Iron is another Brass water pipe mineral you might have in your water that isnt anything to worry about but it can affect the taste of your tea giving it somewhat of a metallic twang. You want to be sure to use the best water you can as even the finest tea can be ruined by water that is heavily chlorinated. But some teas will become bitter if steeped too long due to the added tannins. Oolong likes a lower temperature as does white. This has an easy answer.

You should steep your tea for between 2 and 3 minutes.

One important aspect in tea brewing that a lot of people dont pay attention to is the water. For your herbals, youll have to experiment to see which temperature yields best results. The longer you steep it, the more caffeine, tannins and color you will get.Tea can be bought in bags or, if you are into herbal tea, you might purchase the herbs to make your own tea mixtures from. But brewing loose leaves is different from bagged ones, or is it? Luckily, learning how to brew loose tea is not that much different than any other kind of tea. Dont worry, its not harmful but it can make your tea darker. You probably just put the kettle on to boil and dumped the water into your cup when it whistled, right? Well the truth is that boiling water can be too aggressive for tea. Water can also get stale meaning that it will absorb odors from the air around it. Start with 1 teaspoon per cup and add or take away as needed. You can buy a little strainer that looks like a puffed out double sided teaspoon with holes in it and put your loose tea inside, then dip it in the hot water in your cup and swirl until you feel it has steeped enough! Then simply enjoy!

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Next, you need to figure out exactly how much tea to put in the cup. Certainly you dont want to use stale or chemical laden water for your fine brew. You want to use water that is a bit less then boiling   water that is too hot can turn green tea bitter but is OK for black tea.

The next thing in learning how to brew loose tea is the temperature of the water. If you like milk in your tea, you can steep it a little longer but be warned that tannins can get in the way of your mineral absorption so you might be negating some of the health benefits of tea if you steep it for too long. Youll probably have to experiment with this too. If you notice a white powder build up around your spout or drains then you probably have this in your water.

Another thing to watch out for is calcium carbonate.

One of the biggest questions about how to brew loose tea is how to avoid getting a lot of leaves and sticks in your drink!