Brewing Loose Leaf Tea

I've never been a coffee drinker, or a soda drinker, but I am a tea enthusiast. Some of my earliest childhood memories involve cups of tea. My sister and I used to walk up the small hill beside our house and cross the alley that ran behind our backyard, to go  spend afternoons with Uncle John and Aunt Rosie, good friends of our parents who would make us tea and play card games of Old Maid with us. I'm sure that's where my fondness for tea began.

Several years ago I expanded beyond the Lipton tea bags we always had growing up (although I still use those sometimes, and always when I'm sick) and starting brewing loose leaf tea. The contraption above is what I currently use, and have used for about 2 years, to brew my tea. Meet the Adagio ingenuiTEA. (It will be clear plastic when you buy it. Mine is stained from 2 years of use.)

 Even though I don't live in Tennessee anymore, I still buy my tea from Franklin Tea. I miss the experience of walking into their little shop on Main Street in Franklin, but thank goodness they ship!

After I bring the tea home I store it in a pretty little airtight glass jar that I picked up at Target.

Drop a teaspoon of loose tea into the ingenuiTEA.

Pour boiling water over it.

Let it sit for 5 minutes (for black tea) and admire the floating tea leaves.

Sit the ingenuiTEA on top of your tea cup, and the tea pours out the bottom and into your cup, leaving the tea leaves behind.

Lift off the ingenuiTEA,

and enjoy your lovely cup of tea. I like mine with a little cream and sugar!