How to Brew Tapee Tea

Use one teabag per cup. Open it, empty the powder into about 200 ml of hot water and stir well. Let it stand for two to five minutes, then stir once more before you drink. That is the whole method. A little less water gives a deeper red-amber cup and a stronger earthy, bitter edge.

Tapee Tea is a traditional Thai blend of 15 botanicals, finely ground and filled into single-cup teabags. It is a caffeine-free tisane — there is no Camellia sinensis tea leaf in it — and because it is a fine, soluble powder, the bag is opened and emptied into the water rather than dunked. Everything below follows from those two facts.

How do you brew Tapee Tea, step by step?

1. Tear open one golden teabag. Every teabag is sealed in its own foil, so the last one in a 250-pack is still sealed the day you reach for it.
2. Fill a mug with about 200 ml of hot water. A standard mug is the right vessel — an espresso cup simply will not hold enough water for this blend.
3. Empty the powder into the water and stir well. A good stir mixes it evenly through the cup.
4. Let it stand for two to five minutes. The cup turns a deep red-amber.
5. Stir once more and drink. Hot as it is, or cooled and poured over ice.

How long should you leave it, and how strong should it be?

Two to five minutes, with a stir at the start and another before you drink. For strength, change the water rather than the minutes:

• A little more water — the lighter end. The woody Jewel Vine backbone is there, with the fresh herbaceous lift from cat’s whiskers and sea holly sitting well forward and the spice arriving late.
• About 200 ml — where we usually land. Full red-amber colour, with the earthy vetiver and Thai black ginger base in balance with the herbal top notes.
• A little less water — the deep end. Earthier and noticeably more bitter, with nutmeg, cinnamon and star anise holding the finish for a long time.

Go much below 200 ml and the bitterness leads rather than balances. We would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise: this blend leans earthy and pleasantly bitter, and a little more water is the easiest way to meet it halfway. If you want the full picture of the cup first, read what it tastes like.

Water, volume and why the grind matters

Start at about 200 ml. With less water the cup is more concentrated and the spice finish is more pronounced; with more, the woody and herbaceous notes read more clearly and the bitterness softens. Go too far and the blend starts to thin out rather than open up.

The botanicals in each bag are ground to a soluble powder rather than cut, so the whole blend goes into the cup the moment you pour it in and stir. That is why the colour arrives so quickly, and why the amount of water, not the minutes, sets the strength. If you want the format explained in more detail, our page on the golden teabags covers the grind, the single-cup fill and the packaging.

How do you make iced Tapee Tea?

1. Empty the powder from one teabag into about half the usual hot water, roughly 100 ml, and stir well.
2. Leave it the usual two to five minutes and stir again.
3. Let the concentrate come down from hot. A few minutes on the counter is enough.
4. Fill a tall glass with ice and pour the concentrate straight over it.

The melting ice dilutes the concentrate back to roughly normal strength, which is the whole point of using half the water. Cold also mutes bitterness slightly, so an iced cup tends to taste rounder than the same brew hot. The colour is at its most striking this way: deep red-amber against the ice.

Simple serving ideas

We drink it plain, hot, with nothing in it. Two additions work with the blend rather than against it:

• A slice of lemon. The acidity sharpens the herbaceous notes, lightens the earthy base and brightens the colour in the cup.
• A little honey. Honey rounds off the bitter edge and picks up the sweeter side of the blend — the goji berry, the cardamom, the cinnamon.

Both work hot or iced. Lemon over ice is the combination we come back to in warm weather; honey suits a stronger cup made with less water, where there is more bitterness for it to sit against.

How should you store Tapee Tea?

Each gold-foil sachet stays sealed until you tear it open, whether it is the second bag in the pack or the two-hundredth, so the pack needs no caddy or tin of its own. Once a teabag is opened, use it straight away rather than leaving the powder sitting out.

More questions about brewing Tapee Tea

Tapee Tea is blended and packed in Thailand, and the packs run from 25 teabags up to 250 — one teabag, one cup, whichever size you choose, and the price per cup falls as the pack grows. For anything this page does not cover, our frequently asked questions page is the place to start, or you can email us directly at service@tapeetea.net and we will answer. More Tapee Tea guides on taste, ingredients and the teabag format are collected in one place.

Ready to brew? Choose your pack of Tapee Tea teabags — 25 to 250 individually foil-wrapped bags, with current prices always on the product page.