Did you know that you can reuse your tea leaves, and get multiple cups out of one "serving" of leaves? This little trick can save you lots of money in the long run, especially if you're an all day tea drinker like I am.
Most types of tea can be steeped at least twice, some can be steeped over ten times! The amount of times you can reuse your leaves depends largely on the quality of the leaves. Re-steeping your really high quality tea leaves several times throughout the day can also reveal new flavor profiles that you may not have noticed in the first steep. Some teas are even better on their second steep, some are the best at 4, each tea is unique.
So, how do you do it?
It's easy! Every tea has a specific way to be steeped. The temperature and the steep time are VERY important. You can learn more about that here. To re-steep your leaves, all you have to do is steep them a little longer than the first go-round! If your first steep was two minutes, steep your second round for two minutes and thirty seconds. If your first steep was 3-5 minutes, add one extra minute.
Fun fact about re-steeping:
each re-steep will have less caffeine than the last! Did you know that in order to de-caffeinate tea (or coffee) it is processed in water? The first steep will typically have anywhere from 50-80% of the caffeine in the leaves, so re-steeping the same leaves throughout the day means you'll have the perfect pick me up in the morning, and as your day goes on, the caffeine intake will be less and less.