Secrets of making perfect cup of tea revealed

You might think that you know how to make a cup of tea, but the truth is you were wrong all this while.

Stick the bag in a cup or the tea in a pot and pour over boiling water is not the way, according to News.com.au.

Making tea is not like some fast fling in the back of a car. That's what coffee is for.

Tea is a slow, meaningful seduction - at least that's the thinking of 10th generation tea man Stephen Twining.

He said that the most common mistake was not recognising there are three separate components to the perfect cup - colour, body (also known as 'mouth feel') and flavour.

Most people are tricked into thinking that when they get the colour right they've got the whole thing covered. Well you are wrong again.

Jiggling the tea bag or swirling the pot until you get that deep, burnt caramel colour is all well and good. But just because you get the colour right, doesn't mean you have the right flavour or body.

The bottom line is there is only one way to make a great cup of tea, and that is slowly and patiently. Seductively. And it all starts with boiling the kettle.

First step - always use fresh tap water. The oxygen in the water is really important to creating a good cup of tea because it releases the flavour.

Then start boiling and don't walk away. You want to pour the water the moment it finishes boiling. If you walk away you will forget and come back to a cooling kettle. And that's not cool.

If you do come back to a cooling kettle it is still probably better to use that (unless you've been gone for hours then you need to start again) than reboil, Twining said. If you boil again you boil off the oxygen.

Next - if you are using a tea pot, pour some hottish water from the kettle half way through the boil and swish it around so it's not stone cold when you pour in your tea.

Then, empty the water out properly after warming so your tea doesn't drown in that lukewarm water.

After that put your tea in. Use the best you can afford.

If you are making a pot, generally put one teaspoon for every person and one for the pot.

This can mean playing around with the amount of water you put in because if it's a really big pot and you fill it up, you will need more than a couple of spoonfuls.

If you are drinking black tea pour the boiling water over and brew for 2.5 to three minutes.

It's important to give it time to brew because it needs this long to properly develop the flavour.

This is the bit where you need to be patient. Don't jiggle. Just wait.

For green tea don't brew longer than two minutes because it gets bitter.

Lastly, pour and add milk if you have it.

It is historically correct to pour the milk in first, but acceptable and ultimately a better method to pour the milk in afterwards so you can adjust it to your liking.