A Brief History of Tea
Tea was first grown in China and then spread to other countries and has always been liked by people all over the world. Tea has never lost its popularity, especially in recent years, when people are increasingly aware of the importance of organic foods and drinks. China and the UK are two large tea drinking nations. It is universally known that China is the original tea-growing area, as well as the first country to grow, produce and drink tea. It was almost 3000 years ago when China found and started to use tea. Tea was unknown to Europeans until the 16th century and was introduced to Britain by the Dutch in the mid 17th century. Since then, tea has been an important drink in Great Britain for hundreds of years, and it is drunk throughout the day in most British homes.
How to Properly Prepare Tea
- Boil water. Different types of tea require different water temperature to brew. Check the tea packaging to see the recommended water temperature.
- Warm up teapot. This step is a detail that takes your tea to the next level and almost no one does it but they should. Take some of the boiled water and fill half the teapot and give it a few swirls then throw out the water. We’re warming the teapot so that when the hot water for tea goes in, the water temperature won’t drop too much.
- Put tea into teapot and add hot water.
- Cover teapot and steep tea. Set the timer on your phone to steep it to the correct amount of time. The steep time is different for each kind of tea so check the tea package to see what is recommended. Usually it’s no more than 5 minutes.
- Strain tea solids and pour hot tea into tea cups.
- Add milk if you like.
Vocabulary:
brief = breve
to spread to = diffondersi
increasingly = sempre più
aware = consapevole
organic = biologico
as well as = così come
the Dutch = gli olandesi
throughout = durante
to brew = mettere in infusione
packaging = confezione
boiled = bollito
swirls = giri, vortici
to throw out = buttare/gettare via
to drop = cadere, abbassarsi
to steep = macerare
to strain = filtrare
solids = solidi
