Jing Tea are going through a lot of changes at the moment and they’re asking all existing and new customers for their feedback. If you’re a fan or just fancy helping them out with your comments (you get 10% off your next order!)then be sure to check out the survey: Jing Tea Survey
The Observer food awards are now in full swing with nominations now being taken at the survey site. The Observer food magazine is a huge UK food and drinks magazine run by the Guardian newspaper. They run an award every month to find the very best in the country. You can vote for your top tea room or tea merchant in the poll so make sure to get involved at the Observer food awards site.
NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) tea was first on sale to the servicemen and women of Britain’s military in 1921. NAAFI have been responsible for feeding and watering the armed forces for the past 100 years and their NAAFI tea has only been available to service people until now.
It recently went on sale in Spar shops (a UK convenience store) up and down the country. The NAAFI is a non-profit organisation and 50p of every box sold will go to the Help for Heroes charity for UK servicemen injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The UK tea merchant Nothing But Tea is having their 7th birthday celebrations starting this week until Friday. What does that mean? Well they’re now offering the following discounts across the range:
If you’re in the UK its worth mentioning also that the VAT rate is going back up to 17.5% on January 1st so its worth getting all your gift buying in before as the usual January ’sales’ won’t be quite so cut price as normal.
Just a quick message: A couple of new tea merchants have been added to the UK tea merchants list. If you’re a tea merchant based in the UK get in touch and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.
Adagio teas is one of the biggest (and best imho) tea merchants in the US. You can now get a $5 discount when you follow them on Twitter!
Simply visit Adagio Teas
and click the link for Twitter and fill in your username.
Yorkshire Tea is one of the finest blended teas you’ll find in the British Isles. You will find it in most good tea shops, supermarkets and merchants.
Betty & Taylors of Harrogate tea merchants has a long history of quality dating all the way back to 1886 when it was first established by Charles Taylor. Its is one of very few independent and family owned tea merchants left in Great Britain.
Yorkshire tea has a strong malty flavour that goes well with just a dash of milk. Too much and you overpower the lighter notes in the blend. There are no brewing guidelines on the box they provide though I’ve contacted the makers to request a guide [awaiting response].
I’ve personally found a brewing time of 2 1/2 minutes to be about right. You can guage the level of milk to use because if you use just the right amount the tea takes on a deep red colour. If you lose that and it slips to all brown then you’ve gone to far or not steeped long enough! A travesty that can only be healed by binning it and starting again.
When it comes to sugar its all dependent on the circumstance. If you’re after a very refreshign cup then I’d go without the sugar but if you’re ater that relaxed, just-got-in-from-a-busy-day feel then you can’t beat half to one teaspoon of sugar to sweeten a little.
I remember when I first tried Yorkshire Tea very well as it was the first black tea I’d tried that properly converted me to the path of tea. A friend who was a huge fan brewed me a cup in order to convince me of the virtues of this incredible bush and I have to say it was like a personal visit from god/gods/aliens/some other worldly transportation to paradise.
How could a drink be so refreshing, so tantilising, mourish and delightful. What magic had been counjured in my cup! Since then I’ve been hooked and its now my staple drink.
Betty and Taylors also offer a range of gifts for the true Yorkshire Tea fanatic at their site.
As my number one tea it’s obvious that I’m going to give this a 5/5. But don’t let my bias put you off. This is by far one of the best tasting tea’s this country has to offer and I’d recommend it to anyone.
5/5
One of my favourite US tea merchants has started offering free shipping to people up to the 25 of April with this coupon code: MOMSGIFT! This is perfect timing to take advantage of one of their Mothers Day gift sets.
They have a great range on offer from special Tea Lovers Gift collections to Spring Blossom Tea sets (pic). All you need is this coupon code – MOMSGIFT – and a mother who loves tea!
Its the truth! Down in the Cornwall countryside they happen to grow tea on a small pocket of plantations. It was started in 1999 and has gone form strength to strength. Its thought the climate is perfect for the tea bush and its already hugely popular in the London high society. Fortnum and Masons anyone?
The key advantage the producers are touting is the freshness of the crops. Evelyn Boscawen (son of Lord Falmouth) says that the teas in most peoples home’s are upto 12months old by the time they’re drunk. Whereas the Cornwall crop is weeks at most.
The last time anything like this was attempted was during WWII when the countries leaders feared the loss of tea supplies could plunge the country into an abyss of misery and woe far greater than the falling bombs ever could!
Due to the small size of the plantation the tea is quite expensive compared to the usual tea choices but if you’re interested in getting hold of this quite rare breed then you can visit the Tregothnantea site for a look.
I get sent a lot of questions and I’ve decided to start a Q&A series to answer some of them. First off is one of the most commonly asked questions I get and thats all about Wu Yi tea.
See – for those not in the know – Wu Yi tea is meant to help with weight loss.
Whether it does or it doesn’t isn’t what I’m answering today (I will in a later post – subscribe to the RSS!).
The answer to the question on where you can get Wu Yi tea I managed to find after some investigating. You can go for one of the rubbish and dodgy places you find when you do searches for the tea or you can go for one of the biggest and most respected tea merchants in the US: Adagio Teas. They sell loose leaf Wuyi Oolong
.
So that’s the place to go. 
