When I was an apprentice many, many moons ago I was given the job of making the morning pot of tea for the office. The procedure for making the pot went thusly;
- Empty the pot of tea leaves from the previous brew.
- Rinse and warm the pot by adding a quantity of hot water from the electric urn.
- Drain the pot and add 1 teaspoon of tea leaves for each person, and "one for the pot" (This was important)
- Fill the pot with hot water from the electric urn.
- Swish the pot around a bit, not too much.
- Sit the pot down and turn once clockwise and once anti-clockwise then bang the pot down on the counter once.
- Serve into heated cups for each person.
We had a sterling silver (or silver plated) tea pot, and I did this job every working day for 4 years and never received a complaint from anyone about the way the tea was made.