Turkish tea

Method

You will need: A two-tier teapot · Slim tulip tea glasses

1. Bring the water to the boil. Meanwhile warm the dry tea in the upper pot over the steam for a minute or two.

   Look for The lid of the pot should be too hot to touch and the tea should give off a dry, faintly smoky smell.

   Why Boiling water poured into a cold pot loses 10 to 15 degrees at once. A pot that is already warm keeps the first pour above 90 °C.

2. Pour about 300 ml of the boiling water over the tea, set the pot back on the kettle and brew it over the lowest flame for 10 to 15 minutes.

   Look for The leaves should sink to the bottom and the brew should be a deep red-brown.

   Why Water in a pot sitting on steam stays at 90–95 °C: hot enough to draw out the compounds that give black tea its colour and taste, below the boil that makes it bitter. Brewed under 10 minutes the tea is pale and thin; past 20 minutes it turns bitter and astringent, because the tannins keep coming out.

   If it went wrong

   If the pot starts to boil — foam on top, a bubbling sound — take it off at once; if the tea turned bitter, pour less brew and more water into each glass.

3. Pour the brew into the glass first, then the hot water from below: a quarter of the glass for light tea, half for strong.

   Look for Held to the light the glass should be clear and deep red — "rabbit’s blood" — rather than cloudy.

   Why The brew is a concentrate: changing the ratio suits each glass to each person without a second brew.