Update: Homemade Green Tea

As I briefly mentioned in my first green tea post I really don’t like brewing my tea into/with plastic. Similar to my reasons for getting rid of our microwave over eight years ago, I just get the heebie jeebies these days about ingesting food or liquid which was surrounded by any kind of plastic especially if it was heated/cooked/brewed etc. in or around plastic. Because of my feelings on this matter, I am trying little by little to rid our kitchen of all plastic items which have inert alternatives.¹ So when the plastic pitcher which came with my tea maker broke yet again last week, I was forced with a decision: obtain yet another plastic pitcher by means of ordering a new one online², search thrift stores for a plastic pitcher with limited chances for success, buy a new whole machine at a poorly-lit discount store³ or search around for a glass or stainless steel alternative I could buy that day for the all important immediate satisfaction. I opted for trying to find a personally more preferable replacement.

A little bit of quick internet searching led me to some very nice inexpensive glass kettles which could be used on my gas range. Ten dollars is very economical but I still didn’t want to wait over a week to be able to drink my homemade tea. Since I already had a trip planned to the higher town to our south to procure some new pants for Brian, I decided to forgo paying the extra shipping cost in favor of perusing some of the kitchen stores in the same shopping center even though during my online combing, I discovered the disappointing news that retail stores do not usually carry glass kettles for some reason.

It was my lucky day though as I found two stores which carried this very same kettle for the same lowest price I found online. I opted to purchase it at the store which took an extra coupon I was offered when I visited the customer service desk at the outlet mecca. I ended up paying less than what the shipping alone⁴ would have cost had I ordered it online. 

Even though this is a different sort of brewing mechanism, the process I undergo while making my homemade tea has changed only very slightly. On a recent visit to a local health food store, I picked up some nice tea bag sized muslin pouches which I fill with loose tea leaves and place in the tea kettle after the boiling has subsided just a bit⁵. The recipe⁶, quantities of loose tea and sweetener have not changed. In my research, I made sure the amount of boiling water capacity of the kettle was the same as with the electric tea maker.  After steeping for only a short time time⁷, I pour the hot brewed tea into 2-quart glass pitchers, which are pre-filled with honey and agave. After the tea is stirred to dissolve the honey and agave, I fill the containers to the top with cold water and refrigerate. Voila! Yummy homemade green tea.

Occasionally, I do forgo the agave syrup in favor of only honey as I have gotten used to the taste of tea sweetened only with honey. Also, now and then, I add a little bit of black tea or other flavored tea to the loose green tea leaves for a little variety. There is a slightly better taste (I think) to the tea brewed in the glass tea kettle and I am happy to get rid of one more appliance which was crowding our kitchen countertop. It is also a lot of fun to watch the water boil through the glass.

1. coffeemaker is next on the list [↩]
2. waiting over a week for delivery [↩]
3. all of which I have done several times [↩]
4. total purchase price for kettle was $8; shipping was estimated at $9 [↩]
5. green tea should be steeped at near boiling temperature and not right at boiling to avoid burning the tea [↩]
6. detailed in my first green tea post [↩]
7. about 10-15 minutes for this amount of liquid [↩]

Filed under coupons, homemaking, photography | Comment (1)