Alex S. > wrote:
> Ok, first of all, I live in Canada. I usually have loose tea but
> occasionaly I have Tetley. When I buy Tetley bags, they are called
> "two cup premium tea bags". So what I usually do is put two in my
> four-cup tea pot, and brew for four minutes. Would I acheive the same
> effect if I put it in a one-cup mug and brewed for 2 minutes?

Well, a technical question: is tea brewing linear? That is, does half the
tea in half the water make the same product?

Well, it's hard to imagine a "neighbor effect", as with bread or a souffle'.
Tea on the edge of the mug should brew about the same as tea in the middle.

That is if they are the same temperature. So I would scald the pot and,
even more importantly, scald the mug (rinse it out with boiling water).

> What should I do?

Try it. If you like it, keep trying it. If you don't, try something else.

Rick

While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Alex S. rolled
initiative and posted the following:

> Ok, first of all, I live in Canada. I usually have loose tea but
> occasionaly I have Tetley. When I buy Tetley bags, they are
> called "two cup premium tea bags". So what I usually do is put
> two in my four-cup tea pot, and brew for four minutes. Would I
> acheive the same effect if I put it in a one-cup mug and brewed
> for 2 minutes? What should I do? Any help is greatly
> appreceated.

I make all of my tea based on what it would take to make one cup.
Everything larger is simply in multiples - 2x the water, 2x the
tea...

...except when I'm making iced tea from loose. In that case,
I make the tea doubly strong as it will get diluted when being
shaken with the ice.

--
Derek

You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision,
determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.

Alex S. > wrote:
>Ok, first of all, I live in Canada. I usually have loose tea but
>occasionaly I have Tetley. When I buy Tetley bags, they are called
>"two cup premium tea bags". So what I usually do is put two in my
>four-cup tea pot, and brew for four minutes. Would I acheive the same
>effect if I put it in a one-cup mug and brewed for 2 minutes? What
>should I do? Any help is greatly appreceated.

Two-cup for 4 minutes.

Tea and water are proportional, but time and temperature are not
variable.

3 minutes makes a clearer cup; 5 minutes makes a chewy one.
If you have the chance to pay attention, 3 minutes 40
seconds is a pretty nice balance with Tetley bags.

--Blair
"Next week: which bag has the best staples?"

You can make a decent cup of tea using teabags in a pot and not a cup.
As usual the mininum is two because there is one for the pot. The
comment about tea, water, time and temperature are my rules of thumb.
To make my life simple I brew teabags only two minutes no matter if
two or the whole box in the pot. If you don't use the entire pot
remove the teabags before the subsequent cups. If you find teabags
you really like it doesn't get any easier than this.

Jim

Blair P. Houghton > wrote in message > ...
> Alex S. > wrote:
> >Ok, first of all, I live in Canada. I usually have loose tea but
> >occasionaly I have Tetley. When I buy Tetley bags, they are called
> >"two cup premium tea bags". So what I usually do is put two in my
> >four-cup tea pot, and brew for four minutes. Would I acheive the same
> >effect if I put it in a one-cup mug and brewed for 2 minutes? What
> >should I do? Any help is greatly appreceated.
>
> Two-cup for 4 minutes.
>
> Tea and water are proportional, but time and temperature are not
> variable.
>
> 3 minutes makes a clearer cup; 5 minutes makes a chewy one.
> If you have the chance to pay attention, 3 minutes 40
> seconds is a pretty nice balance with Tetley bags.
>
> --Blair
> "Next week: which bag has the best staples?"

Space Cowboy > wrote:
>You can make a decent cup of tea using teabags in a pot and not a cup.
> As usual the mininum is two because there is one for the pot. The
>comment about tea, water, time and temperature are my rules of thumb.
>To make my life simple I brew teabags only two minutes no matter if
>two or the whole box in the pot.

Two minutes? If your teabags contain only dust and no fannings
then maybe.

--Blair
"Tea soup."

I err on the side of just enough and convenience when it comes too
teabags. I don't try to maximize anything. I should say it seems like
two minutes because I've never timed any tea. There is the dunking
test for individual bags and cups but a pot is the only way to make
any kind of tea. There is no time only taste.

Jim

Blair P. Houghton > wrote in message > ...
> Space Cowboy > wrote:
> >You can make a decent cup of tea using teabags in a pot and not a cup.
> > As usual the mininum is two because there is one for the pot. The
> >comment about tea, water, time and temperature are my rules of thumb.
> >To make my life simple I brew teabags only two minutes no matter if
> >two or the whole box in the pot.
>
> Two minutes? If your teabags contain only dust and no fannings
> then maybe.
>
> --Blair
> "Tea soup."