If you take time to read a few of the many tea blogs and websites online you will start to see a familiar story being told over and over. Across the planet you can hear them crying out with upraised fist, “Office tea stinks! Death to bad office tea!” This is usually followed by a lengthy dissertation on the evils of bagged tea and how low quality dust is keeping the masses away from tea drinking. Oh, if only they were drinking loose leaf tea, the clouds would part, the sun would shine, the stars would align, and we would finally have world peace. OK, I exaggerate their claims, but only a little.

 

My own experience has been vastly different. I mostly use bagged tea at the office. Some are your average everyday run of the mill grocery store variety teas. Some of the brands I use I consider to be a step above the norm, and a few have been the bargain basement kind. Most of them I have found to be pretty enjoyable. For the record, I do occasionally use loose leaf, and am certainly not opposed to doing so. It is just that at the office it is simply easier and more convenient to use bags. Regardless, my own experience with office tea is very positive.

 

Now at home, even my expensive loose leaf teas did not live up to expectations. There is certainly no reason to spend $18 for two ounces of tea and have it taste just ok. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why my home tea always tasted flat while the same tea at the office was very good. I thought it might be our tap water so I switched to bottled water. It made no appreciable difference. I had resigned myself to drinking bad home tea or soda. Then a miracle happened.

 

One day while brewing tea at the office, I filled my cup with steaming water from my Sunbeam Hot Shot which promptly began to leak after releasing the button. I set my cup of Earl Grey Green tea aside to steep, cleaned up the mess, and began to investigate. There was a flake of lime caught in the spigot. That’s when I noticed the whole inside bottom of the unit was coated in lime. I have had this thing for years so it came as no real surprise.

 

I love this little hot water dispenser and didn’t want to replace it unless necessary. I took it home and poured CLR into it, scrubbed a little and realized it was worse than I originally thought. Emptied it and poured fresh CLR into it and left it over night. The next day it was sparkling and ready to go. It was the weekend. I saw no reason to wait for Monday at the office. I poured fresh water into it and brewed a cup. It was TEA! and it tasted just like it was supposed to taste. I felt, for a moment, like Gollum from the Lord Of The Rings. I just wanted to hold and covet my precious.

 

As I drifted back to reality, the light came on. Why this had not occurred to me before I may never know. The reason my home tea had tasted so bland and bad is I was using the microwave. I expect if I took a poll this is what the vast majority of office people are doing. It is also, in my opinion, the reason many people despise office tea. It just happens to be easier to blame the bag than examine the brewing method.

 

 

We are all in such a hurry we have it in our heads we need the microwave. In truth for one or two cups of water the Hot Shot is actually faster. It is small enough it can sit on your desk, so it can actually be more convenient than the microwave. Admittedly, it is noisy, sounding a bit like a jet on takeoff as the water begins to steam, but there is no beep beep beep when it shuts off. For $15 this thing rocks.

 

A friend in the office uses a Keurig machine but only to heat his water. Basically, this is a point of use water heater intended to brew coffee and tea. It has a reservoir tank that he fills about once a week. The water stays cold in the tank but heats instantly as it pours into the cup. It really is fast and doesn’t need to cool down before pouring a second cup. More importantly, the heated water from it makes for a good cup of tea. It does however have some downsides. The prepackaged tea cups are not great and way overpriced but you don't have to use them. The unit itself is pricey at over a $100.  

 

In between my two examples, one can find a small electric kettle that is still faster than the microwave and makes great tasting tea. The problem with a kettle at the office is it heats too much water at one time for my use. If you go this route make sure to look for one with an automatic shutoff.

 

No matter which type of water heating unit you use, it will be a vast improvement over the microwave. Now raise your fist and shout with me, “Death to bad office tea!” Well, maybe that is a bit untealike. How about just promising never to microwave your tea water again. You might find that dreaded tea bag is not really so bad after all. I did say might.