Victoria Nicol on how to make the perfect cup of tea

Victoria Nicol, owner of Two Sisters cafe in Belfast, describes how to make the perfect cup of tea

Transcript

00:00 Hello my name is Victoria, I'm from Two Sisters in Belfast. It's National Tea Day

00:04 today and I thought I would share with you some of my tips for making the

00:07 perfect cup of tea. So firstly I always use loose leaf tea leaves and for me

00:12 it's a much purer, cleaner tasting tea. The reason being, here's our loose leaf

00:19 tea leaves, is you've got a much bigger surface area that comes into contact

00:23 with the boiling water and therefore you're getting a lot more of the health

00:29 benefits of the tea, so all the antioxidant qualities, anti-inflammatory

00:33 qualities. So this is our loose leaf tea leaves and I'll just show you for a

00:38 quick comparison how it looks when it comes in a tea bag. So there's a lot more

00:44 finer particles, it's what's known as tea dust. So for me the best cup of tea

00:50 use loose leaf tea leaves. You can also experiment with loose leaf tea leaves by

00:54 making your own special blend so you can try different flavours, so it makes for

00:59 a more interesting tea experience. Secondly use a teapot. I've got one of

01:07 these stunt teapots from Stuky and we have a tea infuser here where you put

01:13 the tea leaves or you could just use a simple tea strainer. But I like to use a

01:18 teapot for me, having a cup of tea it's a bit of a special treat. I like to have

01:24 it in the evening after dinner, sit down, watch the TV for a bit with my nice cup

01:30 of tea. So I use two to three grams of tea leaves per cup which is more or less

01:36 about a spoonful. So pop your tea leaves into your tea infuser, add your boiling

01:41 water and let it brew for two to three minutes and then you can enjoy your

01:49 perfect cuppa. Happy National Tea Day!

01:55 [clatter]