It is easy to make a poor cup of tea. Float a tea bag in some milk, pour in some nearly-boiling water, mash the tea bag against the side of the cup with a spoon, fish out the tea bag and throw it away. 
There you are. Awful! Tea should be made with freshly-drawn, freshly-boiled water in a warmed pot and allowed to brew. The result will be a pleasant, refreshing drink.
To make a good pot of tea, bring freshly-drawn water to a brisk boil.
Pour a little into a 2 pt/ 1 ltr/ 4 cup earthenware teapot to warm it, then empty the water out.
Using good quality tea, put 3-5 teaspoons, according to taste, into the warmed pot.
Bring the water back to the boil and pour on immediately.
Cover the pot with a tea-cosy and allow to brew for 5 minutes - any shorter and the flavour will not have developed, any longer and the tannin will start to come out, making the tea taste stewed. For the same reason, boiling water should be used to make the tea but the brew should not subsequently be boiled.
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Also from Appletree: A Little Book of Irish Baking. Click here to buy from Amazon.com, or here, for more information
And: The Irish Kitchen. Click here to buy from Amazon.com, here to get it from Amazon.co.uk, or here, for more information.
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