What Is Tea and How Can I Use It?

Wondering what to do with tea? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 37 recipes to put it to work.

What is tea?

Tea is the steeped infusion of leaves from the plant Camellia sinensis, the source of black, green, white, and oolong tea. The leaves are processed differently for each type.

Green tea is barely oxidized and tastes grassy and fresh. Black tea is fully oxidized and comes out darker and far more tannic.

Herbal "teas" such as chamomile and rooibos are technically infusions of other plants. Cooks use them the same way regardless.

Most people think of tea as a hot drink, and it is a good one. In the kitchen it doubles as a flavoring liquid: a brewed pot is essentially seasoned water you can bake with or pour over ice.

Brewing and Cooking With Tea

Get the brew right first. Black tea wants near-boiling water, about 200 to 212°F (93 to 100°C), for three to five minutes.

Green and white teas scorch at that heat and turn bitter, so pull the water back to 160 to 180°F (71 to 82°C) and steep two to three minutes. Oversteeping any tea drags out harsh tannins, so set a timer rather than guessing.

For iced tea, brew it stronger than you would drink it hot, because the melting ice dilutes the glass. This is the backbone of a Crockpot Tropical Tea Warmer served cold, a Tea & Lemon Ice, and countless party punches.

Baking is where tea quietly does its best work. Strong black tea soaks dried fruit until it plumps and softens, the secret behind a Derbyshire Tea Loaf and a Borrowdale Teabread. Soak the fruit overnight in hot tea so it swells before it ever meets the batter.

Tea flavors savory food too. It poaches fruit and seafood, and it marinates well, as in Asian Honey-Tea Grilled Shrimp. Smoked over tea leaves and rice, chicken and duck pick up a fragrant haze you cannot get any other way.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Black tea pairs with citrus, honey, warm spices, and milk. Green tea leans lighter, toward lemon, ginger, mint, and white fish. Smoky lapsang souchong is at home with pork and soy, while floral jasmine flatters delicate desserts.

The most common mistake is boiling water on green tea. The high heat strips out the grassy sweetness and leaves a bitter, astringent cup, which is why a good green should never see a rolling boil.

The second is squeezing the bag. Wringing out a tea bag forces concentrated tannins into the cup and makes everything taste harsh. Lift it out and let it drip instead.

Tea Substitutes

If a recipe wants brewed tea as a liquid and you are out, the swap depends on the job. For soaking dried fruit, hot fruit juice or brandy will plump it and add their own character.

For a beverage base in punch, those same juices stand in, though you lose tea's gentle tannin and bitterness.

To match the flavor specifically, reach for another tea of the same family first. Black tea covers for black, green for green.

A spice infusion of cinnamon and clove can fake the warmth of a chai blend. Rooibos gives a caffeine-free, naturally sweet cup that takes milk well.

Buying and Storing Tea

Loose-leaf tea generally tastes better than bagged, because the bags are often filled with broken "dust and fannings" that brew fast but flat. Whole leaves give a rounder cup, though good bagged tea is fine for everyday drinking and for cooking.

Tea is dry and shelf-stable, but it is not immortal. Store it in an airtight, opaque tin away from light, heat, and strong-smelling spices, which it readily absorbs.

Kept that way, black tea holds its flavor for about two years and green tea for closer to one, since green's delicate compounds fade faster.

Buy in amounts you will actually drink within a year. A giant tin that sits open in a sunny cupboard goes stale and papery long before you reach the bottom.

Types of tea

Specific kinds of tea and the recipes that use them.

Tea bags

View tea bag recipes →

Black tea

Black tea is the most oxidized form of the leaf from Camellia sinensis, the same plant that yields green and oolong tea. After picking, the leaves are withered and rolled, then fully oxidized, which darkens them and builds the brisk, malty, sometimes smoky character that defines the cup.

It is what most of the world means by plain "tea": English Breakfast, Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling, and Earl Grey are all black teas.

In the kitchen it is far more than a drink. Its tannins lend grip and its color tints, while the aroma carries from braises through to baking.