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.
Looks like Jing Tea (UK tea merchant) have recently released a new tea infuser mug.
Tea Infuser Mug
Here’s what Jing have to say:
The Infuser Mug is a three piece mug with a removable infuser basket. After infusing the tea, you simply remove the infuser and place it on the upturned lid, leaving you with a full mug of perfectly infused 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.
Gunpowder Tea is a variety of Chinese green tea which is produced in the Zhejiang province of the PRC. The tea has a distinctive appearance due to the leaves being tightly rolled into small dark pellets after pan-frying them at high heat. These pellets expand in the water as they steep releasing their flavour in stages.
The tea was first produced way back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when the rolling method was used to protect the tea leaf from damage and hold the flavour for longer.
Name
The origin of this tea’s name is open to debate but here’s some of the more plausible explanations:
When rolled into pellets as is the custom then the tea resembles that of gunpowder pellets.
The Mandarin Chinese for this tea is gang pao – which sounds similar to “gunpowder”.
The steeped tea can have a smoky aroma.
In China the tea is more often referred to as zhu cha – literally translated as “Bead Tea”.
Checking for Quality
Gunpowder tea should always be rolled into small shiny pellets. If they are dull, broken or unfurled then they are to be avoided. Quality brands will be hand rolled rather than mass-produced varieties which are machine rolled.
Brewing
When brewing Gunpowder tea its important to not use too much because with it being tightly rolled it will expand quite a lot and a teaspoonful can easily fill a cup!
Two teaspoons of Gunpowder will nicely fill a teapot and generally keeps for quite a while as the flavours slowly infuse.
Varieties
There are 3 main varieties of Gunpowder although only one has the status as the original.
Pingshui Gunpowder – This is the original and (in my opinion) the best variety.
Formosa Gunpowder – This variety is grown in Taiwan and is more often sold as an Oolong rather than a straight green tea. It has its own distinctive taste.
Ceylon Gunpowder – Gunpowder in name only this tea was inspired by the Chinese varieties but is grown in Sri Lanka at high altitude. It has very little resemblence in taste or aroma.
What I Say
For what little my opinion counts I would like to say I love this tea! I bought a box of this called Temple of Heaven Gunpowder from a Chinese supermarket in Nottingham, UK. It served some of the finest green tea I’ve ever tasted, but unfortunately I lost it during a house move last year. Ever since I’ve been unable to find a replacement to my Temple of Heaven tea. I will soon be trying one of the varieties from an online merchant and will then provide a review.
If you’re a regular reader then you may have heard my recent rant regarding tea bags on the draining board of your kitchen sink. Well – in summary: It just isn’t on!
Golden Rule: Tea bags are not for being placed naked on a draining board regardless of other practical concerns.
The Bin
After an email from Nicey over at NCOTAASD.com he informed me of a fantastic new product called the Tea Bag Bin. It makes absolutely perfect sense and yet its something that until now hadn’t existed. Its a bin you keep by your kettle (or on your kitchen sink) so that you can bin your bags safely and cleanly without leaving them on the side.
While we’re on the subject of spent tea bags its worth mentioning that tea bags make excellent additions to the compost heap. Or even a wormery if you happen to have one. So you could skip the kitchen bin entirely and hop straight from the tea bag bin to the compost heap. Saving the tea bags dignity and the environment all in one day.
Nothing new really but I spotted this on Digg today: Monkey Picked Tea!
That’s right – in a remote Chinese village they train monkeys to pick tea leaves for the local and its then sold on as a delicacy. As much as I’d love the novelty of monkey picked tea I’m a bit skeptical as there’s a hugelist of places selling it and I can’t see how a single remote village even packed with monkeys could manage such industrial levels of production!
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. 
