How to Use a Tea Press

One day I was in Goodwill looking through the kitchen supplies area when I saw a kitchen gadget I’d been wanting to buy for a long time—a tea press! I couldn’t believe it. I breathed a prayer of thanks to God and picked it up. It was a Bodum, a great brand. I had already purchased two glass Bodum teacups several years ago and loved them. I knew the quality of this would match the teacups.

Is a Tea Press and a French Coffee Press the Same Thing?

It may be that you are wondering how to use a tea press too. I recorded this short video to show you how simple it is. Incidentally, a tea press and a French coffee press do the same thing with one difference, so if you have a coffee press, you can use it to make your herb tea. The difference is that when you push the plunger down on the tea press, it stops the tea from steeping any longer. From what I understand, a French coffee press will allow the tea leaves to continue steeping, so you need to pour all of your tea out of the press at that point if you don’t want it any stronger. Also if you have already used your French press for coffee, be sure you wash it thoroughly so that the tea doesn’t taste like coffee.

In the video I mention nettles tea. Yes, this is the same plant that is known as stinging nettle (Urtica spp.). It is a nutritive herb and contains calcium, magnesium, and chlorophyll. It has a green, veggie flavor, but it’s an excellent base tea. You can blend it with other nutritive teas like oat straw, the mints, chamomile, rose, hibiscus, ginger, cinnamon, and so on. In the video, I also mention that it is excellent to add to soup bases. You can either make the tea ahead of time like I do in the video and use that as part of your broth base, or put a few teaspoons of dried nettle in a tea bag and let it steep in the soup while it’s cooking. Just remember to remove it when it’s done.