When making tea one of the first things we need to do after placing the tea in the pot after it has been cleaned and prepped with hot water is to rinse it. After boiling the water to out desired or set standard for allowing the leaves to open up, pouring it onto the leaves for the first time for several seconds before reaching the first and full flavor of the tea is important for several reasons.
First, the tea needs to be washed. If you do not rinse the tea and dump it out after a 10-15 second rinse/wash during the first steep you will be fine but it is recommended you do so in order to wash away any potential dust or other bacteria that could have potentially gathered on the leaves during the process of picking all the way to packaging and shipping. While all the teas here at Weight Loss Teas are clean and organic, they are like vegetable in that they pass through several steps to get to your doorstep and in doing so are subject to various environments that are all prone to changes in the environment etc. Hence, like vegetables and fruit, we need to wash tea to make sure it is clean before entering our bodies.
Secondly, there is the taste factor. A tea’s first steep is usually one of the least favorites among many drinkers. That is not to say it is bad but that the aroma and fragrance of the tea typically doesn’t come out until the second steep. Most tea drinkers in fact believe a tea’s sweet spot is between the second and fourth steeps depending on the tea. Because of this, rinsing out the first steep is important and making sure to do so by the time the leaves have just started to open is the best way, as you start to open the leaves to get their full taste to come through and yet do not sacrifice some of the best flavor.
After rinsing the teapot many people in fact release that water into the same tea-serving glass they will dump future pours into. This in fact is not a good idea but again will not hurt you. The reason is because if you have just finished prepping the glass and all the cups the tea will be served to, this means they are clean and should not be mixed with something that is considered unclean (i.e. the “dirty” steep”. We want to preserve the tea to its finest capacity and present its flavor in full, therefore we should take that rinse and pour it directly into a separate glass or directly dump it into your tea making table if you have one in which it drains into the bucket. The idea that steep will be used to prep the glasses for taste is one in fact that hardcore tea drinkers will tell you is incorrect, and really goes against the logic of cleaning the tea and not drinking the first steep in the first place. This is more technical and if you plan to drink the first steep then there is no need to bother.
If you are buying tea from a dealer and you are not sure where the tea source is from then it is had to say whether you will have clean tea that is not filled with pesticides or subjected to ill picking practices. Tea shops like Teavana get their tea from pesticide-driven fields that also don’t allow tea saplings to grow to their fullest in order to speed up production. We do not get our tea using these methods and believe in wholly grown tealeaves that are clean, safe and easy to make. Knowing about steeping and rinsing are important and will help you to making the best cup of tea you desire.