[Golden Moon Tea, April 22, 2007]

The people of China have been drinking tea for more than 5,000 years and have learned a significant amount about loose leaf tea during that time.

The Chinese perfected processing of the Camellia sinensis plant and the development of different types of tea. The also developed the proper infusion methods that guarantee a perfect cup of tea.

Today, many Chinese and other tea drinkers throughout the tea drinking world, utilize multiple infusion of whole tea leafs as a quality, cost effective way to enjoy tea. The concept of multiple infusions means that high quality whole leaf tea is infused with pure water more than once but the resulting tea drink does not loose any flavor or body.

It is truly an economical way to enjoy a quality tea experience and multiple infusions reduce the cost of high quality loose leaf tea dramatically.

What is Required for Multiple Tea Infusions?

Multiple infusions of any quality require high quality whole leaf tea and pure water.

High Quality Tea:

Whole leaf tea that is raised by a premier tea garden and properly plucked at the most opportune time is a minimum requirement for multiple infusions. After plucking, the tea must be processed by the time honored orthodox method where the integrity of the leaf is maintained.

Teas processed by the mechanized CTC (cut, tear, curl) method used in most tea bags will not support quality multiple infusions. It is impossible to produce multiple infusions from most tea bags or low quality loose leaf tea without suffering significant degrading of taste and body.

Pure Water:

Most tap or well water sources today contain contaminants that not only ruin the taste of quality loose leaf tea but are also harmful to your long term health. Many bottled waters are also unfit to produce a quality cup of tea.

When selecting a water to brew tea, try purified water produced by the distillation/oxygenation method that produces purified water with a light fresh taste.

Conclusion:

If you enjoy a fine cup of tea and want to get the best value when you purchase tea, look for tea made with the highest quality leaves that are plucked and processed in the orthodox way, This will offer you multiple infusions of your favorite tea and significantly reduce the cost.

Add purified water and your tea drinking satisfaction will be guaranteed. After 5,000 years the Chinese tea drinkers cannot be wrong!