Dark amber black tea pouring from a glass teapot into a white cup, a small jug of milk and a plate of round butter shortbread beside it

A Proper Pot of Black Tea, and the Denver Minute

September 25, 2026

A pot of black tea looks like the simplest thing in the kitchen, and it is the recipe that shows what black tea is for. Brewed right, it is strong and malty, dark enough to take milk and still taste of tea. Brewed carelessly, it comes out bitter or flat, from too little leaf, water off the boil, or leaf left in the pot too long. This recipe controls all three: weigh the leaf, warm the pot, take the pot to the kettle while the water is at a full boil, and time the steep.

George Orwell set out three of the same rules in his 1946 essay "A Nice Cup of Tea": warm the pot, take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about, and make sure the water "should be actually boiling at the moment of impact." He also held that "one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones." There is one number Orwell, writing for London's Evening Standard, did not need. New Mexico State University Extension puts the boiling point of water at 5,000 feet at about 202°F, ten degrees below sea level, and Colorado State University's table gives 203°F. An open kettle in Denver tops out around there, so this recipe gives the pot a fifth minute.

Ingredients, for a pot of four cups

1 litre (about 4 1/4 cups) fresh cold water, plus a splash extra to warm the pot
12 g loose black tea, about 4 heaped teaspoons: a breakfast blend, an Assam, or a Ceylon
Whole milk, about 1 tablespoon per cup (optional)
Sugar or honey, to taste (optional)
Thin lemon slices, for tea taken without milk (optional)

Choosing the leaf. Any strong black tea works, from a breakfast blend such as Mariage Frères English Breakfast (shop Mariage Frères English Breakfast) to an Assam or a Ceylon. For a single-origin pot, the Sri Lanka Tea Board describes Ceylon from the mid-country around Kandy as robust and full-bodied, and high-grown Nuwara Eliya as the lightest and most refined, best drunk light. Whole-leaf grades need the full steep. Broken grades and fannings are smaller pieces of leaf. The smallest grade, dust, is often used in tea bags because it infuses quickly, so with broken grades start tasting a minute earlier.

Method

Boil fresh water. Fill the kettle with fresh cold water and bring it to a full rolling boil.
Warm the pot. While the kettle heats, swirl a splash of hot water around the teapot and pour it out. A cold pot takes heat out of the water before the leaf has a chance.
Weigh the leaf. Put 12 g of tea into the warm pot, where loose leaf has room to open. A large infuser basket that fills most of the pot works too, and it makes step 6 easier.
Pot to kettle, at the boil. Take the pot to the kettle and pour on 1 litre of water the moment the kettle clicks off. Put the lid on and cover the pot with a folded towel or a cosy to hold the heat.
Time it. Four minutes at sea level. Five minutes in Denver or anywhere near a mile up. Taste a spoonful a minute before time. It is ready when it is strong and brisk, just short of rough at the back of the tongue.
Get the leaf out. Lift out the infuser, or pour the tea through a strainer into a second warmed pot or a jug. Tea left on the leaf keeps steeping and turns harsh by the second cup.
Pour, then milk. Pour into cups and add milk to taste, about a tablespoon a cup, then sugar or honey if you like. Or leave out the milk and float a thin slice of lemon.

The Denver minute

Water that boils at 202°F is ten degrees cooler than at sea level, and Extension guidance is that food cooked in boiling or simmering water needs longer at altitude. By the same reasoning, a sea-level steep time may come out thin. For meat cooked by simmering or braising, New Mexico State University and Colorado State University both say about a quarter more time may be needed at 5,000 feet. At the same height, Colorado State notes, a three-minute egg can take five minutes. A quarter more than four minutes is five, and five is where this pot lands: strong enough for milk, still short of harsh. Above 8,000 feet, in the mountain towns, start tasting at five minutes and let it go to six.

The milk question

In 1946 Orwell called the order of milk and tea "one of the most controversial points of all," and he poured tea first, because that way "one can exactly regulate the amount of milk." ISO 3103, the international standard for preparing tea for sensory testing, puts any milk in the bowl before the tea. It is a tasting-room method, at 2 g of leaf per 100 ml and a six-minute steep. That works out to 20 g per litre, against this pot's 12. At home, tea first shows the colour, and the milk goes in until it looks right.

Why it went wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Bitter, harsh, dries the mouth	Steeped too long, or the leaf stayed in the pot	Time the steep and separate the leaf. For a stronger cup, add more leaf rather than more time
Thin, flat, pale with milk	Too little leaf, water off the boil, or a cold pot; in Denver, a sea-level steep time	Weigh 12 g per litre, pour at a full boil into a warmed pot, and give it the fifth minute
An oily-looking film on top	Hard water. Calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate in the water are key to a surface film made mainly of calcium bound to the tea's polyphenols	Use filtered or softer water. Lemon juice is acidic, and in lab tests citric acid added to black tea brewed in hard water left no visible film.
Goes cloudy as it cools or when chilled	"Tea cream": theaflavins and caffeine in a strong brew bind together and come out of solution as it cools	Drink it hot. For iced tea, brew weaker, since a stronger brew creams sooner
Too strong to drink without milk	A breakfast-strength pot made for milk	Top up each cup with a little hot water from the kettle

Notes and variations

Scaling. The ratio is 12 g of leaf per litre, about 3 g per cup. For one mug, use 3 g in 250 ml; for a big pot, weigh to the pot's capacity. For loose leaf in a mug, there is the loose-leaf tea steeper (shop the loose-leaf tea steeper). Bags. Allow one bag per cup and taste at three minutes, because bags often hold small leaf particles that infuse quickly. The loose-leaf vs tea bags guide explains the difference.

A second pot. Whole-leaf tea gives a lighter second steep: pour on fresh boiling water and add a minute. The rest of the kitchen at altitude is in Cooking at Altitude, the Denver kitchen guide.

What to serve with it. A pot of strong black tea with milk is made for butter. One plate for it is Filet Bleu palets bretons, pure-butter shortbreads (shop Filet Bleu palets bretons).

Keeping the leaf. A tin that has lost its aroma brews a flat pot however carefully it is timed, and the black tea storage guide covers how to keep a tin fresh.

Products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com, and the shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver.