose leaf black tea. I then let it continue to boil, or just cut the heat for a couple minutes, then add milk. I then bring it back to a boil, and wait for it to try to boil over. When it tries to boil over, you beat back the foam and take it off heat for a little. If you do that over and over, eventually, it won’t foam up anymore because those proteins have denatured. That’s when the tea gets that nice and silky texture. I’ll also throw some honey in there.

I always make a big pot and have plenty of leftovers for cold chai.

I don’t really measure anything, even though I should. I also change up ingredients. At a minimum, I always have green cardamom, ginger, and tea, but sometimes I also use black cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, aniseed, nutmeg, black pepper, or vanilla.

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I have a really nice Bodum glass kettle that I use every day. I usually drink it with a bit of honey. For chai, black tea, and other dessert-y teas, I like to add a bit of milk (powdered or almond).

I really like disposable, compostable tea bags. They’re made of the same stuff as coffee filters. But tbh I use pre bagged most days because I’m lazy.

On special occasions we bring out the Yixing

Depends on tea…

I start with boiling water because I don’t have a fancy kettle.

Tea bags? Leave in for a while, sometimes indefinitely, sometimes til the string annoys me. Black unflavored?With a little half and half. Sometimes brown sugar, tannin content depending. Black flavored (like Earl grey)? Plain. Green? A little honey. Most others? Plain

Loose? Timing depends on tea type, and can change based on specific tea and quality. Usually: Black/flavored green/lower quality teas? 3 minutes first brew, 5 till indefinite minutes second brew. Green? 1 minute first brew, 2 minutes second brew, 5 minutes third brew. Oolong/puer? 5 second rinse, toss the rinse, 20 second first brew. Or, without rinse, 30 second first brew. 1 minute second brew, 2 minute third brew, etc.

A lot of loose leaf depends on tea to water ratio too, these work for me. Quality and size of leaf effects how quickly the flavor can get into the water. Sometimes I’ll just stand over the brewing tea and sniff the whole time to determine best brew time. I might be a little crazy about it though.

I’ve got a four-cup pot (24z) and a deep wire mesh basket for it. I most do looseleaf, but I have a reliable fujian in teabags and a pretty nice chai masala that’s also pre-bagged.

Electric gooseneck kettle is also 24z, so it works out perfectly.

For the cup, I’ve got two sets of handleless teacups, 3z and 4z, and one handmade heavier 5z cup that was a present from my wife. I didn’t like it at first because it’s so large and the balance is weird, but it’s grown on me; the balance is perfect when it’s full, and only leans towards the handle when it’s empty.

It’s been a while since I’ve had tea and it’s not fancy or anything but what I did was I would start off with either an unsweetened green or black tea bag (just whatever I had at the time) and steep it in twice as much water that was recommended on the box. After I removed the tea bag, I would then add a lemonade drink mix and either 1 packet of sugar for green tea or 2 packets of sugar for black tea.

I don’t remember any specific combinations of brands but I think I remember sweeter lemonades working better with green tea and tart lemonades working better with black tea. Just avoid True Lemon, I haven’t tried their other drink mixes but I remember the regular lemonade drink mix being terrible in tea.

I’m not a frequent tea drinker, but when I do:

• Milk in the mug first.
• Tea bag and boiling water.
• Remove bag after 3 minutes. (Give it a squeeze over the mug for extra tea-ness)
• Add a spoonful of sugar and maybe some tea marsala if I feel like it.

Electric kettle to get the water to the proper temperature, and then I just dump it on a tea bag and add tiny bit of cream, depending on the tea. I leave the tea bag in because I like it strong and bitter

Electric kettle. Boiling water. Infuser basket in tea pot for 3 - 5 minutes depending on the type of tea. Drink pot and repeat around 1400

Big pinch from a cheap 1 kilo bag of black tea, in a pint glass, strain into other pint glass.

Mostly drink coffee, but some days I want something more relaxing.

I mostly drink Shan tea which has added toasted sticky rice flavour and a very strong black tea with milk and sugar, the way indians introduced back in colonial time.

Shan tea is simple. Just put it in a flask with hot water, wait a bit and drink slowly.

Black tea with milk has to be brewed hard though. Tannins are part of the flavour. I personally brew for about 15 to 30 mins. Actual tea stalls brew much longer, like hours long. Also tea leaves to water ratio is quite low as well. The tea needs to be fairly tart. Then we add evaporated milk and sweetener. A serving should be quite small because the tea is strong. May be around 100-150ml.

Electric kettle to boil 2 cups of water. 4 twinnings earl Grey to a pitcher Steep tea for about 5 minutes 1 large spoonful of lemon iced tea mix Fill pitcher up to full Chill and serve

Infuser in hot water for two minutes, add cream and sugar after removing infuser

Boiling water. Kettle at home and Kuereg with no pod at work. A half teaspoon of sugar. A bit of soy milk. And usually ice.

Edit: not as common, but 90 seconds in microwave works fine.

Water in the microwave. Cheap Lipton tea bag for five mins. A little cashew milk. It’s fine.