This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
How to make a cup of tea? Is that what Agnes and Amy wish me to tell them? Nothing is easier. The odd thing is that so many girls fancy tea-making a difficult art, when it is really a very simple process, which needs only attention and care to produce excellent results.
One thing you must if possible have, and that is a good brand of tea. English breakfast, if excellent, is a very satisfactory kind, and there are blends of Oolong, Souchong, and just a dash of orange pekoe which any good grocer will put up for you, and which are very satisfactory. By this I mean that the taste is refined and agreeable, and the tea rests and refreshes the one who drinks it. I myself prefer a sort of tea which comes from Ceylon, and has a fragrance like flowers, and is so clean and sweet and smooth that no tea compares with it in the opinion of those who have given it a trial. Whatever tea you use, it should be bought in small quantities, unless you have an air-tight box, lined with tin-foil, in which to keep it from the air. Tea loses its flavor if carelessly kept in a loosely fastened caddy.
Having good tea to begin with, next be sure that you have freshly drawn pure and filtered water of which to make the beverage. The water must not have been standing for hours exposed to the weather nor simmering on the range, and growing flat. It must be fresh, and then if you have a brisk fire, or the hot flame of an alcohol-lamp, bring it quickly to the boil. A flat-bottomed kettle is to be preferred, as it has a broad surface to expose to the heat, and the boiling is soon accomplished. Water is boiling when it bubbles and jumps merrily about, and the steam comes in white puffs from the spout of the kettle. It does not boil when it begins to simmer and to sing. That is only the sign that it is near to boiling. You must make your tea when the water has just boiled, not when it has been boiling a long time. A kettle which has been standing on the back of a stove all day, filled up now and then by a dipper or two more of water added when some has been taken out, will not make good tea. You must boil the water on purpose.
An earthen pot is better for tea than a metal one. Pour a little boiling water in the pot to heat it, and after a minute or two pour it out. Now put a teaspoonful of tea for every cup of hot water—an even, not a heaping spoonful—and add an extra one for the pot. Pour on as much water as will fill the number of cups you wish to make. Let it stand two minutes, then with a long-handled spoon stir the leaves once through the water, and instantly cover the pot again. Three minutes more and your tea is done. Never let tea steep or boil, or stand a long time. It is a quick, neat, nice process from beginning to end.
Margaret E. Sangster.
Physicians lay the greatest stress,
On perfect, spotless cleanliness;
And where this law is recognized,
There Ivory is most highly prized.