How to make the perfect cup of tea

On average we drink 120 million cups of tea each day in the UK. That's two cups of tea for every man, woman and child, every single day. Throw in a few coffee lovers sadly not doing their fair share and that's a whole lot of tea being drunk by the rest of us.

Recently 'a cup of tea' was voted the third best British love in a survey - behind bacon sandwiches and roast dinners. Clearly a good brew is as British as the Queen. But how do we know we're making the most of one of our finest rituals?

We talked to Mike Wright, senior buyer blender at Twinings, who now supply all the tea aboard that most British of airlines, British Airways. Wright is the man responsible for selecting and blending 50 million cups of Twinings tea enjoyed each day in Britain. It took him five years to train as a professional tea taster, so he knows his stuff.

• On Bing: the history of tea

First, some facts about tea

• Every second, somewhere in the world, 15,000 cups of tea are drunk.
• The average British tea-drinker brews their tea for just 13 seconds and drinks nearly 1,000 cups a year.
• It was the French who first added milk to their teas.
• A standard cup of tea has half the caffeine as a standard cup of coffee.
• There are over 3,000 tea varieties around the world.

How to make the perfect cup of tea

"The perfect cup of tea is completely down to the individual," says Wright, "but there are a few steps to follow to make the most of your tea."

1. Use cold, fresh water. Avoid recycling water already in the kettle.
2. Soft water makes for a better cuppa, but if you live in a hard water area, opting for Assam and Kenyan teas may make for a better cup.
3. Bring the water to the boil, but don't overboil - the water will deoxidise and go flat.
4. You'll need a clean receptacle.
5. You can add milk first if you like - it's not going to crack your crockery (unless it's fine porcelain of course, from which the practice originates).
6. Use either one teabag or one teaspoon of loose tea per cup.
7. For black teas (the majority of tea drunk in Britain) pour the boiled water immediately. For other teas, like green teas, let it cool to around 85C before pouring.
8. Let it brew for three to four minutes (or just one to two minutes for white teas like jasmine).
9. Stir the cup before serving. If you're using a pot, remove the teabags before serving or it will sit there stewing for too long.

• Buy Twinings tea on Ciao

How much milk and sugar?

Ah yes, the controversial part. How much milk and sugar should you add? Pretty much anything goes, says Wright - it's your cup of tea after all.

Add milk, add sugar, leave it out, add it at the end or at the start, it's up to you. But we'd possibly suggest you don't add milk to green teas, and it's customary not to add sugar to Earl Grey, nor to add milk to Darjeeling teas.

Once you've mastered how you make your tea, the next thing to do, according to Daren Spence of Tea, is to look at what tea you're using. "In short, to make great tea you require high-quality leaf tea - preferably whole leaf with the most sought after being the bud and top two leaves."

Tea news

Four new Twinings flavours will be available from April, exclusively on British Airways flights in first class. Twinings' tetra mesh loose tea flavours will include Tutti Fruitti Earl Grey, Mint Humbug, Jasmine Pearls and Honeycomb Camomile.

British Airways already serves Twinings English Breakfast Blend on all of its flights and in all BA airport lounges.

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