Creamy Hot Black Tea Using Loose-Leaf Tea

How to brew the perfect cup of hot black tea with cream using loose-leaf tea. This unpretentious milk tea recipe can be adjusted to your preferences for sweetener and milk. We're making this single-serving "hug in a mug" vegan and dairy-free using soy milk.

Black tea is the preferred hot morning beverage of millions around the world. Those red boxes on the grocery store shelf are called "English Breakfast" for a reason.

Black tea is also an incredible afternoon pick-me-up, often served at high tea alongside delicious morsels.

This article will focus on black tea for one. The unpretentious mug of creamy tea that you can cozy up and enjoy in silence or with a good book.

Looking for iced black tea? Make my Southern Iced Tea with Lipton tea bags recipe.

🧄 Very useful ingredient notes

• Organic loose-leaf black tea - I'm using Assam tea from Jiva Organics, which I find at my local Indian grocery store. It is an excellent price for an organic loose-leaf tea. And, it's nice and strong, too! Nilgiri tea also works. Or, any strong black loose-leaf tea or breakfast tea blend. The blends might be called English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast or Scottish Breakfast. The tea may look like long, dried tea leaves or it may look like small pieces of tea leaves. The cut tea leaves will make your tea stronger, since cutting the tea opens more surface area of the tea to be extracted while steeping. In general Irish and Scottish teas are stronger than British blends. The strongest black tea I've tried to date is Campbell's Irish Tea.
• Organic soy milk - Trader Joe's makes an organic soy milk that has two ingredients: organic soybeans and water. It's my favorite "creamer" for tea since it has no aftertaste. Our family actually taste tested over a dozen dairy-free milks to see which one tastes best in hot black tea. See the winners of our taste test.

🫖 Tools to make loose-leaf tea

• Tea infuser - You'll need a fine mesh tea infuser that fits inside your mug. Ideally, the infuser has plenty of room for the tea leaves to move around while they steep. Tea expands when steeped in water. So, if it's packed inside one of the popular tea ball infusers, it won't be able to fully release into the water. Also, the tea balls don't seal completely, so you'll get tea bits in the bottom of your mug. Using a fine mesh tea infuser that allows the tea leaves to move around will give you better flavor, stronger tea and minimal dregs. My infuser picks:
  • I bought a set of tea cups with infusers by FORLIFE over 10 years ago and they're still in perfect condition. Shop FORLIFE Tea Mug and Infuser Set. The infuser in the photos is my 10+ year-old FORLIFE stainless steel infuser. It's a better deal to buy the mug/infuser set, as their infusers by themselves are only a few dollars less than the set.
  • If you just need the infuser and are looking for a more budget-friendly option, here's a $5 Stainless Steel Tea Infuser that I've purchased as part of a tea gift in the past.
• Tea scoop - A handy dandy tea scoop with measurements for both a mug of tea and a large pot of tea is a convenient but not absolutely essential tool for making loose-leaf tea. The small side measures a heaping teaspoon measure you'd use for baking. And, the large side measures a heaping tablespoon measure you'd use for baking. Here's the double-sided tea measuring scoop I always use.
• Electric kettle - Ideally your electric kettle will have temperature control options, as different teas should be steeped at different temperatures for best flavor. However, this is all about black tea and black tea is steeped with boiling water. Yippee! So, boil your water whatever way you can, then pour it in. Since I love all kinds of tea, I invested in a solid kettle that has one-touch variable temp settings. Shop Zwilling Electric Kettle.
• Your favorite mug - Use a large mug that holds 16-20 ounces.
• Small saucer - to rest the infuser on after your tea has steeped. This can be a small plate or bowl. I found my cute tea saucers at World Market a few years ago.

📋 Substitutions and variations

Here are some suitable substitutions for the ingredients in this recipe:

• Organic loose-leaf black tea - instead of loose-leaf black tea, you could use a black tea bag. Organic is best, but other fine-tasting alternatives are: PG Tips, Campbell's Irish Tea and Yorkshire Biscuit tea.
• Organic soy milk - For soy milk, try to find one that has the least amount of ingredients, preferably just soybeans and water. You can also use oat milk as a creamer. Soy milk and oat milk scored the highest in our taste test for the best non-dairy milk for tea.
• Raw sugar - Instead of the caramel-tasting raw sugar, you could also use cane sugar, coconut sugar, agave or honey. (Honey is not vegan) Or, you can skip the sweetener altogether.

🔪 Instructions

Here's how to make creamy hot black tea with milk using loose-leaf tea step-by-step!

Don't make these mistakes I did:

• Set a timer, so you don't forget you have tea steeping! I've come back to the kitchen many times to lukewarm, super bitter over-steeped tea.
• Clean your kettle if it starts to get water deposits. I clean mine with a little white vinegar mixed with water, set it to boil, then let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Pour the vinegar water down the drain and rinse well with clean water.

🗺 Cultural influences

I've loved tea for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I've immersed myself in tea classes and books as a hobby. I've also visited Ireland and enjoyed learning more about their tea heritage and traditions.

India grows the rich, strong black teas that we love so much today. The tea cultures in Europe are a result of the British colonization of India.

This recipe is inspired by my mixed ethnic background and heritage, which includes England and Ireland, two countries which boast rich tea cultures.

See About for more information on my cultural influences and how I attribute recipes.

📖 Recipe