A-B-C To Brewing A Great Cup Of Oolong Tea

Prepare a seven-piece utensil set, good quality water and at least 10 minutes of patience are needed to make Chinese-style tea:

1. Choose Virgin Oolong Tea from a vacuum-packed bag no more than nine or ten months old. Ideally use spring water, but if you have to rely on tap water then use tap water that's already been boiled.

2. Fill about one-third of a small tea pot with tea leaves.

3. Pour near boiling water, at about 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit), over the leaves. Strain the water and throw it out. This first infusion, which is always immediately thrown away, washes the leaves.

4. Pour more hot water over the tea leaves. Wait a couple of minutes and then pour the liquid through a tea strainer into a small vessel so it doesn't steep too long and become bitter. It should be a golden yellow colour.

5. Pour the liquid from the vessel into a tiny cylindrical sniffer cup. Sniff it the way you sniff good wine and then pour into a small drinking cup.

6. Drink contents of cup in three to four sips.

7. Repeat from step No 4 until the leaves become too weak to yield any flavour.

8. The second through to fourth infusion are generally considered the best infusions of tea.

9. The temperature of the water should be 90 degree Celsius water. If the water is too hot then the tea will be bitter.

10. Remember that tea making is more an art than a science.

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