This post combines two recent interests of mine — George Orwell and Tea. Apparently Orwell was quite the tea guzzler, and he had some strong views on the topic of how it ought to be brewed.

The Wonders of Tea blog has posted an excerpt from one of his essays in which he explains at length how one should go about brewing tea — taken from “The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 3, 1943-45″.

Here’s an excerpt of the excerpt — go to Wonders of Tea for the entire thing:

# Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.
# Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

I’ve heard that too — that freshly boiled water, as opposed to water that’s been boiled then reboiled one or more times, makes a better cuppa. I doubt I’d be able to tell the difference, but the theory, is that the more times you boil the water, the more oxygen escapes from it, and the oxygen bubbles in the water help the tea to brew..