Hot tea brewing method:  As with all top quality teas, scoop 1-3 teaspoons of tea into the teapot. Pour in boiling water that has been freshly drawn (previously boiled water has lost most if its oxygen and therefore tends to be flat tasting), steep for 2-4 minutes (to taste), stir (virtually all the leaves will sink), pour into your cup, add milk (do not use cream) and sugar to taste. When you are making a pot of tea - using loose tea of course - you will see the tea leaves uncurl and expand dramatically. This uncurling and expansion is called ‘the agony of the leaf’.

Iced tea brewing method:  (to make 1 liter/quart): Place 5 teaspoons of tea into a teapot or heat resistant pitcher. Pour 1 1/4 cups of freshly boiled water over the tea. Steep for 5 minutes. Quarter fill a serving pitcher with cold water. Pour the tea into your serving pitcher straining the leaves. Add ice and top-up the pitcher with cold water. Garnish and sweeten to taste. [A rule of thumb when preparing fresh brewed iced tea is to double the strength of hot tea since it will be poured over ice and diluted with cold water]. Please note that this tea may tend to go cloudy or ‘milky’ when poured over ice; a perfectly normal characteristic of some high quality black teas and nothing to worry about!

About 80 percent of the tea's caffeine content is released within the first 30 seconds of steeping. You can enjoy all teas by decaffeinating the tea yourself by discarding the water after the first 30 seconds' steeping, then adding fresh boiling water to the remaining leaves. Some say tea has constituents which act to soothe and relax the body. These polyphenols begin to dissolve only in the third minute of steeping. This is the secret to bedtime tea. If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are heated, it will cool you; if you're depressed, it will cheer you; if you're excited, it will calm you.—Norwood Pratt

Did you know: There is more caffeine in a pound of tea than in a pound of coffee. However, a pound of coffee produces about 40 cups, whereas a pound of tea produces about 200 cups. Green tea has about one-third as much caffeine as black tea, and oolong has about two-thirds as much.