It’s National Tea Day on 21 April 2021. This quintessentially English drink is honoured annually at a Festeaval, in London however, due to Covid-19 we cannot celebrate this fantastic day as before. Nonetheless, we can still celebrate by making ourselves the perfect cup of tea.

According to the UK’s Tea and Infusers association, us Brits sip 165 million cups of tea per day. And with a staggering 1,500 varieties of the Camellia sinensis (tea plant), including black, oolong, green and white, there are thousands of ways to raise a cheer to tea on 21 April 2021.

How do you brew?

Tea bag or leaves? Milk or lemon? Lightly dunked or heavily steeped? Here are our top tips to make the perfect cuppa.

1. Use fresh boiled water

Freshly boiled water (100°C) extracts all the flavour notes from the tea. Oxygen draws the best taste from tea, so water boiled only once will give your tea a better flavour.

2. Allow the tea to brew

Give your tea time to steep. The most commonly used teas in the UK need 3 to 4 minutes to release their flavours. Here’s a table with brewing times for different teas.

3. Milk?

Finally, the definitive answer to the milk question. If you’re using a tea bag, add the milk last. If you’re using leaves and a tea pot, you can add the milk first.

So, have a quick check in the cupboard to make sure you’ve got plenty of tea on hand, (if not, grab a box or two on your next shop). Then join in the par-tea on 21 April 2021 by lifting your mug and saying cheers to tea*.

*Other hot beverages are available.