Tea is a delicate beverage that is refreshing and invigorating, lovely when made correctly and foul when not.

Use good quality tea

Unlike the Boston Tea Party most independent companies do not have in-house tasters who control quality. Big companies blend and create a product for a price to be sold in a supermarket. They work on volume and cannot spend time selecting their tea. DJ Miles do not rely on someone else to select their tea. Tea is picked every week or so that’s why it is important to select and blend tea often.

Always use boiling water

Unlike with coffee this is the only way to extract the best flavour from the tea leaves. This is why we do not offer top-up pots of hot water with our teas as this will not extract the best flavour and will only water down the tea.

Keep the teapot hot

We keep our teapots hot and only use china teapots, cold metal ones will conduct the heat away from the tea too quickly.

Don't let it stew

There is a world of difference between brewing and stewing. 3 to 5 minutes is just long enough for the flavour to mingle with the water without overwhelming it with bitter tannins.

Put the milk in first

This is not just an old wives tale, by pouring milk into a hot cup of tea, a small amount of cold liquid is added to a large amount of hot and the milk will scald, tainting the taste with a burnt milkiness.